Match Day Thread Arsenal vs. Chelsea 2015/16 Official Match Thread

Me saying I agree with you that it's points dropped is me trying to argue?

Think you might need to rethink that one.

 

Going for a cold shower,if I post now I'll probably get banned.

 

When you played them, you harried, harassed and pressed them and they couldn't cope. We just sat back and let them come at us. The ball through that led to Mert getting sent off wasn't the first instance of them being allowed to pick out their forwards. We were pedestrian all through the game and never gave Chelsea any problems.

We are much better than we were today, but as you say when we come up against these ****s we just seem to crumble.

 

On the showing of the last 3 months, we really aren't, we have been average for a long time now, today was no different. Many on this board were saying unless we picked our performances up, we would get nothing from these 3 big games, and alas, proven right (again)

 

This is the most worrying part. What more incentive does this team need to perform, especially at home! We should have at least made it tough on Chelsea instead of just rolling over. You could imagine an Arsenal or Man U team of yesteryear would have battled to get that win. These players sometimes play with little urgency that its baffling.

 

The first half was so lethargic, it was so irritating to watch. After Sanchez came on all of a sudden the team as a whole started to show some fight and determination and we looked like we might get back into it, but before his introduction it was not a pretty sight, the effort levels seemed so low.

 

It's the only silver lining today, that with Sanchez in the team we look like we've got some fight. Hopefully with 11 players and Sanchez upping the tempo and commitment, we should see performances with a bit more urgency.

 

This is a worrying tread for us and something that Wenger's current reincarnations can't shake. This was brought up on the previous thread on whether Wenger has still got it and its these moments that reaffirm that he's past it. Wenger's earlier teams would never have suffered such losses but when the pressure is on them to get a result, they seemingly crumble. Wenger won't have a better chance to win the league than he does this season.

 

We were lucky not to concede a penalty today too.
I'm really disappointed with the team today, I hate losing, but if we lose when we've given our all, then it's a bit easier to take. But today we lost and deserved to lose by a greater margin. Woeful.

 

December saw us win 5 of 6 games including the Olympiacos game and City result. So good results and some top performances.

So although January hasn't been great for performances or results, to say we have been average for three months is going over the top.

 

Today is a frustrating set back. But according to many on this forum, we've bottled so many times before today: 1st game vs WHU, two losses in CL, le coq injury, Sanchez Injury, etc etc. We've stayed in the title race regardless. As for Arsenal fans, are we really as panicky, spineless, as some on this forum? Arguing from a point of cynism is the easiest stance in rhetoric. In other words, this forum has degenerated from a place about Arsenal to a place about Arsenal87.

 

Unfortunately Wenger should come in for some stick, taking Giroud off for Walcott was a very very bad decision, it looked it at the time, and proved to be so. I think we could have gotten something from the game if Giroud stayed on, heck, even win.

 

No just outplayed by the better team.....

 

But why are we doing this? Do these players need 10,000 volts up their backside to get them started? They have a great chance of winning the title yet they are pulling out some sh1tey performances of recent and today was the king of sh1te performance, when we needed to do the business. Shocking.

 

I think Sanchez is going to have a big impact now that he is returning from injury. We saw glimpses of it today and hopefully he'll start adding some extra urgency and goals to the team.

I'm really looking forward to getting Coquelin back in the team though, for all Flaminis effort he just isn't good enough. He's done a decent job at times with all our injuries but I can't wait for the Coq to be back in the team.

 

The only good performance was VS City, the rest were poor, even against the Greeks, we were not that good, but just had clinical finishing, while they were **** in the final third. Point me to a single good performance in December other than City.

 

Since Xmas:

Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea
Stoke 0-0 Arsenal
Liverpool 3-3 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle
Arsenal 2-0 Bournemouth
Southampton 4-0 Arsenal

8 points out of 18

Other than the Bournemouth game we have been shocking. Liverpool,both defence's were as bad as each other and we got very lucky against the Toon who played us off the pitch at times.
Can a team who lose so convincingly to teams like Southampton and a dour Chelsea really be favourites for the league?

And we still have to play at Old Trafford, White Hart Lane, the Etihad and Goodison. I can only see us dropping more points.

 

We were a man down and it was likely we would then get our best chances on the counter so Walcott and Campbell needed to stay on. Not having Giroud was obviously a miss but having a lack of pace on the counter would have been just as much of a disadvantage.

The commentators also commented that Giroud had been trying to get past a small injury this week to be involved today so it may have already been a risk playing him.

Think there are a couple of obvious reasons why the decision was made. I initially thought, oh no Giroud going off, but then thought about other options of who we could take off and figured it was probably the right decision.

 

We should be using those games as motivation to take points from our rivals and push on for the title, but after today's performance, you fear that we'll freeze again.

 

Olympiacos. 3-0 away to a ground we haven't won at in how many attempts? To secure unlikely CL qualification. I'd call that a good performance.