Premier League - Chelsea FC vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[Charnwood]

I don’t know about others but I enjoyed watching the game yesterday and thought we played so decent football given some of the talent we were up against. I thought that was the best game both Johnson and Enciso have each had in a Town shirt and If only we’d signed Palmer in the summer and not Muric we may well have still been involved in the relegation battle with Wolves. Hopefully we can hold onto the players we know can perform at Championship level, but given their contracts it won’t be easy to move on some who we could really do with off loading. Leif Davis worries me as I thought he was one of our most valuable assets but his defending certainly at EPL level is shocking.
If we can keep the best of our squad and get promotion at the first attempt and spend the same amount of money as last season but on lust three or four quality players, maybe we’ll have learned enough to survive at the second attempt.

[mugen1]

Saw the MOTD highlights and thought we played well.

Some great saves by Palmer.

25 points given away from winning positions apparently.

Those points would have seen us 10th

[arana peligrosa]

Took a moment to see if there were a distinct possibility the team could qualify for Europe through the Fair Play Award but they did away with it some years back. It was never really relevant to us before, we were always playing at lower league.

Damn thing's a nonsense anyhow, we're this season 16th worse placed out of all 20 teams and you got Manchester City occupying second position. Something not quite right there.

Can't quite recall a season all in years of following the team (and there's been enough) where our away record will finish more eventful than our home one. 2000-01 saw a whole lot of victories on the road from recollection when making it back at top level but they wouldn't surpass total wins at Portman Road that season surely. Incidentally can recall playing the opposition here around Christmas 2000 of that season and sure it finished with the very same score as Sunday but believe we were home that day not playing it out in London. They were real good times back then.

[mugen1]

This will upset a few, but a lot of the blame for our plight lays with the manager.
Not so sure he's earnt his bumper salary THIS season!

[Blue Wilf]

This will upset a few, but a lot of the blame for our plight lays with the manager.
Not so sure he's earnt his bumper salary THIS season!

Careful, Mugen - you are in danger of upsetting the masses and joining those who cannot be named...

[mugen1]

Maybe my friend, maybe

I'm not saying he should be gone, not at all, but he definitely needs to reflect on his input into our demise this season.

[Blue Wilf]

I see Chelsea spent £60M on agent fees this season. It is obscene isn't it?? f*ck the Prem - it is already boring and will die within 20 years - eaten by it's own greed. How sad the game I have loved all my life has stooped to this level...

[mugen1]

I see Chelsea spent £60M on agent fees this season. It is obscene isn't it?? f*ck the Prem - it is already boring and will die within 20 years - eaten by it's own greed. How sad the game I have loved all my life has stooped to this level...

Can't argue with that.

It's a game of greed now

[arana peligrosa]

This will upset a few, but a lot of the blame for our plight lays with the manager.
Not so sure he's earnt his bumper salary THIS season!

You're not wrong. The team wouldn't be in the position it finds itself now if McKenna had taken a more bold approach each time we took on an opponent. Wouldn't say it's cavalier but simply a resoluteness in the man himself (that) he only operates one way, and divides a number of the fanbase with it.

Whether we're home, away, whatever the level of strength of opponent it's nearly always the same damn situation. He's cost us points in so many words. Maybe not enough where directly responsible for the relegation, but because the way he operates and sets up the team and substitutions with it. We've had ample opportunity to take victories from teams and not only at Portman Road this season, we should ideally be beating - or can - but the aforementioned approach and mindset the manager has / bizarre sub time and replacements etc, it's held us back or we'd have amassed more points by this stage of season.

Thing is all this worked well in lower league for us, even when people were against it, but guess you can't hold out (with it) or expect the same results playing at the very highest level. In so many words, perhaps McKenna got caught out with this. What worked at League One and Championship level (for us) was always subject to failure in the EPL.

[hallamblue]

I think Mick Mills hit the nail on the head eith a recent post-match interview when he said
" This season was not about experimentation, but survival. "....." keeping a settled side, playing your strongest team".

He implied McKenna chopped and changed his team far to much, and also brought in so many number 10's that he didn't know who to play with who as a result, and that all these number 10"s are similar in attributes.

He's not wrong in my view. The big question is, which I've said time and again this season, will he learn?

[ITFC2024]

Thing is all this worked well in lower league for us, even when people were against it, but guess you can't hold out (with it) or expect the same results playing at the very highest level. In so many words, perhaps McKenna got caught out with this. What worked at League One and Championship level (for us) was always subject to failure in the EPL.

I said after we were promoted to the PL, I hope KM considers a more defensive approach. It didn't happen except for a couple games. I agree we recruited too many light-weight #10 type players, and our midfield has been crying out for strengthening from day one. It didn't happen. Muric should have been dropped much sooner. It didn't happen until too many points were adrift. Townsend should have replaced Davis as a starter much sooner. It didn't happen.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you need to be more defensive when you're regularly getting thumped by teams. If KM hasn't learned anything from this venture, we'll continue to concede too many goals in the Championship as well.

[MasseyFerguson]

I don’t know about others but I enjoyed watching the game yesterday and thought we played so decent football given some of the talent we were up against. I thought that was the best game both Johnson and Enciso have each had in a Town shirt and If only we’d signed Palmer in the summer and not Muric we may well have still been involved in the relegation battle with Wolves. Hopefully we can hold onto the players we know can perform at Championship level, but given their contracts it won’t be easy to move on some who we could really do with off loading. Leif Davis worries me as I thought he was one of our most valuable assets but his defending certainly at EPL level is shocking.
If we can keep the best of our squad and get promotion at the first attempt and spend the same amount of money as last season but on lust three or four quality players, maybe we’ll have learned enough to survive at the second attempt.

I agree with this view. Some big ifs in there, but I do believe we can come back in better shape than we were in this time around.