Evening everyone!

Naturally disappointed with tonight‘s result, but we are still in an excellent position with just four games to go.

Just wanted to mention these two players. Hazard was simply brilliant for Chelsea in the last 20 minutes. His vision was so good and his confidence in dictating the tempo was just outstanding. He doesn’t give the ball away much does he?

As for Kante, he is an absolutely magnificent footballer. What an engine this player has. He wins balls from nowhere and it’s unbelievable how he finds so much space on a football field.

We hung in there tonight, but for me, we were beaten by a much better side.

We’re good, but we are not that good just yet. A real learning experience and perhaps a gentle reminder of just how much we miss our key injured players in these big games, especially where making substitutions is concerned.

Agree. Going forward hazards as good as any player ive seen live at the turf. Kantes a proper terrier. But with quality to boot.

Looking at the clubs they came from would love us to target similar players these summer.

As I mentioned on the match thread, I think Hazard was guilty of holding onto the ball too long on a number of occasions (not that I'm complaining!). This resulted in him losing the ball on more than one occasion (so probably twice, heh). He's a fine player though, no doubt.

Chelsea were the better side tonight and deserved the win. But you're right, still an excellent position and plenty to play for.

Must be difficult for our midfield two, not only are you outnumbered, one of them is Kante.

Hazard took the royal **** when he came on. Class.

Yes, you’re absolutely right. It has been discussed a lot in the last two days and I for one would rather have seen has revert back to 5 men in midfield this evening, especially against a back three. It’s a little bit frustrating that so many of us saw this yet we tried to beat Chelsea at our own game in our own backyard, and ultimately, they did one over on us.

I’d have Hazard in my Premier League starting 11. Wonderful player. Love watching him.

But I prefer watching The Clarets defy all odds.

If someone had said I’d be disappointed losing to the PL Champions 1-2 at home, whilst 7th, I’d have bitten their arm off.

ClaretinMyBlood wrote:Must be difficult for our midfield two, not only are you outnumbered, one of them is Kante.

Well that's it, he didn't have to do much.

Hazard coming on when we still have the same shape and Chelsea have controlled the ball and the game, is neither here nor there.

Agree with all the comments about Hazard and Kante. Two marvellous players. Jack Cork did well to compete.

I thought our defence looked as poor as I have seen it for sometime, with the exception of Lowton. Badly missing Mee for balance.

We were well beaten tonight, but it was Giroud i was most impressed with, that was a top drawer centre forward display.

They were excellent in all departments unfortunately, whilst only Lowton, Cork and Gudmundsson turned up for us.

bodge wrote:We were well beaten tonight, but it was Giroud i was most impressed with, that was a top drawer centre forward display.

A whining diving French ba**ard.

Brady and Defour would have made a huge difference, but we were totally beaten fair and square.

Is there any other kind, B-o-T?

When giroud is “up for it”, he’s quality. For a big strong lad, like all cheating players he goes down easily.

For the two mentioned in the OP, they were unplayable tonite. I think we should of have played five in the middle, but even if we had, I think Kante would still have had freedom to do his thing.

We lost at home to last years chanpions 1-2. Some of our players had “off” nights. Some of their players played with the class we know they have. It’s reyt. Come Sunday, I know they will be ready to go again.

Class acts.
That's why the likes of Chelsea pay the top money for them.

Hazard was like watching the kid on the playground who is just miles better than everyone else. He ran rings around us. A lovely footballer to watch. LIkewise, I love watching Kante play. He just runs and runs and runs. No histrionics, no moaning and whingeing when anything goes against him.

I thought we did alright tonight, no great complaints. We just looked a little sloppy at times. The 2 mentioned above, if they'd swapped sides, we'd have won!

I thought Giroud and Morata were excellent, Morata looks a real prospect, his all round game is very good. We can't perform like we do 90% of the time, we're bound to have off days and you can't get away with an off day against a side like Chelsea playing like they did tonight. We just looked a little leggy and poor defensively, not often you can say that about us. Ward was a 3/10 tonight, I've never seen him below a 6/10. It happens I refuse to be overly critical.

I agree. Kanye was the best midfielder I have seen after Burnley this season, simply outstanding.

And Hazard just oozes class. I feared the worst when he came on.

Men and boys tonight I'm afraid to say - given a bit of a lesson in just how far we have yet to go.

However, we keep on plugging away and make every Claret proud to be a supporter of such
a brilliant club.

By the way, I thought Pedro was excellent tonight too. Kante and Hazard were untouchable.

Just shows how good Man City have been this season that neither player would walk into their team at the moment.

You feared the worst, Cirrus, and you got it.

Morata ran Tarkowski ragged in the first half then faded second half after missing the 1 on 1.

Kante was quality. One of those players that glides across the pitch.

Hazard is a strange player, he's a world beater with the ball at his feet but his return is pretty average in comparison with the elite level players like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar. You could even throw Salah into that bracket in terms of end product.

Pedro Hazard and Kante were all quality and a level above.

I'm not so dour that I can't acknowledge Burnley being beaten by a better side, as we were tonight, but I think some of this praise is a bit OTT.
Kante and Hazard would improve most teams in world football, and they were both superb but the Burnley that tipped up at Old Trafford, or at home to City or away at Anfield or Spurs would have dicked this lot tonight.
The team that beat us tonight probably costs over £2,000,000 a week and £250,000,000 to assemble. Our lot is about a quarter of that and we're 2 (two) places behind them.
**** Kante and Hazard, give me Cork and JBG any day of the week.

bobinho wrote:Some of their players played with the class we know they have. It’s reyt. Come Sunday, I know they will be ready to go again.

I hope so we really need them to put Southampton out of the cup

From that performance you can see why giroud is normally a sub, whiny **** bag.
Kante = fantastic player, hazard needs to play simpler to many tricks for me ( his angles of running and pace over 5 yards brilliant).

Hazard at his best is as good as anyone. He just has to produce it more often, in order to be compared to Messi and the likes.

Kante is at his best every game, and if there is a better holding midfield than him (ever, probably) I am yet to see him. You could hear the fans all around shouting to our players to mark him, but it was like chasing a crisp packet in the wind.

Kante was what he is. I could look class with 20 yards of space every time I got the ball. Rarely say it but it was crying out for Hendrick to do a job on him last night.

Kante was magnificent last night, and Hazard took the ****, pity for Chelsea they only perform when they feel like it, but don't get me started on the Chelsea support... arrogant knobheads

kaptin1 wrote:Morata ran Tarkowski ragged in the first half then faded second half after missing the 1 on 1.

Can we use a bit of perspective here?

Morata was signed from Real Madrid for about £60million and we signed Tarkowski for about £4million from Brentford.

Hazard is clearly class and he's obviously very good at dribbling in tight spaces, it's exciting to see and feels dangerous when it's in your own penalty area.

However we blocked it every time he tried it. When he came on all Chelsea did was play 'pass it to Hazard', all Hazard did was try to dribble through us and get a shot away. Every time he did it we got the block in. We're really really good at getting blocks in when we're defending our 18 year box, what we weren't good at was stopping Morata and Giroud's interplay 30 yards from goal.

You could argue we were better able to cope with Hazard with his head down running into tight spaces trying to get a shot away than with Morata with his head up trying to flick it round corners and get behind us. As good a player he is, and he looked the best player on the pitch when he came on, you could argue they were more effective against us when Hazard was on the bench.

Kante was mint though.

Milltown1882 wrote:Kante was what he is. I could look class with 20 yards of space every time I got the ball. Rarely say it but it was crying out for Hendrick to do a job on him last night.

Come off it.

Hes one of the best player in his position in the world. He won the league back to back - last time a team did that was man utd a decade ago never mind an individual. Hes class.

To suggest jeff hendrick can stop him when the likes of city, utd, spurs, liverpool and arsenal havent for 2 or 3 years is a bit ambitious.