I will start by apologizing to the entire squad that played on Saturday and the manager what i did. After the goal i had serious doubt that we would be able to return home with the 3pts. I watched the entire first half before being called outside for an errand but by then i was of the opinion that "here we go again". The team were playing the same way that got us 10th position last season. There was no real control of the game from the start and we lacked that cutting edge upfront to take advantage of the few chances that came our way.
I was out for most of the second half but it was while i was returning that i got notification of Watford taking the lead. I was pissed to be honest because i didn't know what to do then? Go in and watch us try for a draw or just relax outside and check the scores on twitter. I am glad that i chose to go in and support my team for whatever results came and funny enough the team equalised just 3min after my arrival before that fantastic winner from Diego Costa. I'm glad i did not miss that celebration.
So this is me apologizing to the team for my faltering faith. It won't happen again this season.
I missed Willian on Saturday. His direct approach was sorely missing in our game and personally i was not impressed with the contribution of Pedro. He likes to play at a fast pace but his passes were surprisingly poor for a player that was really involved with Barcelona. We sorely lacked creativity upfront with Hazard our only go-to guy to create the sparks. The energy level was not as high as against West Ham or we wouldn't be in the position we were. Victor Moses could have started instead of Pedro because he is more creative but that is me and my opinion but the manager has shown his ability to identify weaknesses and make the necessary changes and spring 1 or 2 surprises too.
Against West Ham he chose to replace Hazard, who was having a very good day, with Michy and we got our winning goal. On Saturday he kept Hazard on and replaced Pedro and Oscar instead and switched from 2 anchormen to 1 and brought on Fabregas which also got us the winning goal. But the most striking resemblance in both is that the team switched to 2 strikers with Michy joining Diego Costa and we have seen the effect so why are we not sticking to that formation with 2 strikers?
The combination is quite potent and instead waiting to chase games we can easily take a commanding lead early on and never look back. Costa currently looks full of confidence and Michy is hot right now with 3 goals from 1 start and 2 cameos. Starting them together gives us our own fear factor.
The teams inability to keep clean sheets is quite disturbing. That is over 8 consecutive games that the team has failed to keep a clean sheet. Our defence line of Aina, Ivanovic, Cahill and Azpilicueta could not keep a clean sheet against Bristol City, with all due respect to the City. It is actually very disturbing because the team cannot afford to want to outscore every team we play and quite frankly it hurts me in my Fantasy league because i have Chelsea players in my defence. We need to really strengthen the defence or sort it out before we start facing the big guns.
i am already looking forward to our next game on Saturday against Burnley and hoping Hull can pull another surprise.
Lets meet next week.
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