Match Day Thread Chelsea vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

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Stamford Bridge
Saturday 18th August 2018
KO: 5:30pm


Head to Head

Played: 195
Won: 76
Drawn: 57
Lost: 62


Last six meetings [all competitions]

Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (League Cup SF-2)
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (League Cup SF-1)
Arsenal 2-2 Chelsea (Premier League)
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (Premier League)
Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea (Community Shield)
Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (FA Cup Final)

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Team News:

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is expected to be out for 'six to eight weeks' after suffering a fractured leg in the 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City.

Arsenal boss Unai Emery confirmed either Nacho Monreal or Stephan Leichsteiner will be playing at left-back against Chelsea.

The Arsenal manager also reiterated his belief in Petr Cech and confirmed the 36-year-old will continue in goal on Saturday.

Danny Welbeck and Nacho Monreal are both back in training.

Laurent Koscielny and Sead Kolasinac both remain long-term absentees.

Eden Hazard made a cameo last weekend against Huddersfield and is expected to be in contention to start.

Remains to be seen whether he will replace either Pedro or Willian out wide, or whether he will play up front instead of the struggling Alvaro Morata.

Chelsea have no new injury concerns to date.



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Another tough game following the 2-0 home defeat to Man City.

Again, I'm not expecting us to come away with the points. We've not got all 3 points there since 2011 where we won 5-3 and van Persie got a hat-trick. Stamford Bridge has not exactly been a happy hunting ground for us in recent years.

That being said, Chelsea have only beaten us once in the last eight meetings (we've won 3 and drew the other 4). You could say we've had their number lately, but that could all change on Saturday afternoon if we don't play our cards right.

Hazard is expected to be fit, and he always gives us problems.

This is another game where I feel our lack of width may prove to be costly. With Jorginho and Kante in midfield, we may struggle slicing them open through the centre, so in theory, the flanks could be our best bet of trying to get in behind their defence.

Sarri's Chelsea press more aggressively in contrast to Conte's Chelsea, so we cannot afford any cumbersome midfielders in the centre. Meaning Granit Xhaka cannot be starting this one at all!

Torreira and Guendouzi against Kante and Jorginho would be an intriguing battle, so I'm hoping they'll be in the double pivot.

As unpopular as this may be, if Welbeck is fit, I would start him out wide. His strength, pace, energy and work-rate will be important in a game like this. Plus, he's one of the very few players we have available that can do a decent job on the wings.

If it was up to me, I would go with:

--------------------Leno-----------------------------
Bellerin---Mustafi---Sokratis---Leichsteiner
------------Guendouzi---Torreira---------------
Welbeck--------------Ozil------------Aubameyang
---------------------Lacazette-----------------------

(Fat chance of this happening though!)

Wasn't too impressed with Ramsey on the right in the last game. He had no positional discipline. And although I'm not a huge fan of having Auba on the wing, his speed and movement will cause Chelsea problems. Plus, I trust him to help out defensively more than I trust Ramsey. And when we're attacking, he can interchange with Lacazette.

Ozil was poor against City, but he did try. Besides, he's the best creative outlet we have.

Mkhitaryan was shocking too, even moreso than Ozil, and I don't trust him to perform in a game of this magnitude. Has to be benched.

Overall, it's not an ideal team, but for the opponents we've got next, I reckon that's the best we have. But I don't think Emery will see it that way...

 

As much as City won quite easily on the weekend you could see signs of life in your team, there was a work ethic there that we hadn't seen in years under Wenger but the whole system and ethos is new and it will take time to get right. A tough start has not helped but I expect you to improve throughout the season. Xhaka is not a PL player and needs to be dropped/sold and you have some new players so there's no need for him to be part of this team.

 

I'd still start with Mkhitaryan. Don't see why he should be dropped after one game. He wasn't that bad against City and I'd expect him to come good soon. Although that said, Xhaka should not be in that starting XI. Agree with Guendouzi and Torreira in the middle there. And yeah, if we're going to try and play out from the back, then Leno ahead of Cech, the latter of whom's kicking is atrocious.

 

Mkhitaryan, similarly to Ozil, has a tendency to drift infield which means we congest our attacking play through the middle and lose width. He also offered no support to the fullback when City were stretching us last week.

I'm going to put my head above the parapet and say I've not been that impressed by Micky since we did the Sanchez swap.

He's done ok - but I've expected him to offer more than he has done.

He's only played about 20 games for us and joined us midway through last season, so obviously I am going to give him more time to improve (especially under a new manager), but I don't think he should be a guaranteed starter, especially with how wasteful he can be in possession.

For me, I still don't think he should start against Chelsea.

 

Swap Wellbeck for Mkhitarian and I would agree on the lineup.

Lacazette looked sharp when he came on agaist City so should start.

 

So, Emery's said Cech will continue in goal for the Chelsea game.

IF we're planning to play out from the back again, this is not a good decision. Cech has any more blunders like he did against City, the media will have a field day. There will be heavy pressure from fans and pundits alike to drop him for Leno.

Expecting a 36-year-old goalkeeper, who is uncomfortable with the ball at his feet and has slow reaction times, to adapt his game in this way is asking a lot.

Let's hope he performs better than I'm predicting...

 

The thing is Cech pulled of a bunch of quality saves against City. He made one mistake and that's what everyone is focusing on. Overall he was looking sharp IMO.

 

If that was your definition of 'looking sharp', then you must have really low standards for what a good goalkeeping display must be.

It was not one mistake, his distribution was poor for the entire game. He gave us several heart in mouth moments.

His overall display was ok - certainly not as bad as some Arsenal fans would have you believe - but it wasn't a top class goalkeeping performance either.

What were these 'bunch of quality' saves he made? He made one terrific save of note that I can recall.

The only other decent save he made that I can remember was from Sterling or Aguero (can't remember which one) who, after turning Mustafi inside out, had a powerful shot in the first half. But it was from close range and near post. So if anything, it was a save he was expected to make.

The other saves he made in that game were what I'd expect from any Premier League goalkeeper worth their salt.

I feel like we're so used to having underperforming goalkeepers over the years that any time a goalkeeper makes a save they should do, we deem it as something extraordinary.

 

I dont agree actually. Cech made some good saves. The double save from the free kick, also a nice save 1 on 1 against Aguero come to mind.

Emery is not Wenger - there are no preconceptions based on past performances.
He is judging Cech on what he is seeing in training. Currently he is picking the guy ahead of Leno and Colombias no.1 Ospina.

There are reasons for that. Wether its the right choice or not I dont know. But based on this game and his Pre-Season performances he doesnt deserve the critiscm he is receiving. He hasnt been bad at all.

 

Sorry, but I think Cech was partially to blame for the first goal City scored. Where was his positioning on that shot? Was hit straight down the middle of the goal and he was standing off to the right. Wasn't even that great of a shot, instead it made Sterling look better than he really is. Ridiculous.

 

Ok maybe not straight down the middle, but certainly at a saveable height if he'd been further over to the left.

 

The 1v1 save against Aguero is the save I was giving him credit for.

The free-kick save, he got up well to deny Laporte on the rebound but it was him parrying the initial free-kick into Laporte's path in the first place that led to that chance.

So that's two good saves he made in 90 minutes - I would argue his poor distribution got us into trouble on several occasions and his positioning was suspect, especially for the opening goal.

As I said, Cech wasn't terrible, but he didn't have a good game either. At best, he was a 6/10.

Nope, I don't agree. If we are to continue playing the ball out from the back, Cech simply cannot be our starting goalkeeper. We will be putting ourselves into a lot of precarious situations. He isn't quick enough with the ball. It isn't his natural game and expecting a 36-year-old to change how they normally play is an illogical thing to do.

I have a sneaky feeling that Leno hasn't been chosen yet because the manager doesn't feel he's up to scratch. There were reports that management haven't been too convinced by him in training. But once they feel he's sharp enough, and I have no doubt Leno will improve, Cech won't be No.1 choice anymore.

 

Anyway, to get us into the mood for this game, I am going to be posting some great victories we've had against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge over the years.

In recent times, we've not had too much joy there, but here's hoping we can change that on Saturday

 

21st February 2004: Game 26 of our unbeaten run where we extended it to complete the double against Chelsea [having beaten them 2-1 at Highbury earlier in the season].

Gudjohnsen scored the opener with some sharp finishing right at the start of the game, but Viera hit back with a lovely finish in the 15th minute and 6 minutes after equalising, we took the lead after Edu took advantage of some dire Chelsea defending from a set-piece.

Final result: Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal

 

30th November 2008: This was where we'd had a really poor start to the league campaign. We'd beaten Man United earlier that season, but also lost to newly-promoted Hull, beat by Fulham and were well-beaten by Aston Villa. Arsenal were truly a bag of revels that year.

Johan Djourou scored an own goal in the 30th minute and to be fair, Chelsea dominated most of the game. Then, midway through the second half, van Persie smashes in the equaliser after a deflected pass from Denilson put him through and we're level. Three minutes later, van Persie smashes in another goal after Adebayor heads the ball down from Fabregas's free-kick.

In the space of 4 minutes, we've gone from losing the game to winning.

Final result: Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal

 

5th April 1997: I was one and a half when this game was played, so probably a little before my time Nevertheless, after drawing 3-3 at Highbury in a thrilling game, we went to Stamford Bridge and turned them over with relative ease.

Ian Wright opened the scoring, David Platt got the second and Bergkamp (who, from the highlights, looked great ) put icing on the cake after rounding the 'keeper and slotting into an empty net.

Final result: Chelsea 0-3 Arsenal

 

23rd October 1999: 2-0 down until we bring on super sub Kanu and the rest, they say, is history.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?"

Final result: Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal

 

That was some game and an unbelievable solo performance from Kanu. Still can't work out how he managed to score that 3rd goal from that angle. Such a great hat-trick.

 

This

Cech is terrible with the ball at his feet. He's got a decent long range kick on him, but playing out and passing from the back is suicide with him.