I was talking about the Chelsea game - I am still pissed about it. I watch games twice - live when it's on and then a rerun. We were absolutely awful yesterday - lifeless and lacking fight is right. Nearly every important duel we lost and we moved around the pitch with far less purpose than Chelsea. It really was not good enough and inexplicable. When Gyokeres came on, for example, he hardly got involved and this was not his fault - the team were just ponderous. I would have expected that with an extra man we'd be able to at least feed more ball into the box than we did. We looked far far away from a title winning side and we keep falling short when the biggest games come round. Note 'biggest'. We have won some big games, Spurs, Newcastle and Bayern. The Bayern game we were playing a game having already won 4 from 4 and under little pressure. I have serious doubts about whether we win over two legs in a knockout game. I just see too many metal weaknesses and lack of focus and composure at the elite level that matters for a club trying to win big trophies. That may change when our players are back, but right now my confidence in this team is very low in terms of getting over the line. We're a top team obviously, but winning trophies requires more than we are showing, IMO.
Last few Seasons we've been beating the City's/Liverpools/Chelseas but dropping points in other games. I'm sure the media will try and push a narrative this Season but we've clearly got good record in these games under Arteta. Lets not forget we are top of the league, the game was at Stamford Bridge - if Chelsea really feel they are contenders the onus had to be on them to beat us. They didn't manage it. Top of the league and top of the Champions League. Will be a tough game on Wednesday as we've played 3 big games in the last 10 days.
If we go by the assumption that a tough game is one that you shouldn't go into expecting to win, then we could arguably make any game against City, Liverpool or Arsenal a tough one, as well as an away game against other top teams (or historically tough teams with harsh stadia). If that's the case then... Tough games remaining for us where a win can't necessarily be expected: Villa (a) City (a) Liverpool (h) Tough games remaining for City where a win can't necessarily be expected: Chelsea (a) Man Utd (a) Liverpool (a) Arsenal (h) Tough games remaining for Chelsea where a win can't necessarily be expected: City (a) City (h) Newcastle (a) Arsenal (a) Villa (a) Liverpool (a) This simplistically trivializes other potentially tricky games but whatever. eg. I think we'll find Everton, Brighton, Bournemouth and Spurs away matches tough as well as Chelsea at home, but I'd similarly look at those fixtures as ones that most title-winners should win. Those ones above are not ones I'd say title-winners would HAVE to win. Just at least don't lost.
For Wednesday I'd ring some changes. Saka, Rice, Timber, Eze need some rest and if you're not going to rest them at home to Brentford, what's the point of a big squad.. Raya White Mosquera Hincapie Calarfiori Norgaard Merino Madueke Odegaard Nwaneri Gyokeres
We will have to agree to disagree here because I don't think you can accuse us of lacking fight. Otherwise we'd have lost the game. The issue for me wasn't a lack of fight or wanting to win. I think Arteta made some tactical errors when Chelsea went down to 10-men and that we clearly looked jaded after exerting ourselves so much in the previous two games. That, coupled with Chelsea's doggedness and desire to not let the game slip away from them, meant we suffered. Just because a team goes down to 10-men, it doesn't automatically mean we win the game. We have to earn the right to win. And we didn't do that. But a lack of fight isn't the reason why we didn't. And whilst I get the frustration with the City and Liverpool results, I don't think the Chelsea result (again, result - NOT performance) is one to be overly annoyed at. Our performances absolutely have to be better, and I'd like us to take it to teams more when we play the 'big six'. However, our overall record against the big six isn't that bad so far. Beat Man Utd & Spurs. Drew with City & Chelsea. Lost to Liverpool. 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss against the traditional 'big six' sides is not amazing, but hardly a massive worry. We drew 14 games last season. That was a bigger worry. Drew to Fulham away last year. This year we won. Lost to Newcastle away last year. This year we won. Lost to West Ham at home last year. This year we won. Drew to Palace at home last year. This year we won. Drew to Man Utd away last year. This year we won. We are still in a good place. It's definitely not the time for panic stations.
