the Arsenal that we are used to turned up . did anyone actually expect a win .? WE seem bereft of FAST attacking ideas. You aint gonna catch Chelsea offguard with that slow rubbish . we could have played for 180 minutes and not scored . Its all wrong.
Despite the commentators creaming over Chelsea, I really don't think there was that much between us. And atleast we've escaped from our annual loss to Chelsea with our goal difference relatively in tact. Crucially, Chelsea scored with two bits of quality - Hazard's dribble and that Fabregas pass. We never looked like scoring, no matter how many pretty touches we had. Did we even have a shot on target? What's most frustrating as an Arsenal supporter right now is that we never shoot and we don't look like scoring. We've spent almost £100 mill on attacking talent in the last two years but we look toothless and inept. You can't score without shooting. Falcao scored today because Di Maria went for a long ranger, he spooned it wide but it fell luckily to Falcao. We don't create our own luck by having the balls to take a chance and shoot.
Disappointing to lose. Especially as we had the impetus and they hit us with a sucker punch. I think keeping Ozil on was a mistake on Wenger's part. Wilshere-Cazorla-Flamini were pretty solid. Ozil was disappointing and Sanchez didn't really do much. Feel like the yellow for Chambers might have hampered his defensive abilities. We didn't utilize the wings enough to get in Welbeck. Felt the scoreline flattered Chelsea but that's football. Atkinson...not an excuse but don't let him ref a Chelsea or Arsenal game again. The initial strategy worked up until the Cazorla change IMO. Then Ozil didn't do enough to make it work in the middle which unbalaced the other 2 CMs and we couldn't penetrate enough. International break comes at a good time as we'll get Theo and Gnabry back. We're also missing Giroud IMO as his physical presence would have unsettled the Chav defenders more and at least given us a reason to make those crosses from the wing. Bellerin will most likely play vs. Hull. Also Cazorla tried to take shots but no one else did enough of that IMO.
We looked ok actually. In terms of play we matched Chelsea. I think we were just tactically outsmarted. Wenger does the same old s**t every time. We played at a decent level though but once Chelsea were a goal up Mourinho knew it would be comfortable from there. Play two midfielders deep, press high and hit us on the break = That's the proven recipe to beat an Arsene Wenger side.
This . Lets not go on a silly bitchfest . Even the people you say are rose tinted cant ignore that . Dont rub it in .
Our issue is Wenger. And we just put off the transition (which will probably be trophyless) by 3 more years. Don't expect us to be seriously challenging for the league in the next 4-5 seasons.
Yup, Dortmund did it to perfection earlier this season too, i would have hope Wenger would have learnt his lesson, but alas, i forgot it was Wenger
Wasn't really a sucker punch, we were not dominating or threatening them and did nothing to be able to say we deserve to draw this when they got that second goal, even before they scored the second goal they had a very good chance with Hazard, so hardly a sucker punch, it was an excellent piece of play that they've been doing all season with the Fabregas-Costa combination, and we were just another victim of that combo.
I thought we played pretty well today. A couple of great moments by hazard and fabregas was the difference today. We defended well throughout the game other than allowing costa to stay onside and get through for the second goal which was disappointing. We dealt with the physical side of the game well but after the second goal heads started to drop and we looked beaten. Last season we got embarrassed here because we were too open, this time around we played the right way but it didn't work out for us. We looked like we really tired towards the end of the game, wondering if some of the players were feeling it after our midweek game? Disappointed we've lost as I don't think we played poorly. And it's even harder to swallow with Tottenham, city, utd and Liverpool all getting wins this weekend. But at least thats away games to Everton and Chelsea played and home games to city and Tottenham. Four of our big games out the way with over thirty games to play. We've got a run of very winnable fixtures coming up in the league and we need to make sure we claw back some points and try and close the gap hat has started to form towards the top of the table.
Fine margins were the difference today. We must improve our balance but I'm liking the look of the Jack-Flamini-Santi combination. Ozil can take a breather on the bench for a while.
Oh and worth mentioning I think the ref made it really difficult for us today, he made really poor decisions in regards to handing or not handing out cards, terrible performance from him and he got in the way of play multiple times. Hope he is taken off his next big match!
They were sitting extremely deep and we had constant pressure on them barring the Hazard chance before they scored from a long ranged through ball with only 1 guy in our half. IDK what that is to you but to most that's called a sucker punch.
Did anyone ever consider the reason why we pass it from side to side, I believe it's not by choice but because the opposition close off the channels that allow us to get our attacking players in more advanced areas. This forces us to play one dimensional football. Before Chelsea went ahead we were finding some openings but once they scored they were always going to sit back and allow us to retain the ball without doing anything with it. Our first attempt on target was in the 90th minute. Says it all.
Depressing that we didn't manage to win a single one of them, especially considering two of them were at home.
But that's what Chelski do, 1-0 up, and sit deep, that's their tactic, especially against us. Sit deep and then when the chance comes, hit us, they worked it very well. It was not a sucker punch, it was an excellent piece of play with them magnificently utilising their tactics, something we lack.
all that spending and the only guy to have a crack at goal was Chambers. passing it into oblivion for 9 years.
