ARM1968

Chelsea’s only chance of redemption. Pressure will be all on them. Think we put out a mixed side but nowhere near our strongest on paper. Really tough game. It might be more interesting than some think.

Which is every game currently.

The way we tore into them for our 2nd goal was immense. Have no idea why we couldn’t have repeated that. Direct attacking and desire pays off, who would have thought? Apart from that brief glimpse we were entirely shite again. This is going to be a struggle.

Yunus looked injured after his surge into the box got brutally stopped.

Agreed, one of the few players showing any fight. Fatawu also shown some spirit.

Not just him though is it? I agree by the way. Whole team has fell off its wrist. I can’t even put my finger on it to be honest. Yes our tactics have been sussed and countered, but the players we have are better than 99% of the rest of the league. No confidence, little to no belief. It’s awful. And yet it’s still in our hands. Let’s all just hope for a better 2nd half.

Showing fight but damn this is depressing at the moment.

Aged well. 🤣🤣

Do we do taking lifelines?

We have the players to beat any team in this league, we genuinely do. We shouldn’t go into any game with fear, respect yes, but not fear. This now is about character, desire and personal motivation as much as it’s about Enzo and his tactics. He has never been at the sharp end of something like this and it is a learning curve for him too. Whilst the win at Sunderland was a nervy, patchy performance - dire in the 2nd half - it was still a win. Now we need to go to Hull and grind out another. What I don’t want to see is us go ahead and then shrink back into ourselves. IF we take the lead we need to hammer that home. I don’t think we cling on here for a win.

I quite like the Championship. I mean, fairly soon there will be no point playing in it, but still. We all knew money would ruin the game. We all knew the rich clubs would stay rich and the poor would get poorer. It’s the model all around us.

Fuch it, just deduct every premier League club and whoever gets promoted with us 15pts from the off, apart from us. Let’s see how quickly we could blow that lead. I reckon 8 matches in.

Seems like a lot of outside pressure piling up on us right when it might affect things on the pitch, or Enzo, or both. Interesting timing.

I also guess it makes a difference if those peddling that line are within the clubs structure and responsible for it. If they are peddling such a line then that is damaging. Fans, though, make little to no difference to anything material. Nobody peddling the line, we’re too good to go down, last season had any influence on us actually going down. Totally agree on fans voices being raised together for positive benefit. That is different but still very remote from actual impact.

Ok I can answer this now. No. It’s simple. Not a chance our current side would even lay a glove on Pearson’s side. They were mentally streets ahead.

Tiredness is worse when confidence is low, some of it is psychological. When you invite the sort of pressure we did it becomes exhausting on every level. If we just actually played as we can we might actually be less tired. Sounds odd but it’s true.

They ALL did, again. First 10-15 mins Doyle was putting in killer passes. Mavadidi had his full back on toast. We scored and everything just fell away into nervous and needless chaos.

Nope it’s not, you’re right. As fans we know last night was shite, bar the opening 10-15mins. As someone who played football a lot and at a fair level, I know that games last night don’t build confidence, if anything they sap it. You know you got away with one, and that sticks in the back of your head. We’ll soon see anyway. A win against Hull will lift the clouds a bit, IF we can win.

You’re probably right.

The guy is immense and the stats appear to show that. A whole point less a game while he’s been out is ridiculous and I would doubt it is entirely down to his absence, but still. We need the guy fit and firing.

It was a gritty performance, but that was unnecessary. We had them on the ropes and then just stood back and let them come to life. Only their lack of quality and some luck saw the 3pts come our way. We’re playing a much better team on Saturday, what we showed last night won’t be enough. I’m hoping having Vesty back and Ndidi around will help. Also wary that Enzo threw Ndidi in to the mix out of desperation, but he seems to have come through ok. All we can do is keep the faith and hope we iron out the rough patch.

Vesty back, big plus. Ndidi unlikely to start but around, big plus. Tonight’s performance, joke. Saturday will be a lot tougher and it really shouldn’t be. All we can ever do is see how the dice fall.

I find this place confusing. We’ve all watched a lot of football. Most of us have followed City for decades. How is it some think we will gain confidence from that abhorrent performance? How can some not see the glaringly obvious? I would genuinely love to be so oblivious. Play like we did tonight and Hull will tear us a new hole. Play like we did tonight and we might just finish 4th.

If there was ever a game to show you that we aren’t winning the league, that was the game. First 10-15 mins we were sublime. Carried on like that, and we could have, we’d have won 3/4-0. Then the Enzo Italian factor kicked in and we went to sleep. 2nd half was diabolical. 3pts but my God we won’t get many more playing like that and the performance will not have instilled any confidence.

Of god Enzo’s gone full Italian on us. Stupid.