Chelsea 2 v Crystal Palace 1, 27/12/23 A crucial win for Chelsea, and some promising signs. Also at the halfway point of the seasons, time to take stock of the squad. Defence is still suspect. Maatsen? Sell, does not offer nearly enough in the PL. Cucurella? Sell, similar to Maatsen but a lot more expensive. No height, little pace, no goals and no assists. Badiashile? Sell, makes far too many basic mistakes and looks a liability. The team needs a leader when Silva isn't there. Gilchrist looks promising. Disasi looks very good, and committed to the cause, as does Gusto. In goal, considering Sanchez's many, many basic errors passing out from the back, Petrovic should be tghe number one choice. In midfield, I can't understand the rumours around selling Gallagher. He's Chelsea through and through and gives 100%. Keep at all costs. Up front, it's a pity about Jackson's poor finishing, as some of his all round play is very good. Broja needs to show more, and the squad needs a better finisher. To raise funds, Broja could be sold, and has been given enough chances now to show what he can do, and it's just not there. Question marks over Madueke until tonight, and he needs more discipline, but the potential is there. Keep for now.
Maatsen is too lightweight for the Premier league and it showed last night, Palace players constantly bullied him off the ball. Although he was playing out of position. Never a right sided winger where Poch played him last night. Both Disasi and Badiashile look suspect at the back neither can play out of the back. Colville is not a full back and gets caught ball watching and losses his marker. Gusto is quality and hopefully he can keep fit. Hard to say about our midfield due to never anyone being fit for more the 3 games except Gallagher who if rumours are to be believed we are selling…. Our man of the match again last night. Caicedo and Enzo are good players but never £100 million+ good. Jackson and Broja are just not up to Premier league standard…. Although I think Jackson has promise. Broja imo isn’t going to make it.
Could be a great loan for him and arguably what we should have done in the summer. The PL experience with Forest was too tempting but we all know how that panned out.
I feel bad for Pochettino, and honestly do not think that any manager given the circumstances could have done any better. The owners have bought ridiculous amounts of promising, young players, not given the manager / 'coach' any say in recruitment, failed to buy some experienced players and wasted huge amounts on the likes of Cucurella, etc. The problem is reckless, naive owners, not the manager. Hopefully the club will be forced to keep him no matter what due to FFP rules.
April, 2024. Arsenal 5, Chelsea 0. £1 billion + spent, and still no solid defence. Starting with Badiashile is asking for problems. He does not look interested, doesn't compete, and is not a PL player. It's not fair on the rest of the team when some players will not compete and challenge. Any successful team builds from the back, and it is staggering that after all that money, there is a weak defence, and no fast, goal scoring striker. How is that possible?!
The whole team lacks confidence. Palmer, Gusto. Chalobah Petrovic Caicedo at times have been our only players who have performed this season. I like Gallagher’s enthusiasm but he is not top 6 player. Enzo imo lacks pace, Cucurella plays well at times but doesn’t really create anything like Chilwell bombing forward and gets caught ball watching. Should have kept Maatsen. Poch hasn’t improved any player this season. Thank god ( or Man City) for Palmer
