FA Cup third round and onward 2016

Think Keita of RB Leipzig is the only central mid I'd take ahead of Kante this season.

Rojo's had a great season, he's a real scrapper. Still makes me nervous as hell watching him though, you always think there's a card just round the corner. Bit like Herrera really.

Ashley Young ran his socks off, but jesus christ, he cannot kick a ball.

best game I've seen willian have for a while

I hope Kante isnt on teh drugs cos the amount of running he does is superhuman

What a fraudulent team with their tactical rotation of fouls on Hazard.

good thing Oliver made up a new rule to compensate for it!

Chelsea XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Ake; Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Willian, Batshuayi, Pedro

Tottenham XI: Lloris, Trippier, Dier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Wanyama, Dembele, Son, Eriksen, Dele, Kane

no davies! no hazard or costa and fabregas still not starting

Davies is no loss at LB, Vertonghen is a very useful player and his passing range from the deep flank is going to be interesting. But Dier is not a strong CB.

Not like poch to shoehorn but clearly felt that he had to keep Son in while keeping the trio of Dembele, Wanyama, Dier in the team.

Can't call this at all.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte: "I took this decision about our starting XI. At this moment it is part of the season whenever we play any game it is important to have a player in your mind and make a decision.

"You risk in the same way if you start with Diego or Eden or they come on. I try to make the best decision."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Shit start Vertonghen caught out left and then everyone caught out centre.

Looked saveable tbh

urgh rubbish start.

Watching in glorious comfort at home but if they go 2 up inside the first half I'm off to the pub

Welp

Yeeeeeas

Nice cross

Still think the shape of this team is all wrong, the defenders and Son are all pulled out of position by Davies not being in the team. And we know what happened last time we tried to play Chelsea without a proper left back.

that is kind of an astonishing finish

Oh god not JT

XPost I'd say he learned that from Robbie

Moses jumps, but terrible slide in by Son

Wanyama all over the place and wtf is son playing lwb for

ffs

We've been excellent

Chelsea have attacked three times, scored twice and had our best CB booked

Were getting killed in a very select way essentially

Son should never have been in the position to make that tackle in the first place. Poch has fucked up with his team selection here.

Eriksen's been v good but idk what Wanyama is supposed to do tbh

Wanyama has let balls and players past him and chosen not to tackle four or five times and has given our defence a problem every time

I've had to eat my words about him because he's been essential all season but he is writing cheques for Chelsea today.

That corner ffs

Whoaaaaaa

that were good

This is Eriksens day

Wonderful

Sweet goal

Amazing from Eriksen just then.

this is what willian gets for signing for chelsea

medals

Damn

Can't really argue with that.

Lost all balance. It'll go to 6 before we get another

Not a bad performance but swatted away when it was required, it's not entirely negative to remind this squad what winning looks like tbh

Four goals from five shots on target.

That's what winning looks like!

Ah it's not so bad, not embarrassed or anything

It's not. Spurs played really well. But eh

A great game. I wonder how Spuds would be doing if Danny Rose hadn't got injured. A rare defeat for Poch tactically but still a great performance. Gutted to lose when you've shown so much quality.

Danny Rose is absolutely crucial to the tactical balance of the team. If he'd been fit the initial XI would have been completely different and moreover we wouldn't have been treated to the absurd spectacle of of two right backs on the pitch at once.

It seems fairly obvious that in a game like that you play as close to you first choice defence as possible. I see the tactical rationale behind playing Trippier but otherwise it made no sense.

Essentially Poch needed Wanyama in the team and couldn't bring himself to drop one of Son or Dier. Both of whom have been excellent of late.

we wouldn't have been treated to the absurd spectacle of two right backs on the pitch at once

try being a Utd fan lol

It's a very bad result, and I agree that Walker and Davies (in absence of Rose) should have started, and Son on bench.

The odd thing though is that we didn't really lose because of these bad tactical decisions. When Hazard scored on 75, Walker had replaced Son, Trippier was at left-back (and probably not doing much wrong) and we had been dominating the game for 75 minutes, having scored two sublime goals. At 2-2 we were camped in their half for long spells.

So ultimately the result seems to come down to the late turn of fortunes. Which has something to do with CFC's strength in depth - ie who they could bring off the bench, vs the total lack of game-changers on ours.

* = we had been dominating the game for 30 minutes, from 45 to 75.

btw I also felt Lloris was unusually poor, even though I'm not certain he was specifically much at fault for the goals - maybe the 1st and 3rd.

I only saw the second half and from my perspective Spurs were all over Chelsea (....until Chelsea scored twice)

Yes that is accurate!