Agreed. You mostly hear it from arsenal fans

It's just a way for fans of rival teams to belittle another teams result.

At the end of the day, if anyone's team played like Chelsea did tonight in a Champions League final and won, would they care? Not one bit!

Completely agree, defending is an art, and it's very easy to see between a talented defender, and one who just follows.

I'd take it even further, defenders are seen as 'ugly' players, they rarely dominate PotY awards, normally in favour of the attacking players. Most of our PL wins would not be there were it not for a defence which is largely stronger than our attack.

Defending requires more skill and teamwork than attacking IMO

Park Ji you are quite right. My football coach always said "build from the back." In other words, defense comes before attack. Thats one of the reasons arsenal have struggled for success over the last couple of years. There defense has been too weak. Too much focus went on attack

Had one or two of Barcelona's guilt edge chances gone in.......would we be talking about a Defensive masterclass?

I think they defended as well as they possibly could and rode their luck with the woodwork and last ditch clearances.

Class defending is brilliant to watch.

That wasn't what happened though. Bad finishing happened.

comment by The Red Side (U11275)


posted 2 minutes ago

It's just a way for fans of rival teams to belittle another teams result.

At the end of the day, if anyone's team played like Chelsea did tonight in a Champions League final and won, would they care? Not one bit!
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United never got any credit despite it taking Barca two goals from outside the box in the second half to beat us at Wembley

All I've heard is about he humiliation etc etc etc

Chelsea were no better than us tonight. Barca just suddenly forgot how to finish. Go look at their goals ve us at wembley. They were not shooting over from 6 yards

I'm glad Chelsea won but why pretend they played any better than us against them when it isn't true

Barca were just unreal. I've never seen a team keep the ball that well.

Don't get me wrong, Barca should haves scored. But it is of great credit to Chelsea that they didn't.

Ultimately people remember and admire Pele, Maradonna, Best as footballing greats. There aren't that many defenders who are held even close.

Attacking footballer is the way football should be played and defending like tonight is rather negative and boring.

However, United did a few years back in the semis and at the moment it's the only way to beat the best footballing side in the world.

I wouldn't worry what others think. Chelsea is your club and you won tonight. It was a David v Goliath victory and who knows, it might work?

Defending is as much of an art as attacking

I 100% agree. that was a fine performance by chelsea tonight, and i don't blame them for taking that approach. The counter to barcelona's possession style is defend and counter, and that is exactly what chelsea did.

>>Barca should haves scored. But it is of great credit to Chelsea that they didn't.

I don't think Chelsea had much to do with that to be honest.

@ Carrickature

I'm bit confused, Chelsea is not my team. I'm a Manchester United fan

Defending is 50% of the game afterall

@ Carrickature

I'm bit confused, Chelsea is not my team. I'm a Manchester United fan

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>>Defending is 50% of the game afterall

When you play Barca it's more like 80%

And that's if you're a top English side

Football coach used to tell us: offense win games and defence win championship.

Carrickature - clearly an opinion, not fact. Personally, I love it when two teams who are at the fore front of differing methods (I.E. a strong defence and counter attack against a strong attack) because it highlights the talents that are needed to triumph with certain tactics.

We'll see how good Chelsea's defending is next week. Keeping it tight at Stamford Bridge is one thing. Doing it on that massive pitch in Barcelona is another matter.

When the ball goes wide and Cole/Ivanovic/Bosingwa will have to close down their wide man poor Terry will brick himself. So will Cahill. Barca will pop the passes again but the chances will be put away next time.

You needed another goal. However, congratulations on the result tonight....however order will be restored next Wednesday. Good luck! Again.

For those saying Chelsea only won because of Barca's poor finishing. This was the exact point i'm making. Why do we automatically assume that if the big teams dont score it's due to poor finishing. You cant score all the time.

And like i said, it is of great credit that Chelsea limited them to the chances they had!

carrick, it is just as much barcelona's fault that the game was boring as it was chelsea's. the natural antidote to barcelona's style is to sit back for long periods and hit on the break. barca dictate that their opposition will play like that because of the way they play. This is why i don't like watching barca: they make games boring.

United v Chelsea at old trafford back in september, that was real football. end to end stuff, good defending, bad defending, good attacking, bad attacking (torres). what you want to see in a game.

>>Defending is 50% of the game afterall

When you play Barca it's more like 80%

And that's if you're a top English side

Redconn, what i was saying was when 1 teams attacking the others defending so its 50% of very game