Back from the game - Chelsea

[Mike Hunt]

OUT-STANDING! Two of Hob Nob's finest

Can't wait to see Mr Angry on here

who is the fuck you chap?

[bcubed]

Great evening If not a great game
Really enjoyed it all and we look more than match for most in this division
Great goal from Pog and superb move to get there
Disappointing from Feds again
and how Lee Mason gave no yellows to Chelsea is beyond me - welcome to the world of top four bias!

[St Pauli]

Good songs started by the gentleman with the curly hair and glasses, great Gorks and McCleary songs.

Big Foot. What were the songs?

Don't sell my Gorkss, my Kaspars Gorkss,
I just don't think you'll understand,
That if you sell my Gorkss, my Kaspers Gorkss,
You're gonna have a riot on your hands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0Zbg5T ... ata_player

Also 'He plays on the leeeeeeft, he plays on the riiiiiiight, Gareth McCleary makes Chelsea look shite.'

[Stuboo]

Chuffed to bits with the performance, disappointed with the result.

Exactly my feeling. Shame the Torres' goal wasn't ruled offside, but next time.

[BenReadingFC]

highlights
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsztau_c-r-footyroom-com_animals#from=embediframe
Watch it before its gets removed

[Jackson Corner]

Best league in the world! Has second rate officials. Torres well offside. First half was superb great goal from Pog. Just as they were starting to get frustrated and the crowd getting on there back Feds makes a howler, real shame as I reckon we could have hung on for a famous win. Saw Mr Mad after the game with some dolly bird half his age dirty old bugger.

[royalsteve]

drove to hounslow west and got tube, but nearly didnt make it as it took 1.5 hour to get to hounslow all because one road was closed near hounslow because a bunch of bloody gypos/foreigners car wash business burnt down - no doubt flouting every H&S rule in the book -

[royalsteve]

Best league in the world! Has second rate officials. Torres well offside. First half was superb great goal from Pog. Just as they were starting to get frustrated and the crowd getting on there back Feds makes a howler, real shame as I reckon we could have hung on for a famous win. Saw Mr Mad after the game with some dolly bird half his age dirty old bugger.

it was his daughter, nudge nudge wink wink

[Ian Herring]

highlights
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsztau_c-r-footyroom-com_animals#from=embediframe
Watch it before its gets removed

'Scorchio!'

Sure I heard that in the euro-comm...

[Mr Angry]

What a fantastic game of football, and what an excellent display of heart, guts, determination and not a little skill by us in hanging in there against the European Champions and a team who look a quality striker short of being the main threat to Man City retaining their title, and whilst the result was right, the manner of it, with a clear offside goal for the 3rd with 10 mins to go, a bit of a fick in the crown jewels.

Sure, at times our defence (especially Gunther who was given a real examination by Hazard, who was outstanding all game) were at sixes and sevens, but at times so were Chelsea's; Brian changed to a 451 for the first time I can recall, Jem and Ledge worked their socks off in the middle giving Guthrie some time and space to show what a classy player he is and what a great piece of recruitment by Nicky Hammond. McCleary ran at Cashley time and time again, and his cross for Pog's goal, after a lovely passing move between him and Guthrie that made all those people who claim Cashley is the best left back in the World look stupid, was sublime. Pog's finish was immense - cue my embarassing celebrations captured ingloriously by Sky's camera's and for which I have been fielding text messages for since!

Cech's howler (and how did Terry NOT get booked for that cynical challenge on Jobi?) was only matched by Fed's for their equaliser, and which added to the whole occasion, whilst it was going to need being a yard offside for Torress to score - he was woeful last night, an embarassing spaffed shot when clean through being a genuinely hilarious moment. As for the 4th goal - meh to those who moan about Feds coming up and us conceding as a result, and yes I know GD could be crucial come May, but the intent we showed will hold us in good stead in the coming weeks, and our overall attitude to the game will win us both respect and more importantly points in games yet to come,

A few non-footballing observatiuons: First off, I couldn't believe how many stewards Chelsea employ; they must have had 500+ on duty last night, and a highlight was telling them to sit down (which they did and after the tannoy had told us to sit down - which we didn't!).

Secondly (and this was confirmed watching the highlights) how quiet were the Chelsea fans? They only roused themselves after the 3rd goal, and yes, I know away fans ALWAYS make more noise, but that was seriously good support from us last night; ona par with West Ham & Southampton.

Thirdly, fair play to the rather attractive programme seller who gave the Reading fans a wave after they chanted at her to do so - the brazen little hussy!

And finally, a big shout out to Chelsea FC; friendly fans who joined in with the banter, helpful and efficient stewarding and all in all a great evening out.

[Stuka]

This is legendary. I'm pretty sure you can see Mr. Number in this too.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Feds needs to sit his wobble out. McCarthy is good enough to take his place while he gets himself together. No point in his recovery being between our sticks, he can sort himself out on the bench where he can't let in any more goals.

Torres was offside for the third, but it was Fed's who let them back into the game. Even if you love this fella to bits, you have to admit he's cost us points in both games and surely even he can't be sore at the prospect of giving somebody else a go in goal.

Two poor games is more than enough for an outfielder to be dropped. You could argue our loyalty should stretch further for him, but hey - he's a player. How much loyalty has he been prepared to show us?

Give McCarthy a run, let Feds get over his wobble, and let's get some more points on the board before heads start dropping.

[Cypry]

Feds needs to sit his wobble out. McCarthy is good enough to take his place while he gets himself together. No point in his recovery being between our sticks, he can sort himself out on the bench where he can't let in any more goals.

Torres was offside for the third, but it was Fed's who let them back into the game. Even if you love this fella to bits, you have to admit he's cost us points in both games and surely even he can't be sore at the prospect of giving somebody else a go in goal.

Two poor games is more than enough for an outfielder to be dropped. You could argue our loyalty should stretch further for him, but hey - he's a player. How much loyalty has he been prepared to show us?

Give McCarthy a run, let Feds get over his wobble, and let's get some more points on the board before heads start dropping.

Suspect we'll see Feds retain his place Saturday, then McCarthy get a chance on Tuesday against the Posh and we'll see then if McD is going to have a hard decision to make before Spurs...

[royal67]

Yes Mr Angry...... That's a proper display of Readin fandom....

[jumpers for goalposts]

I was unfortunately sat in the Chelsea end so had to contain my excitement. Yes we were excellent, and many of the Chelsea fans where I was sat were very complimentary about how we went about our task. Sadly we shot ourselves in the foot. A rash lunge to concede the early penalty, and then a howler again from Feds.

At 2-1 we were comfortable. Chelsea were bereft of ideas and their crowd was turning on them. As soon as Cahill's shot flew in, Chelsea got their second wind, and whilst the third was unquestionably offside, they were all over us during that spell and probably would have scored anyway. Another harsh lesson for us, that you can't give away sloppy goals and expect to win at this level.

We have now conceded 5 times, and 4 of them were preventable- Kighty, Lampard pen, Cahill's shot, and Ivanovic's goal as a result of the earlier errors and us chasing the game. It was a plucky display, but ultimately we lost a game that we had a real opportunity to win, and you see that McD knew this in his post match comments. I just hope we can play to the same level at Sunderland, and more importantly, keep our concentration levels.

[JC]

robbed, bloody lino and ref

thought for the most part chelsea were poor

as for the stats, chelsea 78% possession absolutely NEVER! 27 shots WTF NEVER - must have been a chelsea supporter counting everything including those that landed in row z - honestly i now know footy stats are made up

didnt deserve to lose tonight. great performance, scorred by far the best goal of the 6, not just the goal but the 10 or so passes that preceded it were pure class

4-2 flattered chelsea

The BBC website says 53/47 % possession. Shots 23-7, on target 11-5

Seems about right

[Hoop Blah]

Whilst it was undoubtedly a great effort, and one that nearly resulted in a hard earned point or three, the most promising thing for me is reading McAnuff's comments about how they need to learn from it to survive at this level. I hope that's a bit more indicative of the mentality amongst the squad because, as good a go of it that we made, we still let slip a great position through some naive and sub-standard play. That wasted a very good performance and although anything from last night was a bonus, we will need to make the most of our good performances when they occur.

Federici's second howler in two games was an absolute shocker, but he's our number one and will remain so for sometime (rightly or wrongly) as he's cut these mistakes out over the last 12-18 months (where previously they were all too common).

[Croydon Royal]

A few random thoughts now it's the morning after the night before (warning: contains knee-jerk reactions)...

- Most encouraging for me is the new signings - last time in the Premiership we struggled on this front, either taking gambles on players without experience in the English leagues who didn't adapt or signing players who would disrupt the squad and the style of play. Doesn't seem the case at all this summer. MacLeary and Pogrebnyak were both excellent last night (for Pav's style of play, I don't think Stoke was the game to judge him on) and although Gunter looks nervous he still looks good on the ball and he will settle into his defensive duties over time. A special mention to Guthrie - when he signed I thought Newcastle fans were being patronising when saying how good a player we'd got (you can be patronising when you have Cabeye and Tiote in your midfield!) but he has been excellent so far, always wanting the ball and looking for a positive pass, without shirking on his defensive duties.

- Gorkss seems very conscious of Harte's lack of pace, and covered him well last night. I just hope it means we don't get caught out of position in the centre too much.

- The two games already have shown just how important it is to be able to hold the ball up upfield in the Prem. This is in part why we struggled when Pogrebnyak came off - as much as I like him Hunt just isn't great at it. It'll be really interesting to see Roberts when he comes back, his experience and first touch is much needed. With Le Fondre offering a different type of goal threat we now have 3 strikers who can work in different situations.

- I know this will have made me unpopular, but the one player I was really concerned about going in to this season was Leigertwood. I just didn't think he'd be quick or skilful enough for the Premiership. I know it's still early days, but he was man of the match against Stoke and was very good again last night. Providing he can keep this form up, his strength, sense of calm and ability to break up play will again be valuable to us over the course of the season.

- We all know Federici is vulnerable from long-range, and he will make mistakes. I don't think it's enough to drop him just yet and I don't think he will be, but boy does he need to pull out a few of his 'saves from nowhere' that he specialises in very soon. On the 4th goal, I don't begrudge him for going up. Sure we might now go down on goal difference, but we also might go down by one point, and that could have been a point we got if he'd have caused enough confusion in the box. He's gone up for corners say 15 times as a Reading player and we've scored from 1. I remember reading somewhere (I may be wrong) that a team scores from a corner on average 1 every 33 corners, so that stat is fine by me for the moment. However, I do then question why we ran with our 'hit the corner long to Pearce at the back post for him to head across goal' routine when Feds was up - surely if the keeper is there to create confusion you just stick the ball on the penalty spot and have all your players attacking it?

- I thought Lee Mason was very good. Terry should have been booked, but we all know John Terry gets special protection, especially at Stamford Bridge. The Linesman, however, was awful. A very, very basic mistake.

Very proud of a great performance. Play like that every week and we'll win more than enough games to survive. I reckon we might even beat one of the big boys this year at home.

[The Rouge]

[maffff]

I couldn't make it last night, sadly, but one thing I noticed myself from TalkSPORT/the live feed I had one and seen reported everywhere has been just how good the fans were last night to a man. Excellent