Chelsea

The Bridge Lad

The Bridge Lad

Striker
Never thought I'd be typing this, but are Chelsea slowly becoming everyone's 'second team'?

5 (mostly young) players included in the most recent England squad, 3 of which started today, as well as another in Reece James. A young English manager, and there's often a number of goals in their matches. They probably are the team that I actively want to watch the most in the PL at the moment and was wondering if that was the same with others?

The transfer ban seemed unfortunate at the time, but I think it's actually done wonders for their PR.
 


The Bridge Lad said:
Never thought I'd be typing this, but are Chelsea slowly becoming everyone's 'second team'?

5 (mostly young) players included in the most recent England squad, 3 of which started today, as well as another in Reece James. A young English manager, and there's often a number of goals in their matches. They probably are the team that I actively want to watch the most in the PL at the moment and was wondering if that was the same with others?

The transfer ban seemed unfortunate at the time, but I think it's actually done wonders for their PR.
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Remind me why they got given a transfer ban again ?
 
I do think there is a myth building up around them. The media will have you believe that Frank had no players whatsoever and has had to purge their under 18’s just to get a side out.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
Never thought I'd be typing this, but are Chelsea slowly becoming everyone's 'second team'?

5 (mostly young) players included in the most recent England squad, 3 of which started today, as well as another in Reece James. A young English manager, and there's often a number of goals in their matches. They probably are the team that I actively want to watch the most in the PL at the moment and was wondering if that was the same with others?

The transfer ban seemed unfortunate at the time, but I think it's actually done wonders for their PR.
Click to expand...
No.... One team for life...
 
buster said:
Remind me why they got given a transfer ban again ?
Click to expand...

Was it their policy of signing any fucker with any prospect and then loaning them out and selling them to mugs like us after they have had about 45 seconds of premier league football for a profit?

It was something to do with their youth signing wasnt it?
Pepe said:
I do think there is a myth building up around them. The media will have you believe that Frank had no players whatsoever and has had to purge their under 18’s just to get a side out.
Click to expand...

Yeah must be hard cobbling together a team from the club that can loan out about 46 players a season.
 
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Thought similar myself. Enjoy watching them play some lovely football recently. The game against Ajax was phenomenal Was a decent piece in the paper last week about it.

Watford Junction on Saturday night featured a curious mix of boisterous away fans and bemused young families from abroad carrying back to London their souvenirs from the Harry Potter experience at one of the big film studios in the area. It brought to mind a question Frank Lampard, the Chelsea head coach, had been asked about an hour earlier: “Have you made Chelsea a more likeable club?” Clever man that he is, he had laughed and replied: “I am not going to answer that.”
Fast approaching is the 50th anniversary of the last time Chelsea enjoyed any type of significant nationwide approval rating — beating Don Revie’s disliked Leeds United side in the 1970 FA Cup final — so the idea that Lampard has performed some feat of wizardry after 17 games in turning arguably the most unpopular club in the country into everybody’s second team is entering the realms of fantasy.
What Chelsea are doing is winning lots of games on their travels and probably some hearts and minds as well, such is the quality of their football and the bearing of their manager. Under José Mourinho, Chelsea used to lord it when they travelled north, but the Portuguese carried with him such an edge that respect rather than likeability was more easily gained.
That will no doubt do for Lampard as well, though he will ditch either should Chelsea record a sixth Premier League victory in a row against Palace next Saturday at Stamford Bridge and then go on to break their record for consecutive away wins. A record-equalling seventh in all competitions was achieved in some style against Watford, though in many ways it was like a home game for Chelsea. Quique Sánchez Flores, the Watford head coach, played five at the back, just as he did when he eked out a goalless draw against Sheffield United last month, clearly the best approach he thought possible with the talent at his disposal.
Once Tammy Abraham opened the scoring after five minutes, it was comfortable for Chelsea, until the intervention of the VAR allowed Watford to pull a goal back with a penalty ten minutes from the end. There is no great mystery as to why Chelsea have picked up nearly twice as many points away from home as they have at Stamford Bridge (15 from six games as opposed to eight from five). At the Bridge, teams sit in and it is one of the smaller pitches in the league. Away from home in particular, the ability of Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic to pass the ball between the lines has revitalised Willian, while Mason Mount has also thrived.

Last season Kovacic made 32 Premier League appearances and completed a full 90 minutes in only two of those games. Five out of 11 is the figure for this season so far. The Croatia international, 25, rarely gives the ball away and his ability to drive past players has been a potent weapon for Chelsea. On Saturday, he chased down Gerard Deulofeu on the right flank; and the sliding tackle that followed was then perfectly executed. Two of his team-mates were also bearing down on the Watford winger.
“The players are working hard,” Lampard, 41, says. “Some of those performances off the ball — when we go to Ajax and get a win — you have to put in a lot of leg work.”
The visit of Ajax to Stamford Bridge tomorrow will bring the changes into focus. In Amsterdam 12 days ago the average age of the Chelsea side was slightly younger than Ajax’s — 24.7 to 24.8.
Chelsea can’t expect too many brownie points given their transfer embargo for breaches of Fifa rules governing overseas players. Yet Lampard deserves credit for the unity within his squad. Having stumbled upon the magic formula, they may as well stick with it.
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The transfer ban has actually worked well for them, because frank has been able to allow the younger players to come in and they are a good attacking side full of talent, and when its open for them again all they need to do is try and replace Hazard and they may well be on to something, a team that could challenge Liverpool and city. just like Leicester are at the moment, which can only be a good thing for the english game.
 
Pepe said:
I do think there is a myth building up around them. The media will have you believe that Frank had no players whatsoever and has had to purge their under 18’s just to get a side out.
Click to expand...

Still spent 100 million on pulisic and kovacic during the summer too. Fuck em
 
Absolutely not. Russian-backed rich racist arrogant club.

Honestly the only club in the UK I'm comfortable seeing Newcastle beat.

Second club indeed.
 
My hatred of them has slightly diminished because I quite like Lampard and they're playing some canny football..... but only slightly. They're now just about above the Mags, Boro, Leeds, West Ham, Millwall, Coventry, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, and a few others.

Still plenty ahead of them though, they're an awful club with awful fans.
 

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