With much to speak about after this game that disappointed all the neutrals and Chelsea fans, the focus is on Mourinho’s post match comments following a ridiculous 4 minutes of added time after so much delaying of the game by the visitors who were in the field to protect their goal. Their fans were celebrating as if they had avoided a relegation this season while the home fans were left feeling disappointed by the missed chances out of 39 shots (including blocked shots by defenders).
Mean while, Manchester City has passed Arsenal and are now leaders of the table by three points ahead from us after a 5-1 trashing of Tottenham at White Heart Lane. This comes right ahead of out next title deciding fixture at the Etihad, where the home team has a 100% winning record on home soil in the premier league.
Let’s look at important lessons to be taken out of this game…
Opportunities should be converted; not wasted-
Sounds so easy to say and expect from your team when playing against a local rival who are struggling in the league. But, the Blues had a total of 39 shots that didn’t find the back of the net due to incredible wasting of opportunities in both halves of the game. West Ham simply came not to score and try to get win but, for the sole purpose of defending and earning a precious point in their battle for relegation. But, such wouldn’t have been the outcome had many of our players converted their chances. Lampard could have won the game for us had he put the ball in to the corner rather than straight into the goal keeper.
Big opportunity wasted in the title race-
With Manchester City winning their rather tricky looking fixture away at Tottenham in an emphatic fashion, Jose Mourinho’s men are now 3 points behind the leaders from Manchester with Arsenal seating in 2nd position two points ahead of the Blues. We could have surpassed the gunners and wait what happens vs Man City at the Etihad, but now that important fixture to be played on Monday Feb. 3rd is a must win for Mourinho in order to have a legitimate chance of winning the title.
Our defense dealt well against the powerful strikers-
Taking some positive out of our performance, we can appreciate our center-backs performance against the powerful and physical Andy Carroll who was dominated in aerial duels and the physical battle by John Terry and Gary Cahill. It was a battle of a traditional English center backs vs a powerful English target man looking for headers and win the game for their un-deserving team who were out to defend. And it’s much clear who won the battle despite both sides settling for a draw. Another clean sheet for the incredible defense despite the Blues being left disappointing with the outcome.
Our attacking midfielders did everything but convert one of their long range strikes-
The attacking trio of Hazard, Willian and Oscar were brilliant performers except the fact that they failed to convert one of their chances. All three did their job very well and it’s a positive for Jose Mourinho and the fans. We expect a similar type of performance with added quality of finishing at Etihad against Manchester City on Monday!
’19TH century football by West Ham’ – Jose’s reaction!-
Mourinho gave a rather special response to the press after the boring draw which left West ham celebrating as if they had won battle against Relegation. Mourinho was asked how Allardyce reacted to being told his team earned their point with ’19th century’ football.
‘He was laughing,’ replied Mourinho. ‘His objective was won – to come here and take a point. His objective was not to come here and win, come here and feel part of the quality of the Premier League. His objective was to come for a point. He takes that and for that he is a happy man and I am sad at this moment, so congratulations to Sam.’
This is surely a missed chance with Mourinho claiming how disappointed he was of Sam Allardyce’s tactics against his team who went to the limit to score and claim the win but wasn’t possible. We must now look forward to the next important game against not only the favorites as Mourinho has said but, also against the new leaders at the top of the table. This battle is a title decider for Mourinho’s team since there is a chance of going 6 points behind City and 5 points behind Arsenal if we lose. Jose surely knows the master plan of how to stop it from happening!
Mourinho pls respect ur opponent wt ur comment.u play dis type game dan any1 else so stop complainin abt west ham’s defendin
Nothing to worry too much! May be this could be a lesson for us to learn how to create openings against such defensive teams as we can’t expect ‘wihzcar’ trio to score goals fequently since they are still young(oscar,hazard) and had a very little experience(willian) in this type of situations in premier league. A win would have settled things well to title race for us but we have only 3 points gap which makes the clash against city on february 3 a very crucial match as some experts are even saying ‘Title-Decider’.
At last we felt what Barcelona feels playing against us. LOL
Why Mour not take action timely as he knows they come for a point. Mour made a mistake not substitute Ba or Sucrrule timely instead of waiting 80minutes. They came to defend and we also helped them by playing 2 defending Midfielders. It is good increasing z attaker players in such type of game. Z other thing is our midfield waste and striker should not look each other and create best chances and score instead every player shot to z goal and waste!!Z coach has to correct them to create best chance to other players in good position and score easily rather shotting distantly and waste.
in as much as we luv u, u should kno dat a team is entitled to employ dia style of play in order to get a desired results. so don’t complain, now go back to ur drawing board and find a way to open up teams wit such mentality
yeah, we can play that kind of game against an attacking team, as I expect us to do against City and hit them on the counter.
But some credit to Chelsea wen we played the likes of Barcelona and Bayern, the difference is we played to Score, which we did…
So my dear fans it isn’t totally the same thing.
Chelsea 0(goal) V 0(goal)Westham
38 attempts V 1 attempt
72%possession V 28% possession
Sigh!…Now I know how Bayern felt
Lampard killed d game…nd i believe etoo’s goal is a veri veri gud goal
i learnt dat our hawilscar still need a lot of maturity in makin timely runs & breakn resolute defenc by findin a tru pas.
rami has energy,but lacks composure on the bal
chelsea need a new lamp & drog type of player,matic may not be the answer,though is stil 2 early 2 judge him.
we can beat city if we learn how 2 bury our chances & stop being wasteful.up cfc.
I learnt that we should learn to take our chances the opportunities arrives. Taking the chances we create has been a dilemma the entire season as at now. I also learnt that we need a potential striker this summer. Someone in the form of Diego Coasta. Should Lampard take part in every game? Against a well defensive teams like West Ham we should have a plan on how to put the ball in their net. These points are what I learnt.
Since for matches, Ramires has been awful.
Why mou puts Mikel in midfield. This guy cannot move the ball quickly. 73% possession of ball with back pass, we didn’t do anything. This was so boring in first half. When mou will understand that Mikel is not a player.
@Adam, you’re a pathetic fool! Since you so much hates Mikel’s gut, why not do yourself a favour and hang yourself! A big fool you’re!
Tanks @ kes
Whenever we win no one will remember to blame our “scape goat” mikel but whenever we drop point its all his fault.
Adam sounds like a plastic fan!
Hope mikel plays a very good game against us one day, then we will know how good he was for us……..some fans are ungreatful
I was one of those fans who blame mikel for everything (in the past) but now i realize and appriate his efforts…….many coaches have come and gone but the guy remains in their plans, what are those coaches seeing in him and we are not seeing?
Mate, please ask Adam and his likes. Also ask most writers on this blog. They are so bias when it comes to Mikel’s affairs!
I dont understand why some plastic fans hate mikel most expecially Adam……you never praised him for any good thing he does,but you always blame him for the team’s bad performance
Nigerians, @Adam if tlk about mikel they will kill ooh. plss keep your mouth shut, they are so sentimental, and their hero is untouchable. but they hv the fucking gust to tlk about any other player, even messi is critizised. they will all follow mikel wen he leaves chelsea.
MIKEL IS WORLD BEST FOR NIGERIANS, IS AS IF HE WAS THE ONLY ONE PLAYING WEN WE WON THE CHAMPS LEAGUE,THE HEROES ARE NT EVEN RECOGNIZED BUH MIKEL BASE ON HIS PAST GLORIES EVEN MATA WHO GOT US GOING IN 2012 IS GONE. NIGERIAN MESSI. HE IS A GOOD LAD BUT ALLOW SOME1 CRITIZISE FROM HIS OWN POINT OF VIEW OH. WHAT WRONG WID U? HE SLOWS OUR GAME SOMHOW,
@ Gabby i’m not a Nigerian but i respect Mikel alot and i think he doesnt deserve blame for the team bad performance!
Come on guys I like Mikel anytime he plays he controls our midfield, he hardly misses the balls. I prefer him than Lampard and Ramires in the pivot.
GABBY YOU’RE A STUPID C*NT for bringing my country into disrepute. BUNCH OF FRUSTRATED SKUNKY GHANAIANS!
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