I would take a point from this game. At least that's Chelsea out of the way. Bring on the last three games. We can beat Stoke, we'll need to be a lot more creative and incisive in attack. Need one of Spuds or Newcastle to drop points today. That would be good.
No, even for an attacking full-back he was too far forward, sometimes the furthest man forward. At one point Chelsea already had the ball and he was still the furthest man forward, and what's more he wasn't even involved in the attack we had. It's going TOO far. Nevertheless, I have him 7/10 because other than that he was great, especially his ball control.
Negative football - A term overused by sour Gooners who believe they invented football after a defeat or draw.
Stoke at home is a difficult game for us - even on form. Over the last 5 games we have won 2 lost 2 and drawn 1. 3 of those performances have been pretty poor (QPR, Chelsea, Wigan). Stoke will press, attack us down the wings, and work the hell out of Kos and TV in the air. It's no better than a 50-50 game.
Credit to Newcastle - they have seen our weakness and are moving to within 3 points with a game in hand. They are 2-0 up already. Pardew has a team full of character and commitment. Wenger doesn't.
There was little commitment or character shown today, or against Wigan. Too slow, too afraid - especially in the final third. They way we played against City tells you that we have the quality to play at a higher tempo.
Walcott can always score a goal from nothing though - we may need that. A pretty major threat has been taken away. Dont forget he is often doubled teamed by the opposition which creates space. Overall though I would agree that Arteta is the bigger loss. We really really need Diaby, Coquelin and Gervinho to hit some form over the last 3 games.
Gervihno played well today so I think he'll be fine Diaby was average but he just came back from injury so I expect some improvement Coq is good let's hope he plays well
Lol ... "must-win game". It wasn't a must-win game, it was a "Chelsea-must-not-win" game. And that didn't happen. 7 points from the last 3 games will get us the Top 4 place, and we'll get those points. Newcastle will not get results against Chelsea and Man City, Tottenham's next three games are against teams giving it their all to avoid relegation, and Chelsea ... well, Chelsea aren't going to be playing in the CL next season, let's be honest. A draw was a good result.
