Souness says Chelsea were lucky, before the game he was bigging up Spurs. Well done to Conte he outsmarted Pots
Yeah, they started leaving after the 2nd goal. Will post pics once I have wifi. I just don't want to leave!
So pleased with this. Luiz, Christensen and Cesar came up big time after time. Conte pushed Luiz into MF in the second half and it was huge. Rudiger had a tough one but survived. Courtois made a big save on Kane after Rudiger was turned by him. And Alonso - wow, just wow. I watched Fiorentina play numerous times and Alonso was a good player but I did not imagine this. Bakayoko was rambunctious if not a tad reckless...Big win...
They always say, good payers can learn a lot, even from games they don't play well in. Hopefully he'll have picked up some things to concentrate on. TBF Kane's a decent player. 'rambunctious', eh? THAT'S a word we don't hear often enough
Basically we each hit a post and Morata missed a 9/10 header. All that possession is a meaningless stat.
Spurs had a lot more shots - not just possession. But the shots were from poor angles or blocked. Catenaccio!
Rudiger isn't Sol Campbell, but against arguably the best center forward in the league, he was fine, especially in his second game in the league.
After Alonso's first, it didn't really feel in much doubt, did it? All the new boys looked promising, and I think Christensen deserves a lot of credit today too. Bring on Everton
Never so happy to be wrong. I thought after seeing Spurs play last week, we'd be in trouble, but the makeshift lineup performed well. I thought Luiz played well in the holding role, thought Christensen was very good...but I also think we were fortunate. Bakayoko make two sketchy fouls at the end there that could have cost us. I'm hoping that clutching and grabbing from behind is more fitness than habit.
We scored all the goals, we scored all the goals, we scored all the goals. . . Sperz are a decent side. But we are the champions. Alonso eh? What a player. He is just enjoying himself. It is great to see it. A lot of good signs about the WAY we played. It was defensive - we are the away team after all - but we had control of the game. Willian ran all over the pitch non-stop. Each and every player did their bit. Morata is going to be great for us. Nice win.
Christensen is our most stable defender after Azpi?. Just a fantastic start to his season. If he gets stuck on the bench behind Cahill, it would be a travesty. Well, maybe not a travesty, but the guy is just nails. Love the work Willian put in. Love the game Morata played off the ball. Didn't love the porosity of our central midfield. Chewbaka can counter, but he needs time to understand his role yet. He'll get there. But 2 stupid penalties that could have cost us points if it weren't for Alonso magic. Moses a little less asleep this year. Not really caught watching the play like last year. Cautiously optimistic. He needs to contribute in the final 1/3. I think Rudiger played fine. Jury still out on him. Again, cautiously optimistic. Would rather have Tammy up top compared to Bats. I'm not quite as optimistic with Bats compared to most here. His game reminds me of Altidore's 5 years ago. For a defense with little game experience playing together, they held shape well all day. Great to see.
That's extremely harsh - Altidore had nowhere near the talent. Batshuayi's problem is that he's really a striker who thrives in a more countering style game, or a free flowing one. A game like Burnley is terrible for him, because he's asked to hold up the ball and play in tight spaces, which he's not good at. Also, I watched the Utd. Swansea game - even when he had moments, Tammy didn't do much with them. He's not ready yet to be a backup for us.
Harsh or not, I just don't share the optimism others have for him. And before the standard freak out begins. Understand, I'm very much rooting for the guy. Altidore is a trigger for us USA fans, so maybe I should have chosen a different player with similar style. I'm not inferring he is only as good as Jozy. Not at all. Just that the styles and mistakes and movement off the ball appear similar. And that's worrisome to me. I actually liked what Tammy did in the manu/swan game. He stood out on a team horribly over-matched. Missed a couple opportunities I would have liked taken better, but I was surprised overall at his performance.
Morata was fine and will get better. Bakayoko was very good and will get better. Rudiger and Christensen were good, especially for not really playing games together. Luiz is big everywhere he plays. Az made a lot of errors, which was odd for him. Alonso was massive. Love seeing his naysayers shut up. Happy with the three points in a big way. Looking forward to having a full squad to choose from.