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Chelsea 2-2 Southampton | Fortless Stamford Bridge

Posted by: BlueChampion on January 17, 2013 in Match Day 25 Comments 2,242 views

Football is like life. There are times when things just happen – just like that. You might want to investigate and identify the cause and all that but certain things just happen. This was such. Very hard to look for a reason why we couldn’t win. We were 2-0 by half time at home. Should have been a cakewalk but not to be. This was by no means a bad performance from Chelsea to warrant a draw. It was simply a bad night.

The team selection was spot on. Ba started ahead of Torres. For all the ones who thought, Rafa will have a soft corner for Torres or Roman wants his managers to start Torres, there was the answer. Ba is clearly our first choice striker. So lets put all the myths around pressure around starting Torres aside.

Both Chelsea goals were very good goals. Demba Ba’s goal was clearly an attempt that only a hungry and confident striker would go for. We have wasted a million crosses like that before. Demba Ba made a goal out of that cross. The Hazard shot was brilliant too. Having just scored a goal from outside the box only in the earlier game, he clearly had the inclination to shoot from there. What a finish that was.

I can’t really see any mistakes per se in the goals conceded. Both the goals scored by Southampton were quality goals. First goal was an excellent header by Lambert. Bad defending? If you watch the replay of any goal, you might say the defender could have done this or that. It was a brilliant header that beat Petr Cech who couldn’t even make an attempt to stop that. That says something.

Their second goal was also quality. Amazing run by young Luke Shaw who left even a pacy Azpilicueta for dead. And that finish was really special. You can’t complain against goals like that. Only the day before Luke Shaw was tweeting that he’s a big Chelsea fan and he stadium that he loves to play is Stamford Bridge. He’s young, he’s promising, he’s a Chelsea fan and it’s January.

I was disappointed with Chelsea’s response to Southampton’s second goal. We had about 20 mins (including stoppage time) at Stamford Bridge to conjure up a goal. That’s when Southampton sat back deeper and pretty much told us ‘show me what you got’. And we had very little to show. The last 20 mins must have been made hell for Southampton. Our players with the support from the home fans must rattled them so much that they should have regretted scoring their equaliser so early as the 75th min. The urgency was there but the intensity simply wasn’t there.

Before this game, Chelsea had won 5 out of the last 6 premier league games. That’s 15 out of possible 18 points. Only Man Utd with 16 points were better than us in that period. In short, it’s been an amazing run in the premier league. In the 10 premier league games under Rafa Benitez, we’ve won 18 points. If you break that down between home and away games. 6 of those points have come from 5 home games while 12 points were from 5 away games.

Doesn’t that tell a story? Our home form has been poorer than the away form of even some mid-table teams. The dissenting Chelsea fans at the Bridge need to understand the damage they’re causing to the club. I don’t understand the 16th min RDM tribute happening match after match. I understood when it happened in the game after his sacking as that was our way to thank the man who played a key role in us winning the champions league. Why are we doing this every single game? Pointless. Just move on and support your team. And this game against Southampton had 38,484 turn up at the Bridge – the lowest ever this season. Fortress Stamford Bridge? More like Fortless Stamford Bridge.

As a manager, you can drill the right habits and techniques in the players, plan a good tactic, pick the right team and hope everything works to the plan and intervene when it doesn’t. For me, Rafa did all these in this game. Some poor final third action from Chelsea and some brilliant moments from Southampton meant it’s a draw.

We should kick on from here. Try to amends for this result. Use the disappointment as a motivator and smash Arsenal out of the park at Stamford bridge this Sunday. If the Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge don’t act as the real twelfth man for that game, it would be a crying shame. I hope we all keep our differences aside and help Chelsea beat Arsenal this Sunday. KTBFFH!

Tagged with: adkins ba benitez Chelsea Demba Ba hazard lambert luke shaw premier league puncheon Southampton torres

BlueChampion

What I am? Uber football addict, optimistic Chelsea fan, casual gamer and long time blogger with views and opinions rather than stats and data. What I'm not? Expert, analyst, pundit or self-proclaimed guru of anything. I choose when to be biased and when not to be. Views and opinions are all mine and not what you always might want to see.

25 comments - Please Click Here To Add Your Comment

MatBlue
January 17, 2013 at 9:37 am

So once again we continue to make life difficult for our players at our own stadium. Our support at the Bridge has never been the best to say the least. i have always thought that it doesn’t take much for Chelsea fans to turn on their own team and Rafa’s appointment has just given them even more impetus to do that. I know it is easy to pour dirt on our great Club but i didn’t expect this , not from our own fans.

For all our failings and our Club is arguably the most successful english Club in the last five years. Yet no one even seem to respect that. I agree our Club has made mistakes, grave mistakes sometimes but joining the gutter press out there to muddy our beloved Chelsea isnt the way. We’ve had ex players like Frank Leboeuf, Ruud Gullit, Andy Townsend and the ever bitter Craig Burley continue to ridicule us in the media. Even the fan favourite Ray Wilikins occasionally takes cheap shots at our Club.

Yes the club erred in letting Robbie go. It was an incredibly disastrous decision to give the team to Rafa. We dont like it, i know i dont. But surely it’s gone far enough. We can only support the team till he is gone, at least. With all of Roman’s failings, and with all his mistakes he has been good for our beloved Club. I never doubt that he has the best intentions for this Club.

Tell you what guys, with all his gung ho, hire -and-fire attitude, all other teams, perhaps bar City, would wish he was their owner. The media is filled with hypocites. The xenophobic Daily Mail and The Sun tabloids will never back us. This constant booing and such is not helping us. We have to support our Club. No one will do that for us. When it all comes crumbling down, there you will see how these media hounds will feed on us. People like Trizia Fiorellino, should look at themselves and see the harm they are causing the Club. Robbie is gone, deal with it!
Aaron
January 17, 2013 at 1:19 pm

Thank you blueschamp! I agree with you 100%, our team had 20 mind to go and win this game. I’m really having a hard time understanding why blues fans cannot support benitez. Yes he said many bad things about us but the history is history and the present is now. Do you guys want to try and win a trophy? As a die-hard Chelsea fan I definitely do. So why don’t we forget the past, support the players and give a slight bit of confidence to the manager. Benitez has made mistakes but doesn’t everybody? I am really disgusted with my fellow Chelsea supporters.
denverblue
January 17, 2013 at 5:21 pm

Its fucking annoying me how these fans are behaving….. please remember.. no fcuking coach want to coach chelseafc.. remember that shit.. Most of know that Pep wouldnt come.. the world of football was upset with RDM sacking.. they said he needed more time.. Avb .. needed more time.

Chelsea fans need to know that.. Rafa.. is helping us out!! no one wanted it (he doesnt have the right players to play were he wants.. we have one striker… we have lamps who thins he is a striker..(i saw the fcuking man take a ball off ba’s toes last night.. SMFH)

Our problem is we dont have they right type of players for the system we want to play.. we leave the manager out of the planning which is wrong im MOP.

with that Said.. ill say I FEEL THE BEST MAN IS FRANK RIJKAARD BC i need you to help to word out there man…
why Frank Rijkaard.. Rijkaard’s essential philosophy is to guide his team towards playing attack-minded football as a cohesive unit. In doing this, he believes a team can achieve the dual objectives of winning games and ensuring the audience’s enjoyment of the spectacle.

tell em what you think folks please…
BlueChampion
January 17, 2013 at 5:48 pm

Very well said MatBlue. I always seem to have this theory that for clubs like Chelsea, managerial stability is overrated. If Roman wasn’t this ruthless, Chelsea wouldn’t have won half of these trophies in the last decade. He demands of everyone, very rightly so. He is the driving force behind Chelsea FC. If you keep your prejudices around Rafa aside for a minute, this is a great short term appointment. Rafa needs to get back to big league football management. We need a stop gap manager and we got someone with pedigree too. It’s a smart move.
BlueChampion
January 17, 2013 at 6:05 pm

Denver – I have a lot of respect for Frank Rijkaard. I still maintain that Rijkaard’s Barca was better than Pep’s Barca. They were the real masters of the game. But as soon as Rijkaard left Barca, he had a very ordinary managerial career. He was poor at Galatasaray and got sacked in a year. And incidentally, only yesterday, he was sacked by Saudi Arabia after a string of poor results. I’m not really a fan of the idea of Rijkaard taking over at Chelsea.
denverblue
January 17, 2013 at 7:08 pm

crying.. .. smh.. who then BC.. no one wants us…. can you blame them.

but ill say Chelsea squad has more talent than all those teams put together bro.
Matt Clark
January 17, 2013 at 8:02 pm

It is quite revolting, the sight and sound of these fans still booing the manager at this stage. How many more home points do we have to piss away before they realize what they are doing?

I don’t get the opportunity to disagree with BlueChampion very often, so I feel compelled to point out if you think Rijkaard’s Barcelona (Edmilson, Van Bommel, Deco and Giuly) were better than Guardiola’s (Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta and Fabregas) then you is mental bro! And Messi is more mesmerizing and prolific than Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Henry combined.

Agree that Rijkaard would be a poor appointment though. Our recent history may put off some of the biggest names but there are lots of better managers than Rijkaard that would take the Chelsea job in a second, for sure.
Paddingtonblue
January 17, 2013 at 9:21 pm

Disgraceful behaviour from fans booing, makes chelsea a laughing stock, suppose people have paid their money so entitled to vent but booing! We don’t have a divine right to win, ultimately 11players on the pitch have to earn.
Richard Murray
January 18, 2013 at 4:05 am

I agree, lets stunt the gunners and set all to right:)it is a big week too, with tottenham playing, beating arsenal and a tottenham loss would set us over tottenham with a game in hand and keep arsenal out of the uefa cl next season, kings of london:)
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 4:12 am

Matty Clark – The right approach from your side must be to ask this question ‘how the hell do you say Rijkaard’s Barca is better than Pep’s Barca’

See the biggest problem in such discussions is the words like ‘better’. Better in what. Better how. Better why. Stoke in better than Barca. Better in what? Headers. Arsenal is better than Bayern. Better is what? Stadium revenue. So in certain parameters which I value a lot and you may not, Rijkaard’s Barca’s was better than Pep’s.

Those were the very parameters I’d rate a Ronaldinho or Neymar over Messi/Ronaldo. It’s not the trophies, it’s not the goals, it’s not the goals scored etc. Rijkaard’s Barca played a more pure form of football – they weren’t a collective machinery like they were under Pep. But Rijkaard’s Barca was truly unpredictable. They never struggle like Pep’s Barca to unlock a tight defence. There’s a tiring routine about Pep’s Barca that wasn’t the case earlier. Rijkaard’s Barca was based on Brazilians. Pep’s Barca is all about Catalans (barring Messi). With a team half as talented as the current Barca team, Rijkaard’s produced real magic.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 5:24 am

Rijkaard’s Barca had more foreigners than Pep’s (not a research, that’s off my head). When Pep took over, the Catalan influence in Barca rose. Don’t think it was Pep’s decision but Barca as a club, decided to go back to their roots, with more Catalans in players and also in managerial level. Their last big mistake was Ibrahimovic. Pep couldn’t handle him. Shipped him off. For me, jury is out on Pep. I want to see him successfully manage a club outside Barca and manage players that aren’t Catalans of half-Catalans like Messi. Anyway he’s chosen an option where the chance of success is the highest in that league. Of course he would be successful. How successful is what I’m keen to see.
MatBlue
January 18, 2013 at 7:58 am

It’s curious too, isn’t it? For a manager praised to the hilt as being the best out there, and rightly so, he did a Mourinho there. Pep Guardiola has confirmed my suspicion of him as a fragile individual. I mean, come on, Bayern Munich? Apart from a couple of seasons of underacheavement its always a given that Bayern will win the the Bundesliga.

And commentators say he chosen the better Club? Bayern is part of the established football elite, get the best players in Germany because of their huge financial strength in that country and want to shut the door on any challenger through the FFP. In Germany they are despised because they get the best of everything and they have such control over the German FA. They say, in Chelsea there will be interference. These journos dont do any research. Inteference? Wait till Rummenige and the rest start talking.

You see over the past few months all i have heard is Pep has snubbed us for citeh. I was curious to see how he would do under the UK media. Not with us but citeh. Afterall we were told he had al his friend s there, Bergiristain and the rest. He chose the easy option. That should tell you about the man. I respect AVB cos he chose the tougher option. Even when it seemed difficult he chose us.

We all know he will succeed at Bayern. Good luck to him. I am curious about Gus Poyet though. Matt Clark what do you think?
Matt Clark
January 18, 2013 at 9:42 am

If the word ‘better’ can hold any objectivity in football then it relates to trophies won, matches won, goals scored, clean sheets kept. To ask what ‘does better mean’ to this extent I think is to strike philosophical bedrock with the shovel of a pretty stupid question. In the few parameters you’ve selected maybe it’s true, but if you take every conceivable parameter into consideration, then it’s obvious who’s better.

I’m not especially excited or hopeful about rumours surrounding Poyet or Zola. It would be a ridiculous and unnecessary risk letting go of Rafa for someone with such little top level experience.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 10:23 am

That’s all that matters to me. The world knows how many trophies won, goals scored and clean sheets kept by Pep’s Barca and its not even comparable to Rijkaard’s Barca. No one can have an argument against such hard facts. The moment I said Rijkaard’s Barca is better than Pep’s, you should easily deduce that I can’t be talking about trophies, goals and golden balls. I’m being forced to state the obvious to explain my point. I’ll do, henceforth. But comments will be longer. Be warned.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 10:41 am

Interesting. Giving it a second thought, going by those parameters (trophies, goals, conceded etc), Chelsea were the best team in Europe in 2004-05. Don’t remember anyone giving us such credit for that in 04-05. Because some people had more parameters – money spent, playing style etc. There’s no end to it. Someone even compared training facility with the success had, some compared the youth facility/programme or even the support from the board.

I think football is too complex than we think. There are dozens and dozens of parameters and its interesting how each of these are value and weighted differently by each of us. Thanks to these things, we would never agree on everything. That’s what keep the debate going.
Matt Clark
January 18, 2013 at 12:26 pm

How complex the sport is doesn’t change that it’s a perfectly objective domain with fixed laws and goals. Every thing about a club can be broken down into scientific facts to determine whether or not that particular component takes them closer or further away from these set goals.

If you’re only gonna consider the values that are most important to you, then you can only say you prefer Rijkaards side, not that they were better
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 12:33 pm

That’s quite clear for me but there seems to be a confusion. When you say Pep’s team is MORE SUCCESSFUL (read, not the word ‘better’) than Rijkaard’s, we all need to agree. There’s hardly anything to disagree. But I don’t think being good, better or best has got only to do with success. I know it’s not a popular thought but doesn’t matter to me.

When ‘I’ say A is better than B, I don’t give a hoot about the parameters that world considers. I say, in my opinion, A is better than B. For the rest of the world, C could be better than A and B. Hardly my concern.
Matt Clark
January 18, 2013 at 1:41 pm

The terms ‘better’ and ‘more successful’ are synonyms when it comes to professional sport teams. You can’t separate them without delving into the subjective.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 2:02 pm

Well well . . . you make a declaration of sorts there but only don’t count me in! For me, ‘better’ and ‘more successful’ are not synonymous. For me, Andre Agassi was a better player than Rafael Nadal is. If we are not delving into the subjective, there’s no debate. It’s all there in the wikipedia.
Matt Clark
January 18, 2013 at 2:19 pm

This is becoming entirely a argument over semantics. Agassi wasn’t a better tennis player than Nadal because Nadal hits the ball harder, flatter and inside the court more often, hence he’s won more.

We can debate without the subjective. We just can’t debate which teams were better than others over a certain time period when the criteria that counts is so easy to measure.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 2:28 pm

Not at all. Not semantics. Clearly about different values, priorities and preferences. What I see is that the media and such want to thrust on me what I should think is the best and on what basis I should choose. No. I have my own parameters and that would never have to match with yours or BBC’s or that of Andy Gray’s.

In this instance, your measures seem to be ‘hitting the ball harder, flatter etc’ (I know it’s not comprehensive) and they don’t even feature in my top three measures for a good tennis player. It’s clearly not semantics if you see through. What appeals to you need not appeal to me and vice versa. I’m fine with that.
Matt Clark
January 18, 2013 at 2:56 pm

I’m convinced this is about semantics. Sports isn’t like with singing or painting etc where the talents of different people can’t be always objectively rated next to each other. On a football field or a tennis court (entirely objective domains) the better player/team is the one that scores more points/goals and as a direct result, wins more matches.

I can only assume (correct me if I’m wrong) you regard Rijkaard’s team higher because they were more direct, less restricted by tactics and epitomised by players like Ronaldinho. These characteristics can make them more enjoyable to watch or impressive in your opinion (and those things can always be debated) but it can’t make them better.
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 3:07 pm

Ha! One thing’s for sure. We are not going to agree on this. That first line of yours makes it very clear why we wouldn’t agree on this (interestingly the most ‘successful’ team is what I’d equate to a ‘blockbuster’ in movie parlance. I must say, I used to have this view of the sport many years back so I totally understand where you’re coming from.

I would yes those characteristics would make them better, if that’s your parameter. Quite clearly it’s your parameter, so you won’t rate it that way. It’s quite clearly mine so I’d rate it that way. Quite simple. We don’t need to agree. I’ll say loud and clear, for me, Rijkaard’s Barca is better than Pep’s Barca. I could be alone. To repeat myself – these are opinions not statistics. If it’s statistics we’re talking about, Pep’s Barca beats Rijkaard’s hands down. Why have this conversation!
denverblue
January 18, 2013 at 3:28 pm

so why the hell is he not good enough to take over a talented Chelsea squad!? if he was able to win la liga + CL….
BlueChampion
January 18, 2013 at 3:35 pm

Denver – Reply to your question in the latest post. Come over there.

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Chelsea 2-2 Southampton | Fortless Stamford Bridge

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