Agreed. I was surprised the ref let it go in real time and when I saw the replay, I was shocked he'd missed it. He's not one of the better refs IMO.

Correct, and even our players knew it, we broke from there with the speed of Sid the Snail and they were all glancing over their shoulders waiting for play to be stopped

No complaints about the result or penalty although I thought Eze was unlucky and the Chelsea player was clever in how he drew the foul. Chelsea created the better chances and should have won by more.

Plenty of honest endeavour but a chronic lack of quality aside from Olise. We really lack pace generally and also don't have the height or physicality in the side to make the most of set pieces or compete at business end of the game.

Agree with the comments about fresh legs and would have been inclined to gamble on Franca earlier rather than any of the other options who aren't up to it IMO.

Edited by Rachid Rachid Rachid (28 Dec 2023 2.08pm)

The problem as some have already said we have a very poor quality squad of players, in actual fact I would go as far as to say that we only have 6/7 players who you could say are EPL quality the rest are either unproven younger players or players who would struggle to make the grade in the championship. Poor Roy, yes he does look tied and would not you if you were 76 years old and had the responsibility on your shoulders of keeping a EPL team in the league on a shoestring budget. Roy was asked to come out of retirement because as hard as Parish tried he could not persuade a quality proven, ambitious younger manager to take the job based on the quality of players and transfer budget available (or not as the case maybe). Even dear old Roy was asking for 3-5 players in the twilight of the last window and we all know what he got. SP seems not to be on the best of terms with his fellow investors and I believe that Textor is estranged over the Lyon deal which Parish was not happy about. The other American are more interested in the real estate value (Selhurst Park) than they are about EPL football or the long term future of the team. Sadly, I do not have much confidence in the next window as it is unlikely anywhere near enough funds will be available to plug the holes in our first eleven let alone the bench. As others have already said, 11 years and the first team today is not much better (or maybe worse) than the one we came up with from the championship. The latter is now very much on our route map, thank you Mr.Parish!

I’ve had a day to try and see things subjectively but I’m still really p1ssed off.

That was a really raw inexperienced Chelsea team, there for the taking. We started well and on the front foot for the first 10 minutes. Then you could see the belief ebb away from our boys. Was the worst performance I’ve witnessed from Anderson, he was moaning a lot too. He looks very frustrated and who could blame him. He and Guehi must be considering there future.

As I said in a post previously I don’t understand not playing the subs and specifically Franca with a decent amount of time. We are losing games anyway and our goal difference is not great so I can’t see that being a factor in us staying up as we score so few goals and leak too many.

Again Roy was the After England Roy in interviews. Not just on the tv but also on the radio when he got narked with a presenter for asking bog standard questions, like it’s a chore to do that side of things. F@ck off then Roy because some of us would like to hear what you thought of how things went and how you are going to fix it.

Yes we have a thin (anorexic) squad but as another poster said, how do we actually know that as Roy won’t give anyone a proper chance.
Our back line pretty much picks itself at the moment so nothing we do there unless by some miracle we get a right back.

I was surprised Eze was back when he was as Roy had said it would be after Xmas. It’s great that he is but I would suggest at the moment it would be better to have held him back as a sub if required after his last game showed he was not right. We have midfielders on the bench. Ahamada, Hughes, Schlupp and Ozoh etc Give them a go ffs. A good manager would get them playing or sell them to free up funds. But no we play a centre back and a half fit player. Madness. It is clear Roy doesn’t trust them so sell them to get funds for a player that can be ready made to walk into the team like Lerma was.

JPM has actually surprised at how much better he has been but he is never going to score bucket loads. Put Franca up with him and give him some legs and maybe that bit off help and space may pay dividends.

I know I’m grasping at straws but what else do we do. We have f@ck all money or rather owners that won’t spend. I honestly don’t care who comes in I just want to watch a team playing and having a go. Please for the love of god (or rather the loyal fans) SP do something before it is too late.

Looked goodish early on and they definitely looked vulnerable and timid. Thought we might be onto something here. However after about 10 mins they took control and but for Henderson could of been 2 goals to the good. Credit to find an equaliser before half time and again looked the better early in the 2nd half but failed to a poor penalty to concede.

Bright points were Richards - strong tackles put in, Mateta - chasing and running, Clyne - solid enough as a replacement defender altho had a great chance to release Olise 2nd half but failed, Olise - finish. Less bright, Eze - poor in possession, Gallagher looked stronger for them and easily robbed him, wrong decisions such as not passing to Ayew on his left in 2nd half, clumsy tackle for penalty. Good player and hoping for so much more from him and the team tomorrow as this game is now huge. Home advantage to a team without the likes of Toney, Mbuemo, just been thrashed at home, cannot afford another lacklustre display. COYP !!

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld