Cahill has proved me wrong tonight though, strong defensive game from him with a couple of crucial stops, and excellent all round game from Christensen.
Taking off Fabregas when he was running the game was a strange call as was the Hazard substitution. Two points dropped, Morata had a mare.
Courtois 9 Azpi 8 Christensen 9 Cahill 8 Moses 4 Kante 8 Cesc 7 Baka 6 Alonso 8 Hazard 8 Spanish Donkey first half slightly better second half but only just 4 Zappa 7 Dinky 7 Willy 7 Conte' 5
Was a great game in the end, but brother we threw away 3 points tonight. Conte played the wrong line up for Arsenal, we had no speed up front to attack a defence that Fabregas opened up as easily as a Christmas present. Add a spluttering, badly out of form striker, no grunt in midfield and a safety first back 3 that just doesn't assist the wing backs enough. Bakayoko offered no danger to Arsenal, Morata had a total shocker and Moses was ordinary. Back 3 defended really well, offered little in attack ,though Christensen did play some better forward balls, he is improving in that. Worried that Dave has gone right off the boil in his attacking play. We still should have scored at least 2 more goals, maybe 3 and Arsenal were denied 2 by 2 fabulous Courtois stops. More adventurous starters and better finishing was needed, as it too often is lately. Conte gets a big fat 2 from me.
I was surprised that we didn't concede more with Cescy in there. I think Cahill & Christensen combo is better with Azpi. So I would go with these 3 as primary CB trio going forward for the league. Tony needs to fix our Defense. Defense wins championships - Always!! Rudiger looks as jittery as Alonso on that left CB position. Baka is having a mare. He needs some break or phase him in as sub after 55 mins. Baka cannot shield Cescy never. Looks like Morata robbed Cescy of 2assists. Morata needs to use his head may be, like dive to the ground and head the ball instead of kicking? overall happy with 1 pt gained with 10 men (cescy or morata)
Gutting way to end. Morata's finishing with his feet is as bad as he is good with his head. He needs to sharpen up very quickly. Fells like 2 points dropped but otherwise a decent enough performance and result overall. Typically Costa took all of 5 minutes to score on his AM return!
Yea Morata was bad. He did some good things with his link up play but as our leading striker, he cannot be missing those sitters (all 3 of them!). Don't know whats happened to his finishing with his feet but it's fallen off a cliff. He was putting most of them away at the start of the season but now he's missed some guilt edge chances in a few games that has cost us points (arsenal yesterday, west ham before) Cahill defended really well but i still think i prefer rudiger so will have to disagree with you Stan as i don't think rudiger has put a foot wrong. That Arsenal defence was shocking and i cannot believe we didn't attack them more. As good as everyone things hazard looks, i still find him so frustrating. It might be because he doesn't have that top speed but in the final third he's still trying to do too much (nice setup for fabregas but why not just burst through and bang it in, or when he struck against cech) and he still lacks that really killer finishing. You know if it was KDB he'd have jus wanged it in. Our best chances came when we basically got men forward and ran at them which we seemed reluctant to do and even 2 of moratas best chances was us launching it up the field against that shoddy arsenal defence rather than us being particuarly skillful. Courtois made some great saves and was really unlucky to be on the drawing side.
Wasn’t so much the wrong line up but the substitutions. Fabregas pretty much was his usual creative genius but was substituted when controlling the game with Hazard. What Conte should have done was pull Bakayoko at half time for drinky. After we scored what looked the winner we sat back deep, another big mistake! As proved once Arsenal had equalisted we gave them problems going forward and should have scored and that was the way Conte should have played it. As it was the cautious approach cost us two points.
to be fair he actually said Dave was the weak link and that Cesc deserved 2 assists . Oh yea forgot to mention cesc was playing awesome. No idea why he was pulled and not bakayoko. In fact i'm still very surprised why conte persists with bakayoko as an attacking force. Just keep him as a DM, it's not rocket science the man cannot shoot and has a touch of a rapist. As much as i hate contes conservative nature, at least he attacks a bit. It's far better than when we were under mourinho so i won't complain too much about it.
Agree Ginge, Bakayoko was a no brainer to be subbed by Drinky, as was Moses by Zappa, and should have happened at half time. No one has mentioned the extra pace and control by Zappa when he crossed from nowhere for Alonso.45 mins of that would have made a difference, as would Pedro or William for Morata. Hazard, for all his fabulous work, is trying to do too much, as Willian sometimes does.This is surely because Morata is so hopeless. End result, absolutely no direct attacking and too much running round in circles surrounded by 5 defenders. If Morata cannot find some form , I'd definately try 2 up front, he just can't do what Costa and Drogba could as a single striker.
It was nice to watch an entertaining game with two teams who actually wanted to attack. Had we not started off so defensive we'd have won the game. No idea how Bakayoko stayed on so long and Moses was terrible, Zappacosta made a big difference. Drinkwater is impressing me more, not a world beater by any means but seems to do the simple things well and gets stuck in too. Wasn't a penalty for me, Wilshere should've been off before he scored and Holding was lucky to avoid two yellows. Refs have it hard though, the amount players cheat it's so hard for them to pick up on everything. Players were falling to the ground the whole match at the slightest, it's embarrassing. Morata needs to work on his finishing, right now he's just Torres but with the ability to head the ball. I could watch Hazard all day, easily one of the top 5-10 players in the world, does things that others don't even think about doing but he can't do it all by himself, others need to contribute more. Wasn't expecting anything before the game cause of how we set up vs Arsenal so a point is decent but it's annoying to lose it like that in the last minute!
Not worth mentioning the ref mistakes, yes, he made a couple, but they evened out, and I think a draw was a fair reflection of the game. Lets leave the ref bashing and excuses to the Liverpool and Spurs fans. The result didn't really do either team any favours, though it was probably better for us. We aint catching City now, so 2nd place is the best we have to play for, but with United drawing, it wasn't so bad, and a point away at Arsenal is never bad. Arsenal on the other hand, are fighting for their CL lives. Missing out once due to a blip is one thing (like we and Man Utd have both done in recent years), as long as you take advantage of the lack of European football to consolidate your league position, spend correctly and get back in the top 4 (as both us and United have done recently). Consecutive seasons outside the CL will damage their brand world wide......
