That's one of the best team goals I've ever seen. Up there with Wilshire's goal for Arsenal against Norwich last year.
Premier League Opening Weekend Game Thread
- Thread starter Zomp
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Pretty pass by Cesc but really, a quality EPL defense doesn't leave an attacking midfielder alone at the top of the 18 for three seconds to make it.
It looks like Oscar just goes where Oscar wants to go - between the CB to start possession, to the RW to play some 1-2's, in to the center to float around the top of the box.
Of course, Hazard is doing the same thing, so poor Burnley has no idea who to worry about or who is even in their area.
Of course, Hazard is doing the same thing, so poor Burnley has no idea who to worry about or who is even in their area.
DLew On Roids said:
Liverpool get this defense twice, too.
Burnley is most definitely going down...but it looks like they will be fun to watch while doing it. None of this park the bus, route one bullshit.
And Heaton should get the red card and a penalty right there. Costa got to the ball first.
Oh good grief.
This reminds me of the times Watford has been up, spending the money on infrastructure instead of players.
This reminds me of the times Watford has been up, spending the money on infrastructure instead of players.
Glad Burnley got the first goal so they could have a couple minutes of excitement, because this one is going to be ugly.
Yeah, Shackell could have stepped up earlier to play Schürrle offside, but that's a nearly impossible sequence to defend.
Right, because he wasn't waving his arm well before the pass was made to him.Snakebauer007 said:
Feel free to stroke it to that pass all you like (and I've no doubt you will), but that was defensive malpractice,
I said three seconds; the animated gif shows he came up at :37 and the pass was made at :41 and no one had paid attention to him. Your @ChelseaPRbot is showing.
Malpractice is far too strong. Defenders shouldn't leave men unmarked at the top of the box, but there were a lot of bodies to track and Cesc made a hell of a play. I'm as eager as anyone to see if the Chelsea fans (and closet Chelsea fans like sf121) worship Cesc as the second coming like the Arsenal fans did, but you have to tip your cap to that, it's an incredibly complex move that happened to work--it's probably offside or takes a deflection 99 times out of 100.
It taking 4 defenders to slow Hazard is what lead to no one being set to defend the top of the 18, but that isn't abnormal eitherteddykgb said:
Snakebauer007 said:
It was really just #19 ball watching and getting sucked in to mark Schurrle while the other midfielder made the same marking choice (and then let him run free while he watched the pass over his head). Two midfielders ball watching, what's new
It's almost like we didn't see in the last hour what a professional as average as Scott Arfield can do when left open in the box.
PedroSpecialK said:
Yeah, Shackell could have stepped up earlier to play Schürrle offside, but that's a nearly impossible sequence to defend.
Hazard's run sucks in everyone. Then it is technical skill from Ivanovic to Fabregas to Schurrle. But Hazard made the space and if you want to call that crap defending, I mean, OK.
soxfan121 said:
I would call that crap defending. #8 attempts the sliding tackle and immediately gets up to chase the ball. That's all well and good if someone is around to help keep an eye on the space he vacated. #19, however, exacerbates the issue by standing around with his thumb up his ass. That sort of sequence is by no means a rarity, but the perpetrators should be rightfully ridiculed for it. Everyone piling on DLew is either picking nits for his choice of words or is entirely too biased for their own good.
Edit: I should add Fabregas made a great pass, but anyone who can't make that pass with that much time and space doesn't deserve to be playing at that level.
Bosoxen said:
Good. Cause if not, I was gonna have to make the point that DLew knows shit defending because he roots for a team employing Martin Skrtel.
But then I thought - hey, at least half the wankers reading this thread also follow that side and they all know shit defending intimately and do I really want to call their defending shit again today?
So I went with the cricket thing instead.
This exchange right here is why SF121 is the tits.
The rest of you, I assume you're all just easily impressed. You probably appreciate Irish penises, too.
The rest of you, I assume you're all just easily impressed. You probably appreciate Irish penises, too.