Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Chelsea 2

[martin1905]

4 hours ago, boratsbrother said:

In all competitions we've played the top four teams 11 times this season.

The three times we've played the likey champions, we've drawn 2 and lost 1. All three games we held our own.

One good performance against Atsenal and one very bad one.

One decent game at home to Liverpool  in the league and one bad one away. A game which had their fans saying it was the best they played this season. A cup final in which we were the better side but lost.

2 draws in the league against Villa and an easy win in the Cup at their ground. We were also the better team in the recent 2-2 draw at their ground.

So, from where we were and still are, 2 bad games out of 11 against the best 4 teams is imho a very encouraging sign for the future.

Played 8 W 0 D 5 L 3 GF11 GA 20

We have an abysmal record against the top 4 this season. We didn't win a game!

5 points out of a possible 24, we lost to Villa at home by the way and conceded 20 goals in 8 games. 

It's always been one of Pochettino's biggest flaws, his record in big games and no matter how hard you try to spin it you sort of just prove the opposite. 

 

 

[martin1905]

Just now, martin1905 said:

Played 8 W 0 D 5 L 3 GF11 GA 20

We have an abysmal record against the top 4 this season. We didn't win a game!

5 points out of a possible 24, we lost to Villa at home by the way and conceded 20 goals in 8 games. 

It's always been one of Pochettino's biggest flaws, his record in big games and no matter how hard you try to spin it you sort of just prove the opposite. 

 

 

And if you include the cups it gets worse, much worse just because of that performance against Liverpool which was one of the worst of the season from the manager.

[martin1905]

3 hours ago, ROTG said:

 
 

long away to go for top 4 and even further for top two. 

It's actually really not. 8 points with one game remaining. 

I wonder how many extra points having Reece James, Chilwell, Fofana and Nkunku fit all season would we have got? That's before we even think about all the other injuries. Even you must consider it would be some?

Villa have had a pretty good year, in terms of injuries.

 

[Chelsea_Matt]

10 hours ago, Alex said:

It takes a big man to climb down from a position, which is why so many choose to double-down rather than change an opinion or admit to being wrong.

Glad that optimism seems to have taken hold even in the anti-Pochettino brigade. Great end to the season, big signs of progress and much to look forward to next season, although a long-term injury to Palmer especially, or Gallagher and we'd be screwed.

Steady 🤣🤣🤣🩷🩶

[Sciatika]

To be in the top 4, you don't need to win games against the top four. If you win all the games against the bottom ten (60pts) and most of those against the other six (24pts) you would have 84 points, which would get you third this season.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

19 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

To be in the top 4, you don't need to win games against the top four. If you win all the games against the bottom ten (60pts) and most of those against the other six (24pts) you would have 84 points, which would get you third this season.

Spot on. Even winning the title can largely be done this way.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

Played 8 W 0 D 5 L 3 GF11 GA 20

We have an abysmal record against the top 4 this season. We didn't win a game!

5 points out of a possible 24, we lost to Villa at home by the way and conceded 20 goals in 8 games. 

It's always been one of Pochettino's biggest flaws, his record in big games and no matter how hard you try to spin it you sort of just prove the opposite. 

 

 

While this is pretty black and white results wise, in terms of what happened in the games.

The 4 home games we should have won and threw away.

Villa A and City A we should have won and threw away.

Liverpool A and Arsenal A were the only ones we definitely were crap in.

[Holymoly]

31 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

To be in the top 4, you don't need to win games against the top four. If you win all the games against the bottom ten (60pts) and most of those against the other six (24pts) you would have 84 points, which would get you third this season.

If we did that it would be the most anticlimactic season ever. The whole point of winning the title is that you are the beasts of the league, not some playground bully that doesn't turn up for the big games. Oh wait, that's where we are at the moment only with losses against the clubs fighting relegation..

Say Spuds screw up and lose to Sheffield and we end up unbelievably in 5th it certainly won't feel like we deserve it. I don't feel that much better than last year to be honest. Yes the future is bright but we are where we are mainly because the clubs around us have faded.

[McCreadie]

13 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

If we did that it would be the most anticlimactic season ever. The whole point of winning the title is that you are the beasts of the league, not some playground bully that doesn't turn up for the big games. Oh wait, that's where we are at the moment only with losses against the clubs fighting relegation..

Say Spuds screw up and lose to Sheffield and we end up unbelievably in 5th it certainly won't feel like we deserve it. I don't feel that much better than last year to be honest. Yes the future is bright but we are where we are mainly because the clubs around us have faded.

Well I would say the league across 38 games is a decent barometer of where any given team sits.

It doesn't matter if you win the last 6 or the first 6.

It doesn't matter if the teams around you drop off at the end of the season or have a bad start.

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, paulw66 said:

utter fantasy

Happy for a spread bet on how many PL games he plays next season. 
 

Will not count European games as they are more suited to his pace 

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, paulw66 said:

8 points. 

Not a lot. 

Very Paul Daniel’s 

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

It's actually really not. 8 points with one game remaining. 

 

 

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

It's actually really not. 8 points with one game remaining. 

I wonder how many extra points having Reece James, Chilwell, Fofana and Nkunku fit all season would we have got? That's before we even think about all the other injuries. Even you must consider it would be some?

Villa have had a pretty good year, in terms of injuries.

Who gives a poop the season is done, the table doesn’t lie, and as I wrote earlier our current 5 match form is on par with Everton and Palace. 
 

European next season is great, however all those additional games midweek, going to be interesting to see who get the blame if it stays south of expectations. Everyone keep going on about the players coming back for next season, however how many have taken into account two games per week. The team might manage 5-6 on a 45 game season. What happens on a 55-60 season. E.G Brighton, West Spam perfect of how European nights catch up with teams. 

[Sleeping Dave]

6 hours ago, martin1905 said:

@johnnybozo  Oh, and Chalobah has been very, very good since returning from injury.

Been hugely impressed with him. Right now he's 100% first choice and deservedly so.

Chalobah has been ace since returning and should, under no circumstances be sold. I don’t feel very confident that the clowns upstairs see it the same way though. 

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they sold both Gallagher and Chalobah this summer. 

[Sciatika]

I am not saying you aim to only win against the bottom ten. You should play every game to win. I am saying that you don't need to win all the games against the hardest competition to advance up the league. Of course, the benefit of winning games against the leading clubs is that you impact their chances of overtaking you, which can be important. But you should still always approach every game trying to win, which is why it does not impact enjoyment; I am with @McCreadie on how I feel at the end about it. For me, the club that gets the most points across a season deserves to win, irrespective of who they did or did not beat. The margins are so fine at the elite level that beating anyone is an achievement.  

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

While this is pretty black and white results wise, in terms of what happened in the games.

The 4 home games we should have won and threw away.

Villa A and City A we should have won and threw away.

Liverpool A and Arsenal A were the only ones we definitely were crap in.

Which is pretty damming on the manager.

I've haven't got into the debate about what we could or should have done in those games. There's a reason we won none of them. There's a reason we conceded 20 goals in 8 games. There's a reason some feel we should have done better but didn't. 

It's literally the story of Pochettino's career and as has already been pointed out, unless your challenging for the league it doesn't really matter but at the same time it can't be seen as a positive for the manager which is what it was trying to be spun as.

[Sciatika]

I have been accused of being a tad optimistic recently, not without some justification. However, I would like to point out that I am not the Chelsea fan on Reddit who suggested that we might still get into the top four and qualify for CL next season. He argued that Spurs could lose to Sheffield and Villa lose to Palace, placing us fifth if we beat Bournemouth. So far, so good, but then they thought that Villa might get a large deduction for PSR breaches, leaving us fourth. Even I am not that optimistic. 

Edited May 16 by Sciatika

[Chelsea_Matt]

2 hours ago, martin1905 said:

Which is pretty damming on the manager.

I've haven't got into the debate about what we could or should have done in those games. There's a reason we won none of them. There's a reason we conceded 20 goals in 8 games. There's a reason some feel we should have done better but didn't. 

It's literally the story of Pochettino's career and as has already been pointed out, unless your challenging for the league it doesn't really matter but at the same time it can't be seen as a positive for the manager which is what it was trying to be spun as.

Would you still sack Poch? 💀💥🧨👀

[chara]

3 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Would you still sack Poch? 💀💥🧨👀

Given straight uncomplicated yes/no I would still say yes,,,the reality however doesn't allow for such a simple answer....better the Devil etc unless there is a better prospect available...which all seem to agree is not the case.

For me it is support for The Poch by default,,,credit when due but my God we saw some abysmal displays not fully justified by the new squad injury list apologies.

A couple of disgraceful pressers didn"t help my view and as I alluded to in another post somewhere I truly wondered if someone else was doing the real coaching all of a sudden,,the difference has been astonishing at times and over such a short period.

[boratsbrother]

14 minutes ago, chara said:

Given straight uncomplicated yes/no I would still say yes,,,the reality however doesn't allow for such a simple answer....better the Devil etc unless there is a better prospect available...which all seem to agree is not the case.

For me it is support for The Poch by default,,,credit when due but my God we saw some abysmal displays not fully justified by the new squad injury list apologies.

A couple of disgraceful pressers didn"t help my view and as I alluded to in another post somewhere I truly wondered if someone else was doing the real coaching all of a sudden,,the difference has been astonishing at times and over such a short period.

I read some comments from Sours fans comparing Poch's first seasons at Chelsea and Spurs. They said the trajectory of the performances is identical. 

At Spurs, they said for most of the season there was bits of quality shown in amongst a lot of rubbish. Here's the significant bit though. It wasn't until near the end of that season when they started to see signs of better things to come. 

 

[hallgalley]

16 minutes ago, boratsbrother said:

I read some comments from Sours fans comparing Poch's first seasons at Chelsea and Spurs. They said the trajectory of the performances is identical. 

At Spurs, they said for most of the season there was bits of quality shown in amongst a lot of rubbish. Here's the significant bit though. It wasn't until near the end of that season when they started to see signs of better things to come. 

 

It must be how hard they are worked in training from the start all that running to still be going strong at the end😊

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Would you still sack Poch? 💀💥🧨👀

Absolutely not. You don't sack a manager when your on the up, which whatever I think about him and my main criticism which has been the level of our performances all season, we are on a run of one loss in 14 games, winning 8 of them, it's just not the time. 

Do I think we'd be better next year if we did sack him and replace him with someone more competent? 100%

[JaneB]

Reece James has been suspended for four matches, three for violent conduct and an additional one because it was his second red card for the season (4 1 defeat vs Newcastle, two yellow cards).

I don't want to have a go at him because he has been terrific for us in the past but two sendings off in a season when you've hardly played is not a great look, especially for a captain.

Let's hope next season is a much better one for him in every sort of way.

 

 

[Ham]

4 minutes ago, JaneB said:

Reece James has been suspended for four matches, three for violent conduct and an additional one because it was his second red card for the season (4 1 defeat vs Newcastle, two yellow cards).

I don't want to have a go at him because he has been terrific for us in the past but two sendings off in a season when you've hardly played is not a great look, especially for a captain.

Let's hope next season is a much better one for him in every sort of way.

 

 

His sister has shown similar levels of petulance on a number of occasions. 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

3 hours ago, Sciatika said:

I have been accused of being a tad optimistic recently, not without some justification. However, I would like to point out that I am not the Chelsea fan on Reddit who suggested that we might still get into the top four and qualify for CL next season. He argued that Spurs could lose to Sheffield and Villa lose to Palace, placing us fifth if we beat Bournemouth. So far, so good, but then they thought that Villa might get a large deduction for PSR breaches, leaving us fourth. Even I am not that optimistic. 

2 months ago I genuinely thought we would catch Spurs up in 5th and get CL, I even posted here about it. But then all the English teams got knocked out of Europe. My prediction wasn't too far off regardless of what happens Sunday. 

[Michael Tucker]

3 hours ago, Ham said:

His sister has shown similar levels of petulance on a number of occasions. 

Time to say goodbye to both, I think.