Holobas seemed to do it against Stoke too, so maybe there's something in it. We seem to be trying to work something, and not always the same thing, from the corners on a number of occassions. Could see some interesting training ground tactics under Gracia.
Actually the funniest part is them all calling for Bakayoko to be taken off already even after 10-20 minutes... it's as if Mike Dean was reading their forum... http://www.theshedend.com/topic/31569-watford-vs-chelsea-pl-mon-feb-5th-2018-2000-uk/?page=14
Just seen the review from the pundits on Sky. Today it's Wilkins and Cottee. It's a nice morning as there are plenty of compliments flying around for us. The main focus was how bad Chelsea were and also on Conte's job. Then they had a little bit at the end saying about Watford's recruitment. It's a first time I've heard anyone praise the signings. Cottee said "I don't know what they are doing there, but they signed some fantastic talent." Makes a nice change from the slating usually we get from Merson and co. Wilkins did pop up with "Watford will be lucky to keep Doucoure", and was moaning why Chelsea sold Chalobah for £6m to Watford and signed Bakayokoto for £40m, just for good measure........mind you, he does have a point.
Two French centre midfielders on each side last night. Kante and Bakayoko will probably go to the World Cup, yet got completely outclassed by Doucouré and Capoue.
Nah, Lebowski was full of obnoxious Americans yelling about NFL all week. Was in The Dirty Rabbit further down towards the harbour!
BBC this morning were on and on about Conte and how Chelsea lost a game - not sure they mentioned anyone beat them.
A brilliant night last night. A few points that haven't been made (much) in this thread so far :- 1. How refreshing to see an animated manager on the touchline. Marco Silva spent his games after the Everton courtship with his hands across his chest in a "I don't want to be here and I'll let you all know it" fashion. Our new guy was vocal & passionate. Great to see. 2. Good management to take Richie off. He was playing well, but he had been booked. I think Gracia was stopping Mike Dean from having the opportunity of evening up the numbers. Yes, Richie was disappointed, but I think Gracia was right. 3. Replacing Richie with Pereyra weakened us defensively. Pereyra doesnt help out the defenders as much as Richie. We got away with it last night (and Pereyra scored a great goal) but it is a weakness. 4. The Chelsea team cannot rate Zappacosta. Too often he was left unmarked by Janmaat (especially in the first half) but thankfully he wasn't given the ball by his teammates.
In fairness that sort of result was coming!!! A lot being said about Chelsea and that they had a player sent off after 32 minutes but we were all over them already by that point and if anything Chelsea improved when he went off. I said after watching the Stoke game that I thought we may have stumbled on Capoues best position, defensive midfielder. With his range of passing it might be that this suits him and certainly the last two games are best he’s played for a while. Really hope Deeney gets away with the ill advised celebration as I reckon with his previous suspensions this year we may be looking at him missing nearly half the rest of the season. I have to admit to being pretty nervous having seen the team before the game but everybody did their job and the organisation and effort of everybody involved was incredible. As somebody else stated, we have some good players who just need organising which Gracia is apparently very good at and certainly the last two games would seem to support that. Although West Ham is a very important game still I do feel it’s not quite so a win at all costs kind of game now but if we can get a win we would probably only be another win and a draw away from safety. What a difference a win makes.
Good point actually, there were a few points I thought he's in a dangerous position but he either dithered trying to get it on to his right foot to cross or it got worked back out and eventually to the opposite wing. As the game went on they more or less ignored him.
Yes, newts and weasels always get a bad press, most unfair. These guys just trying to get by, like we all do.
The BBC always mention Watford when they read out the classified football results. Not satisfied by that? How much coverage do you want?
Newts have never recovered from the "Ken Livingstone loves newts" headline. Not sure who their PR man is but he needs shooting. In the same way, snakes will suffer for the next 10 years due to our ex boss.
Not enough can be praised about last night A team with our second choice keeper, Holebas and Mariappa of all people at CB with the hitherto calamatous prodl, Capoue of all people running the midfield, Janmaat and Zeegelar great both offensively and defensively. More injuries than Silva had too. And Gracia ******* smiled, shouted, celebrated, encouraged - the players wanted to play for him, instead of a sulky, whiney turd of manager. It makes snake look like the terrible manager and person that he is.
Last night had everything that had been missing under silva since the Everton approach best bit was all the miserable Chelsea fans on the train home Every single player put a **** in
Not just everything that was missing under Silva after the Everton business, but everything that was missing before, such as basic defensive organisation. I've always said I don't accept injuries as an excuse because we've always had the personnel on the field to give teams real problems going forward, and they more than proved themselves last night. We'd have lost that under Snake. We'd dropped deep before Hazard's equaliser, and you know we'd have crumbled. The way we hit back was devastating, and it wasn't in this side's mentality before Gracia came here. I've got no worries about falling any further down the table now. It's time to be looking up again.
Very true when winning at Stanford bridge he went defensive we lost last night we stayed on the front foot
Yes, but this is just a token gesture under their charter for balance. We are the climate change deniers that they have to give airtime to.
Exactly this. I said on the Slither sacking thread, that you need horses for courses. The squad still has professional footballers, they may be inferior in talent to the starters but they can still do a job for you...and that's exactly what happened last night. The players were instructed to play to their strengths...press ther opposition, target their weaknesses and leave nothing on the pitch. I read in one of Gracia's first interviews on the Malaga win at the Nou Camp, he said most teams will sit in their final third giving up possession to Barca, but their movement creates space and confusion and teams concede. What he did was study Barca and highlighted the areas Barca always exploit and he stuck a man there to take away that space and Barca didn't know how to react. So they pressed higher, but he had the players buy into it so they were inferior in talent, but matched them in work rate and desire and executed his game plan. Last night, what was really evident is for 65 minutes, Hazard had someone snapping at his heels, normally teams drop off him and let him have the ball on the edge of the centre circle, he turns and runs and that's when he causes trouble. Gracia saw that and told Prodl to go with him as he'll have cover behind if anyone makes runs. I've some of sympathy for Janmaat on their goal, if he had gone for it, I don't think he would have made it and he had a player to his right who would have been played in on goal. The fact he didn't commit meant the cover came back but Hazard produced a worldie so in a sense he made the right choice not to commit even though they scored. I'm more upset about how it's all about Conte today whereas the press should be talking about how Gracia made Chelsea look very ordinary.
Worrying talk that we might get the points from last night deducted because we had a suspended player in the bench.
