Chelsea’s bad form this week continued in the Champions League opener game against Basel as Jose Mourinho tested his first defeat at Stamford Bridge. After defending and staying behind the ball for much of the first half, FC Basel came out in 2nd half a much different team than at first. Star player Mohammed Salah scored an equalizer through a beautiful curling effort and then their captain, Streller scored a header from a corner.
Chelsea had 56 per cent possession, nine corners, six attempts on target but only Oscar’s fine strike just before half-time. The Brazilian worked hard throughout the first half, tracking back as well as contributing to Chelsea’s 62 per cent possession. They should have built on that lead but stood off and opened up, allowing Basel to flood through. A poor finishing and horrible performance by most of the players resulted in a first defeat at home for Jose Mourinho. Now, after two successive defeats, we must bounce back against Fulham on Saturday in west London derby.
Stats:
Summary:
1st half:
Chelsea dominated possession from the beginning as FC Basel defended heavily by staying in their own half and by threatening through the breaks in counterattack. Chelsea, missing the guile of Juan Mata, were unable to unlock the Swiss defence in a ponderous opening. Willian had some promising touches and an Oscar corner had Yann Sommer flapping, only for the goalkeeper to be granted a free-kick. Chelsea’s first real effort on goal came after 26 minutes, when Eto’o turned Fabian Schar and found Eden Hazard, who blasted over from the edge of the area. Basel were playing with men behind the ball but fired a warning on the break when Salah cut inside and shot over.
Chelsea despite having a lot of possession struggled to get a good scoring chance and when the chances arrive, Samuel Eto’o and co. misfired until the minute before the first half whistle. Oscar broke the deadlock for Chelsea on the stroke of half-time with a fine finish into the bottom corner after being played in by Frank Lampard after a good build up play by David Luiz.
2nd half:
After the break, Chelsea confident and little under estimating Basel by thinking we had rapped up the 3 points looked careless in getting back and defending especially the midfield 5 including Lampard and Van Ginkel. Oscar continued to play really well by creating chances and finding spaces. Willian looked out of place as he wasn’t able to emulate his last season’s stunning display against Chelsea with Shaktar on the same pitch.
Oscar struck the bar with a curling effort early in the second period as Chelsea, prompted by Mourinho’s interval intervention, began the second period with more purpose. Ivanovic headed straight at Sommer from a Lampard corner and Hazard drilled over when he should have hit the target after being found by Oscar. Mourinho introduced Mata for Willian with 23 minutes remaining, but soon after Basel equalised.
Chelsea’s pursuit of all three points left them exposed and Streller won a corner. From the set-piece Streller evaded the attentions of Eto’o and Cahill to head substitute Matias Delgado’s corner in at the near post. Cech might have done better, too. The match ended with a victory to the Swiss champs as Chelsea were unable to unlock their defense despite huge effort from Ivanovic, Luiz, Oscar and Eto’o in particular. Players like Juan Mata and Ashley Cole didn’t run and provide impetus when Basel were counterattacking in the break. Mata misplaced some bad crosses and was not capable of defending by tracking up which is the reason Oscar is favored to the Spaniard in the no. 10 role.
There are much things to change for Mourinho in tactics and players for the next game against Fulham in the London derby coming up in the weekend. The ‘beautiful young eggs’ that Jose referred to have embarrassingly let him down. Now it’s just a wonder if Jose will continue with this misfiring line-up or make drastic changes to get us back into winning ways after a 4 game win less run for the blues.
The formation is killing us. It seems Mou dnt know what to do. And very arrogant to use Benitez n Dimatio formation.
Toothless and blunt play from the sad one, he talks alot..mou’s style of play disgust me..,
Reading fellow fans comment would give me great joy but I also agree with Akees that Mou is too arrogant to use Benitez and RDM’s formation
Fuck Chelsea for this loose… Why would Jose eject Willian for Mata and let Van Ginkel to last so long in the pitch.. Mikel would have been a better start… Morinho Use your head…
You, Chelsea fan, wants to see Mata. He came and we lost the game because mata doesn’t want to defend and was losing the ball.
I am sick of this!.we thoroughly deserved to loose,not with our approach of soaking’Silly’ pressure,For what??.We were not pushing the ball forward,we were not feeding eto enough ball.Basel’s defense is very ordinary yet we lacked creativity to break it.we hardly closed down the opponent to let them know they are the away team.gave them toooo much space for initiative and creativity.Hazard kept playing ‘god knows what’he did not make a single positive pass for attack.where was shurlle??where was Torres(at least he was good for Europe)??.,Ashley Cole was terrible yet AGAIN!.I mean,Mikel could not push the ball forward.This is why Ramires is better.we need a playmaking DM enforcer to create attack from the rear..We lacked understanding in this game and our long balls were horrible.We couldn’t even create a free kick in games like this to allow luiz or mata or lampard take freekicks,at least to salvage a point.in Summary,we were useless on the night and Are looking to make up the pack this year.very very poor experimental performance.Mou,Allow Mata much playing time.We need to buy suarez,take out Cahill,Terry and Cole.Go buy yourself defenders in South America(mexico),hummels,mangala and luke shaw,I am tired of trying to impress Uefa on not spending big.enough already!!.THIS IS NOT CHELSEA!!!.
well said fidel. I like the way you aggressively analyze everything. I think mou definitely knws what to do.
I don’t want to comment on mou cos I like him so much and I love chelsea with my heart.
We’ll see what will happen next.
Win or loss chelsea all the way.
Nice one Imitor, chelsea all the way….. fidel take it easy
Fidel I agreewith you on all points but one; Mikel only played for 20 minutes and had a decent game. van Ginkel and lampard started at pivot
moun needs to stop de too mch talk and instil sme kind of discipline in the bois wen they r dwn they r inpatient ….hazard mst be caution on hw to release a quick ball and play like a team player
True… Hazard must be cautioned…. Holds ball as if he is the only one in the pitch… Is Chelsea there for jokes…? This is not the Chelsea I used to know…. D. Drogba I still miss you…
Fuck Chelsea for this loose… Why would Jose eject Willian for Mata and let Van Ginkel to last so long in the pitch.. Mikel would have been a better start… Morinho Use your head well… VAn Ginkel is not good..
Chelsea fans we talk too much but what we dont know is that we er the one that make this man make mistakes every tym let keep sht 4 once nd let him do is jub all chelsea fans is a coach
Chelsea 4 life
Chelsea fans! Is dis nt d same mourinho u piple wer cryin 4 to com bak? Only hw many games,u piple hav started complainin. Yes,d team played badly nd dis is bcos we dnt hav playin pattern nd dat has bin our tradition so lets move on.anyways,its quite frustratin d way we play.stil d kick nd follow level.lol
I swear i dnt make up my mind nt 2watch chelsea ball is lyk am wastin my moni nd tym. Av said it bf wen i saw Jose was confirmed as our coach dat chel prob don start hope wil acheive any trophy God witness d i said. He talks 2much n believe his d only 1 dat perfect abramovich shld beg rdm d luckiest man. Jose is nt luck luk against baryern pple said he tried bt nt winnin same wit everton nw 2 9te worst nawa he dnt av luck stil selective (he lyk 2play players he luv nd lyk) Y? Shld dat apen, i cnt stil undastand y he dnt start mata, mikel, ramires, de burn etc. Drogba u’r uncomparable. Tink jose nd make amendment e.g watch our match wen rdm is dia he use mata, hazard, oscar 2getda nd it wrk den always usin mikel den y u? Or ask benitez wen he play miken nd hadzard against man-u, fa cup tinz change with us den y u am tired o i wnt deceive u try nd do smetin abt it
Jesus man, maybe you should learn to write.
@grace I think you need to just cool down your mind, if you don’t knw what to say just keep calm. Football is about winning and at the same time lossing okay!
Stop lamenting! My chelsea will pick form again and become the very formidable team we used to.
Hey go and put ur mind at rest okay!
To all the chelsea fans that are lamenting, it’s high time for you all to calm down and stop getting infuriated by the scoreboard.
Win or loss chelsea all the way!
Rubbish chelsea fans! Let’s stop lamenting and get behing Jose Mourinho
Whatever went wrong Mou will fix it. I trust his judgement.
Guys, it’s only one game. Breath. Everything will be fine.
@Annebelle its more 1 game, we’v drawn 1 and lost 3 of the last 4 matchs. Jose says he doen’t have a striker, but he didn’t get Rooney and decided to let Lukaku out on loan and then brought in Eto’o. Lukaku had more EPL goals than Torres and Ba last season yet his not with us.
Look closer and analyse every match. We are not good like we used to be at the start of season previous years. We are scoring less. Team link up is all devastated. And I fear Mourinho will be a failure with this experimental things.
I think its high time we fine tune the team to create for the strikers, time and time again we see our strikers drifting out wide to accomodate the 3creative midfielders. Now its time to use 2 proper wingers and a No10. We’v also not has a decent striker, Drogba apart in the last 10 years who have we had????? Sheva, Torres, Anelka, Kalou, Crespo, Di Santo, Kezman, Lukaku. All average or just above.
Crespo average? The we loaned out to Milan and scored home and away in 1-0 wins against man u in CL and scored 2 goals in the final, helped Milan to 2 finals while Mourinho and his preferred players watched from home? He let go Robben an irreplaceable player, fought with J Cole, now let go the only real winger Moses… People open your eyes
Mourinho tactics is quite conffusing for the guys..before this our trio attacking midfields hazard,oscar,mata is very attacking minded midfield..but with mourinho tactic which is quite defensive tactic make the our blunder regarding of attack and track back…this can cause the midfield fatique and cannot concentrade on attacking duty……of course they help to help the defend but the also have to focus on attacking also…Since mourinho takeover some of chelsea attacking talent midfield become blunder especially Hazard and Mata….only oscar can survive….Cesar Azpicueleta must be play…same goes to Mata…he should play…to unlock the tight opponent defend…Please give ryand betrand some games to rplace the fatique ashley cole…Peter cech blunder also…the second goal of Basel should not score with the on form Cech we know before….What happen to the guy since World Cup Qualification????Please Mourinho and the team fix it sooner rather than later…KTBFFH………
Realy so poor in both defeated match.wat makes our chelsea so poor.tactis,formation etc..we got more grt player frm transfer window.today i m mising da way benitez style of play..poor mouhri
no
I guess Benetez would have used the current squad so much effeciently and delivered us good result.
If there was best 11 in the pitch as last 11 we had definately won da mad.feeling realy so bad for al n myself.
I once said the Mourinho is not what Chelsea Fc need right now. The success of 7 years ago cannot be copied and pasted in these years. Football tactics have progressed since then. He likes teams that are completely ready, and he is not the one to hand over a longer task to build a team. Young talent is wasted with this guy! I cry for my beloved Chelsea!
If JM keeps carrying on like this! he will not last till the next November.
The way our youngsters played to develop in last season is different to jose style, so they are unable transform into new style.Hope it will take time.But why is mata not making into first team, mou should make him regular player. If not jose must change his ‘self style'(dont get me wrong each mnager has unique style) for team and make the team to play in the way they developed under the great RDM and rafael benetiz. I know nothing compared to jose but is just my opinion as chelsea fan.Chelsea win or lose i respect jose a lot. Chelsea for life!
Now I think all the Mourinho fans who see him before Cfc are going to think twice upon what you have asked for. This is just the beginning. I he realises that he is making a big mistake not using last seasons squad before trying to stamp his authority on the squad. I tell you if ask the players the will tell you that they really dont understand and know what they are doing. They all are playing for themselves but not the team because of the world cup. I see a lot of them moving after the world cup. I say it again, Jose needs a rest. He is stucked in the past.
Mourinho is a good manager but i think Benitez is a better manager. I wrote here i prefer Benitez to Mourinho some weeks ago and people were calling me names overhere.From yesterday’s match i saw nothing like team spirit and determination among the guys in blue. Even the commentators were saying that Mourinho has a lot of work to do with this team. Actually, its early days but loosing at Home i fear the worse thing could happen this season too. I always said Benitez is a great coach but people don’t like to face the fact. Why is Torres not playing? Why will you loan out Lukaku since Etoo will need time to adjust. This group looks simple but tricky the worse thing not doing better than last year in Champions league. I hope am proven wrong though.
I asked myself the same question yesterday if RB was better than JM, I hope to you are wrong Martin cos can’t stand it………Martin can I inbox you??? dis is mine maileme17@email.com
i think mou should stop the testing testing things now and face the reality, oscar is not a playmaker, mata should be return to his position. Luiz be given chance on the bench until he learn how to defend well, and not turn himself into a liability, since we are not playing in europa league van ginkel should wait for capitil one cup and not champions league anymore until he gain confident.the starts should look like this if we really want to Mean business this sea son. Cech ivano terry cahil cole mikel rambo hazard mata schurlle torres. With this squad we will be a challenger. Please mou enough is enough.
Mou’s Defensive Counterattacking Style would never suit our current crop of players, that was the major reason I didn’t want the Special One back @ the bridge.
After the way Madrid fell apart in his last season due to his immature comments to the press and the infighting that occurred in the dressing room, I never wanted the Special one back.
Juan Mata won the UCL, FA CUP and EL, in comes the Special One and deems our best player in the last 2 seasons defensively incapable to play the No 10 role. (Mschewww)
Pep, Moyes and AVB conformed with the team they met and they are better for it. Mou is chopping and changing to ensure the team mirrors his ulgy playing style, even though we have a core team of sleek players.
Start with our first 11 last season n gradual ease the new signings into the squad.
Unappectable tactics from him are ;
1: Eto’o starting 2 games straight and completing them esp when he hasnt fully understand the squad.
2: Starting Lampard, Willian and Marco Van Ginkel in a UCL match. That was a gamble, MvG hasn’t started a competitive match so far and he hasn’t built any match situation understanding with Lampard (Lamps hardly has any good understand with our other pivot players) and Willian should have bin brought in.
Expect to see another flurry of changes come this weekend.
N.B: Mou has actually made Hazard worst. Trying to make him a game change in the same breath with the likes of Messi and CR7 wud take time, but he wants to fast forward his progress. Hazard is now selfish with the ball @ feet n believes he can do it all. Building our team around Hazard wouldn’t work for now, It has to be Mata. If it continues this way, Mata might leave us by January.
objective analysis but Pep ain’t better
I said it before the appointment of Jose that Cfc will never see the beautifiul soccer that the players exhibited under Benitez again. Jose doesn’t know how to do it. He just likes to talk without doing anything. When you go into an environment you conform to what they do before you gradually cause changes. But Jose is an arrogant coach does not want do so. Simply put, he has to use RB’s team of last season for a while before trying to make his own. Why do you always want to sit back and counter whilrs you have abundant players who can really take the game to their opponents. RB would have done a better job if he was still the manager. Mind you, Jose is going to destroy this team with his robust style of play.
we are tired of your non sense. I didn’t see any beautiful game under benitez. Did you see the final of Europa cup: it was beautiful game?? shut up!! we don’t want benitez. Go to see him in Napoli: we don’t want him.
Benitez didn’t take Liverpool with a weaker and cheaper squad than Chelsea to 2CL finals at the expense of Mourinho for no reason! Once he was given time to do his job at Chelsea we looked almost unbeatable with a squad that was far from complete. This current one cost 58Mil more. I just can’t get over the fact that Moses (one of the best in UEFA campaign) is gone… Mata is becoming a poor player thanks to the big headed Mourinho. Benitez is finally getting the respect he deserved. A lot of people judge him wrong when he picked up Inter Milan depleted with injuries no money to spend in any real class to replace and refresh. Unlike Mourinho wherever he goes he gets an open cheque book, like this season.
You guys ain’t seen nothing yet, same people lamenting on here are same people calling for benitez’s head when he was even doing well witn a very small squad, yet he delivered the europa and champs league spot coupled with abeautiful style of football..now he’s with napoli where he’s loved n cherished.
come to think of it, the likes of hazard,mata, rambo etc are worst than last season cos cagey style of play..
All i want to say is Mourinho should look at himself in the miror and hopefully he would see the truth. He is no longer the special 1 we all knew him to be and some of the players have to be more responsible.
Mumu mouriho
Mou is losing the trust of the fans and he might gradually loss that of the player. He has not improve hazard any bit, there is no reason why all our attacking player have to defend like defenders, one of them has to conserve energy for the attack that’s where Mata come in. Now we are finding it difficult to create clear cut chances. Football is all about relationship let mou set out the pivot and center back pairing and allow it to blossom not this nonsense chopping and cutting after every game. if not i well say without mincing words he will not see January as a chelsea manager. Well its mourinho what else Matas
Mou doesn’t lose anything: hazard did defend last season so why he cannot defend this season?? Mou must stop put hazard on the pitch: he dosnt do anything for us!
If look at our setpiece if so so poor, who takes those before Mata. Europa cup wining goal champions league equalizer, Moses last minute goal, emirate 2-1 win to mention a few
Mourinhho should talk less and do more for the club!
How would you solve a problem wen u kip d solution on d bench…juan mata is d solution to all this,and if hazard holds unto d ball 4 long let him sit out d fulham game,show him he is replacable any day..why was mourinho,s gestures saying dey should operate from d wings wen andre schurrle was not in d match..n pls azpilicueta should play instead of ivanovic.
I think we av to be patient wit d way things r goin, I was also sad wit yesterday nite result, let us wait nd see how d team we bounce back from d defeat.
Abrahamovic! Jose is back to revenge!
We need to go back to play 433 , that’s what we was successful .
Mourhino has nothing to prove: he has won everything at any level. What can he do if a player cannot score easy goal like we saw at everton?? Give him time to solve out the problem because we don’t have a striker: this an absolute problem. After 5 matches, non of the 3 strikers has score a goal: unbelievable!!! Our midfield cannot always save Chelsea. We need our strikers to score. This is the reality!!!!!
jose u have realiaze now that u made a every big misstake by loanin moses.not only that u went and pench mata.in the name of u buy new players.please u hav to wakeup becouse ritenow i can see that u are stil sleepin.pls use chelsea 1st suqard those guys penitez have already build up.now those players that play front againt basel they are very wik.thanks
Everyone is venting..loooooool! It saddens me to say this, but Mou may not make January (you heard it here 1st). It isn’t November (our traditional slump time) but we are playing crappy football, finding it hard to score. The problem is glaring for anyone who knows his tactics… the source of our problem is that we are not supplying the striker enough neither are we creating chances and not that we are defending badly.
The only person in the starting 11 who is playing his role is Oscar. Look at how we attack typicallly: 1. Cech throw to a full back who passes to Lamps, Lamps gives it to Hazard who loses the ball…2. Cech plays it long to the attack, and as there is no one strong in the air, the opponents win the ball back…3. Hazard has the ball, he manages to pass to Lamps, who passes back to Luiz or terry who plays a long ball to no one…. The problem areas are 1: the defence to attack transition is poor. 2:the midfield doesn’t supply the strikers with through balls. 3. We don’t even use our width properly, finally, Ashley is shit and needs to be benched and also Ivanovic though playing well defensively is providing nothing going forward. Mou needs to look into these