Hope that was a sobering feeling for the players. That hangover is a bitch. Ref didn't help the situation but can't say the players deserved it either. Hard to even pick a stand out player for us today. Everyone just didn't look the part. Possibly Conte should hold some responsibility for not making the changes sooner. Even then our subs still didn't make much of a difference today. Hope the club recognizes our limitations especially going into the CL next season and get the players Conte wants. Lets do it early and out of the way. Still Champions and overall a successful season! Come on Chelsea!
I think not taking off Moses, who was having a shocker AND had a yellow card, for Willian or someone else was a poor decision. I didn't expect Moses to come out for the 2nd half, tbh. I mean, I've seen him have good games but that wasn't one of them.
I thought Arsenal would pick this off but I didn't think we'd look this bad. I'll forget about this when we're in the CL next season. We looked hammered.
Damn - I used to go there back in the late 90s / very early 2000s... in fact I saw the last time Arsenal beat Chelsea in an FA Cup final, 2-0 I think at Mad Dogs.. when Parlour and Ljunbourg or whatever his name scored.. used to live just down the road. Great to see that's still the place to go in SF...
It is much easier to see that decision after Moses gets sent off for a dive. To be fair, I think having wrapped up the league so early and hurt us the most. It made the players go into vacation mode too early. That's not an excuse for the performance but the entire team looked off pace and like we had been off for two weeks against a team that has been in form as of late.
Well, except I said it about 10 minutes before he was sent off... https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fa-cup-final-chelsea-vs-rse.2054732/page-4#post-35488589 At that point only he and Kante had been carded but he was having a 'mare. As it was we swapped out Matic, (who was also playing poorly but hadn't been carded), for Fab. Still... academic now I suppose Yeah, agreed. Somebody said at H/T on the panel, (or maybe the co-commentator?), that they looked like they'd been partying since the end of the season. Maybe they were just hungover?!
Don't get at all the Conte sub. Anyone else but him made more sense. Feck, take Hazard off. Just can't believe the players don't see the importance of this cup. It's a decent trophy to have. Ancelotti had a much stronger team though when he won the double.
I hope that shows Roman what we need in the summer. A CM capable of playing the ball (Matic......oh no) and an upgrade for Moses are absolute musts.
Very much upset that we didn't do the double considering everything. Having worked so hard to win the league, it is a big letdown to have lost this to Arsenal considering the circumstances. Winning the double is much more difficult then winning the league and having come so far hurts twice as much. The first goal should not have counted at all, that was one of the biggest joke goals I've seen this season. But, we had 86 minutes to make it right and to were 2nd best during the majority of the first 60 minutes to a team that we really should have beaten. I've watched tons of Conte's pressers and post match interviews and you can tell that he knows this squad did amazing this season but that we should not get carried away. We need to reinforce and add quality to take us to the next level. We need 4 top players imo. Center back, Center mid, Wing back, Right Front Attacker for our front 3. I hope we can bring in 4 top players that will make our squad so much stronger and provide depth.
Interesting Diego Costa Interview: "Everyone know what my preferred club is, there's nothing to hide.” “Money is good, but I'm grateful for what I have right now and I have other things to look forward to, like playing the next World Cup. I know that I have a chance to be called if I'm playing well and at a high level, that's something I want." "If I have to move to another city or another country than Spain, I don't think I'll go, I'd rather stay at Chelsea. If the club wants to sell me, they know where I want to go." “I know Chelsea wants to sell players, but I told them, I have two years left in my contract and I won't go somewhere else just because they want so. I will only sign for another club in Europe, they know that. Otherwise I'll stay with my current contract.” “I have a contract and no intention of leaving, but if there are changes to be made that might reduce my chances, if the coach won't count on me anymore or is to give space for another striker, I know that I'll have to leave. But only to where I'm willing to.” -Diego Costa; source: DirecTV Sports via Goal Wow. Lots to take in.
In England? He won Supercoppa in Italy with Juve. It was just one game..we were shut off, Arsenal was ramped up. Plus the first goal shouldn't have counted. Im not too bothered.
Isn't SuperCoppa equivalent to the community shield? I don't count that as a trophy and a competition even if Jose does.
Watched the match again to get a better idea at what happened. 1st Goal should not have stood. Clear handball, 2 hands by Sanchez right in front of the official. Then, the linesman had his flag up, the players stopped, and Ramsey let Sanchez shoot. If you watch Courtois interview, he says that for sure he would have came out and grabbed the ball had Ramsey not have been standing there. If you watch the replay again, you can see he would have got the ball. That was a joke of a first goal. We started poorly. Matic had one of his worse performances of the season. Cesc should have started based on his form as of late and the fact that Arsenal had a makeshift back 3. This match was one of those matches that highlighted exactly why we need another top CM to play with Kante. When we have Matic and Kante starting, we have to rely on Luiz to be our ball creater to start attacks. It was so clear today that in the middle we were struggling which made our transition into attacks so poor. I think the Moses sending off was Correct, but also I think 50% of the time most refs wouldn't have sent him off. They would simply not make a call. Moses did dive but he never once looked towards the official for a call. Alonso had a very poor match. We definitely need to sign 1-2 wing backs that are starting quality to push Alonso / Moses to the bench to create competition. Mendy would by my ideal option for the left. Willian needs to play more. Pedro was immense this season and I felt it was harsh to take him off for Willian. Conte should have subbed Willian on earlier for Moses, around the 60th minute at the same time that he brought Cesc on. I think Willian could be a good wing back. Yes, he is extremely offensive but I feel like overall he would be much better then Moses on the right with practice. Diego has the best game for me out of all the players. He was working hard the entire time and ran his socks off. There was one opportunity where it was a corner for us and then Arsenal were breaking quickly and Costa made a 80 yard dash faster then anyone to the box to help out. Hats off to him. Hazard was a bystander for the majority of the match but I don't blame him entirely. Its difficult for him to have a big impact when he doesn't have anyone in the middle to help him. Pedro, Hazard, and Costa is not enough going forward considering Kante & Matic barely contribute going forward. Gutted about the result, but lets not forget. We won the league this year. In a year that we would have been happy getting 3rd or 4th. No one thought we could do it and we did. Everything looks good going forward. Hopefully Costa, Hazard, and Courtois & Conte sign new deals and we bring in a CM, CB, WB, and 1 more top offensive player.
Good post Arman but, do we need another CB? Haven't we got Christensen coming back and we also have Kurt who's normally looked good enough as a back-up, apart from a few dodgy performances. We'e still got Ake as another back-up so that makes 6 players for 3 spots. Strictly speaking Alonso is a defender as well so that makes 7. I think we're light in midfield in terms of quality. If Matic isn't up for it we're just relying on Kante as Fab's not getting any younger and the young players like RLC aren't up to the required level of performance. Well, not yet anyway.
I feel like Zouma needs a season out on loan. He was immense until his injury and ever since then in his limited performances he hasn't looked up to par. I really rate him but I think he needs a full season with regular game time to make a proper evaluation on him. Cristensen looks promising and I'm not quite sure what will happen next season. He will either come back or be sold or lots of talk about a loan deal to Southampton with Virgil Van Dijk coming our way. Ake is another interesting one. I really like what I've seen of him but he was developing so well at Bournemouth that I wish he was able to get the full season under him there. I can see why we brought him back midseason but he did not feature much at all, when he did though he did well. I think if you look at our back 3 next season we currently are expected to have Cahill, Luiz, Azpi, Zouma, Cristensen, Ake. Alonso is can certainly cover as well. My main concern is that if Luiz in particular is injured for a few months, I don't see which of those players will be able to cover adequately for him. We really need another ball playing CB who can command the back. I think that we should loan Zouma out (he is only 22 and has plenty of time to play here but he needs regular football) and then we should bring in 1 more top CB. Next season we would have something along the lines of Van Dijk, Luiz, Azpi, Cahill, Cristensen, and Ake / Alonso as well. I think that is much more solid and gives us plenty of top level cover. Remember, Luiz is 30 and Cahill is 31. I don't think we will be as fortunate as we were this season injury wise and with the CL as well, we will have plenty of matches to go around that those 5 will be happy.
Plus, the he kept sliding into his old Luiz form these past few months. Also given Cahill's age and distinct lack of speed (which really showed yesterday. Whole backline was scared of Welbeck's pace played too deeply and give their midfield a TON of room to operate) he needs to be demoted to backup/cup fixtures.
A day when nothing went right/worked, played like we didn't really want it as much as them and quite possibly the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen in a cup final, I honestly couldn't believe it when he gave 'that' goal, I mean wtf! Also why did he put the whistle to his lips when Sanchez clearly handballed it but then didn't give it?
I keep seeing this meme about Cahill being slow but I think you'll find he's is one of the faster CB's in the league actually. About on a par with DL IIRC. Comparing ANYONE to someone like Welbeck or Rashford is probably unrealistic. CB's in the EPL need to be of a certain size to cope with some of the fellas who throw their weight around. I think Arman's point is more relevant... Yeah, I'd forgotten about their ages. We've got a few youngsters who MIGHT fill the bill and, without European football, we've gone through a season without as many games and avoiding injury but we can't guarantee to repeat that next year necessarily. I think the ones we've got are OK as they stand but, with more games we can't rely solely on the youngsters for cover at the top level so, as you say, maybe loan out Ake again and maybe even Kurt but bringing in some decent fella might be worth consideration. Well, unless Christensen is worth a starting spot in DL's role? I haven't seen enough of him to comment. Has anybody else?