Thursday, April 25, 2024

Report: Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal

Arsenal: Szczesny, Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Wilshere, Flamini, Cazorla, Ozil, Alexis, Welbeck

Subs: Martinez, Monreal, Coquelin, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Campbell, Podolski

Arsenal’s wretched run of results against Chelsea continued at Stamford Bridge as Jose Mourinho’s side ran out comfortable 2-0 winners. In a scrappy opening half the Blues took the lead through Eden Hazard’s penalty after the Belgian was felled by Laurent Koscielny. In the second half Arsenal continued to probe but were made to pay for their tepid play in the final third when Diego Costa latched onto a Fabrgeas through ball to double the home side’s lead with 15 minutes remaining.

Pre-game

Arsene Wenger made only one change from the starting XI that demolished Galatasaray with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dropping to the bench in favour of Jack Wilshere.  On the bench Emi Martinez replaced David Ospina, while Nacho Monreal also made a welcome return after a back problem.

First half

Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes due to flare-related trouble both inside and outside the ground, the travelling Gooners seemingly ‘inspired’ by events at the Emirates in midweek. Their ranks still looked a little depleted by the time the game started.

The opening fifteen minutes were very cagey, each side happy to maintain possession of the ball without committing too many players forward. Alexis Sanchez threatened with a long range shot that flashed by Thibaut Courtois’ post and the Chilean then clattered into the Belgian on ten minutes in a clash that eventually led to him being subbed in favour of Petr Cech. It did take 12 minutes for the decision to be made by the Chelsea management, somewhat making a mockery of the new rulings on concussion.

Gary Cahill’s challenge on Alexis Sanchez had the Arsenal bench up in arms on 19 minutes. The England defender picked up a booking while the boss and Jose Mourinho indulged in a shoving match on the touchline. Both managers received a talking to from referee Martin Atkinson and the resentment transferred to the pitch.

It was Chelsea who picked up the tempo. Chambers was handed his fifth booking of the season – he’ll miss the visit of Hull – trying to tidy up a mess made by Wilshere before Eden Hazard took the game by the scruff of the neck, showing fleet of foot to bamboozle Chambers before rounding Laurent Koscielny who upended him in the box. It was a clear penalty and the Frenchman was further punished with a caution. Hazard calmly slotted home the penalty after giving Szczesny the eyes.

Arsenal laboured in response. Winning the ball wasn’t a problem, but doing anything of merit once we had it proved somewhat more challenging. Jack Wilshere looked well placed to get a shot off after a dart into the box only for a heavy touch to ruin the moment while Mesut Ozil was repeatedly guilty of dilly-dallying on the ball.

Chambers was lucky to stay on the pitch in the moments before half-time. Left exposed by a Koscielny pitch charge the right-back was on his own against Andre Schurrle and used his body to prevent the German from cutting in off the left as he reached the box. Thankfully nothing came of the resulting set piece.

Second half 

The second period was as scrappy as the first with Arsenal unsucessfully probing and Chelsea opting to hit us on the break.

On 57 minutes another Eden Hazard run caused havoc for the Gunners defence as his low hard crossed was deflected goalwards by Mathieu Flamini. Wojciech Szczesny had to throw out a strong right hand to flick it onto the post and out for a corner. The Frenchman lay on the ground looking very relieved.

At the other end Cazorla flashed wide and there was an optimistic penalty shout when Fabregas appeared to block a Wilshere shot with his hand. Chelsea thrived on choking the Gunners and clear cut chances for the visitors were sorely lacking. Probe after probe was rebuffed.

Looking to liven things up, a very unhappy Cazorla was subbed off in favour of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ozil was shuffled into a more central position. It was harsh on the Spaniard who’d been one of our better performers.

As Arsenal pushed forward so the pace of Hazard became ever more important to the home side. After fine hold up play by Costa the Belgian nearly grabbed a second as he fired over after another sprightly run into the box.

With 14 minutes remaining Costa doubled Chelsea’s lead. The damage was done by Fabregas whose fine lofted ball deceived Koscielny and as the Spanish striker bore down on goal he lofted a finish over Szczesny. After the failed intricacy of Arsenal’s play the Blues route one play was ruthless.

Podolski and Tomas Rosicky came on for Sanchez and Wilshere respectively but their presence did little to revive hopes of a comeback. In injury time the frustration got to Welbeck who floored Cesc Fabregas with a challenge that might easily have earned him more than a yellow.

Full-time came as a welcome relief, as it so often does at the Bridge. It may not have been as traumatic as last season’s 6-0 hammering but the fact we looked equally toothless in the face of Mourinho’s stubborn defence is still a major cause for concern. The Blues are walking away with the title at the moment, remaining unbeaten and a full nine points ahead of us.

We now have 13 days to mope before the visit of Hull City. A shit Sunday all round.

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La Défense

Depressingly predictable 🙁

Remember the invincibles

Absolutely. Can’t really fault our players for effort though. Wilshere was growing into the game when he got subbed off. Irritated about that Fabregas assist. You’d think koscielny would know all about that pass.

Maureen to his players: whenever u lose the ball in their final third, kick them hard, he knew we’ve got the pace to hurt them on the break, call it negative tacticts but it really worked for them and they just opened a nine point gap between them and us.

Gargoyle

That’s my point. Compare their fouls to our naive ones and you’ll see the difference. Sometimes I think our players lack guidance.

thw14

This result isn’t good, but it’s not the problem. The problem is that we come into a game like this needing to win to stay in touch. Mourinho never ever has to chase a big game because he makes sure he steamrolls all the easy ones. The real failure is dropping six points vs. Spurs, Leicester and Everton.

Guys, we’re disappointed often enough when we endure performances below our expectations. This was a match that exactly met expectations. Don’t bother getting down on this one.

Swedegunner

This is just not true. On the contrary, Mourinho’s teams are beasts against the top 4, but woeful against the others. Google some tables that are calculated with, and without the top 5 or something. Arsenal are usually ahead in those, and Chelsea are like 5th-6th

Swedegunner

Well, if people are going to thumb me down, here’s the evidence:

https://twitter.com/behnisch/status/518110389985615872

cheeky boy

Fault our players for effort? Perhaps but you can fault them in quality, there was a massive gulf in class between the two sides today. No question. Where was Ozil? It’s a shame, but it is a rather predictable wake up call; we lack the quality and killer instinct to compete at the highest level.

Az Ahmed

I’m sorry but there was not a huge gulf in class and Arsenal was in the game for most of the game. They lacked a bit of that drive up front. Wilshere was doing the right thing and running at their defence. I am surprised we didn’t start the Ox, Welbeck and Sanchez up front along with Ozil in the middle. The rest could sit back and defend. We needed pace and drive. Another important thing missing is any type of penetration in set pieces. We are terrible at free kicks and corners. Positioning is terrible when attacking and defending.… Read more »

Rob67

And predicted. Our first shot on goal came in injury time. How can you hope to win games with that as a fact ? They had Hazard and Costa. We had Ozil – who was dire – and Wilshere in the first half wasn’t much better. But the big difference is that they have belief, organisation and tactics and in these games we just don’t. That’s down to Wenger and demonstrates that he’s lost his mojo for the big occasions and I can’t see how it’s coming back. But the people who run the Club are only interested in keeping… Read more »

Remember the invincibles

In fairness to wenger, he showed a little fire. I loved his push on mourinho. Should have just knocked him out

muchadoaboutnot

Yeah, if you can’t “beat” him, beat him.

Daft Aider

shame he has run out of ideas about how to fire the players up

Err

I think most of them were fired up, they just weren’t as good or as strong.

muchadoaboutnot

The end is nigh! 😀

Maniac

Like the commentators said, we really never looked like winning this game. We were decent on the break but once again when Chelsea pull everyone back we were completely devoid of any good attacking ideas and instead tried to create the perfect goal with lots of short passes around the box. On the more defensive front we just weren’t getting close enough to the Chelsea players, which was a real problem when players like Hazard has space to roam and pick out passes. The need for a big and strong CDM was evident throughout the first half and also on… Read more »

RaekwonTheChef

If we signed Fabregas, we would be top of the league.

Mohan

Fabregas alone is not the reason for Chelsea being top. He is just one of the reasons.Even if Chelsea had not signed Fabregas, they would have signed some player with same quality because of their financial power. But if Arsenal had signed Fabregas, we would not have signed Sanchez or cazorla would have departed and either ramsey/wilshere would have been dropped to bench permanently. After putting so much efforts in ramsey and wilshere and both of them are in verge of becoming world class players , it is correct decision not to buy fabregas.

A Yank

Cesc has more assists in the Prem than the entire Arsenal side.

Sorry, it was the wrong decision.

locksley444

Yes, Because he has a team around him that needs his creativity. We have a team of creative players. What we need is the width to stretch backlines and a striker/AM that can exploits the gaps created and score. Oh, and lets not forget needing a solid DM like Matic that can hold the ball, absorb pressure(pressing from the other team) and defend well in the midfield.

modific

F*ck Cesc.

KingKolo

Sorry Ramsey and Wilshere are not on the verge of becoming world class players. Although I think Jack should look at Mesut and think, I’m gonna oust you out of this team… he has to. And he can. Question is, has Wenger got the balls to drop Mesut.

GoonerN16

Or has AW got the balls to drop Jack, more to the point… IMO

Runkeball

Even more to the point, does Wenger have the balls to drop Maureen on his arse next time?

Oly

Sorry guys i really dont see what the fuss is about Jack, he is no better than Carzola or Rosicky to me, if he was not English i think he would have been sold, our silly plan A game has been found out long time ago, but our tactically inept manager see he cant beat Morinho in football, and decides to physically beat him up?

Imagine if a manager that we always beat shoves Wenger like that what will the pathetic fans supporting Wenger say?

Mike Hunt

Mourinho knows what he wants and he sorts it out quickly – in little over a year he has turned a team that looked to be fading away into what appears to be now the best team in England. All the defenders as a unit and individuals are markedly better than they were before he arrived (Wenger please note) and he looks on course to transition in a new young goalkeeper successfully. He needed a creative midfield player so he buys Fabregas when we had first option on him after the hugely disappointing buy that is Ozil (for nearly twice… Read more »

Rodders1971

Wow,70 thumbs down,incredible…it’s true that there’s none so blind that can’t see.
Wenger OUT-1 lucky FA Cup in a decade IS failure.

cb

They have bigger stronger players, it is men vs boys physically. We need Vieira/Petit/Gilberto/Henry/Bergkamp types, all big skilful guys, as Chelsea favour, rather than Cazorla/Wilshere/Ozil/Sanchez/Flamini, all small skilful guys.

Once we have some of the first sort we will have a far better chance.

WindyCityArse

True… However, Maureen does love himself a bit of Wenger on toast…. loves that stuff more than a crack addict loves crack. So would not matter who we had out there, Maureen would have a crafty plan to get himself his bit of Wenger on toast…
Mr Mackey wanted me to tell y’all…’drugs are bad…mmmkaay’

Unionjack

But you gotta realise the Professor started this crap with Mourinho. And its not the first (or no doubt the last) rivalry and touch line bust up hes started. Look at hoiw long he kept that going with Fergie. I know managers sometimes like to say comments TRYING to get under the opponents skin but I reckon Wenger enjoys rowing. And Im sure he says stuff at times to get his mame in the media to have his ego stroked.Theres lists of managers and players hes had rows with Kenny Dalglish Alan Pardew`Martin Jol Mark Hughes and not to forget… Read more »

Oly

Agree 100%
If Wenger does not go back to buying MEN, i mean physically strong/tall players, he will never win the BPL ever again!

All these midgets wont cut it, i feel for those whose hard earned meager money pays this silly deluded man 8 million a year.

UdGooner

hmmm….so you’re saying that short football players (which includes your previous/current arsenal heroes such as ian wright, freddie ljungberg, cesc himself, santi cazorla, arshavin, etc. or other world class players from the past and now such as maradona and messi) are not men?

back to school with you. terribly ‘short’ sighted comment mate.

Gooner1

Look, we had 5 1st team players out (Debuchy, Arteta, Ramsey, Walcott and Giroud 4 out of the 5 definately wouldve started if not all of them and) and chelsea had virtually a full strength team. They shouldve been down to 10 in the first half but the ref was giving them everything. We are in the title race, we’re less than 19% of the way through the season so anyone who rules us out now is an idiot. I still say next year is our year for sure when all our signings had a full year to settle in… Read more »

muchadoaboutnot

Oh, how I luv good pragmatic dream. Keep it up buddy 😉

john

We did get destroyed in midfield. We had one shot on target in time added on and that’s shows you exactly who had the real control over the ball.

Dexterbear

They had only 2 in the Whole Game and One was a penalty

john

It was enough to win and both were before our single shot on target

Oly

Dream on mate, am sure you were one of those saying at least we are still unbeaten last weak?

Mate, unless he buys/gets 2 solid tall DMs and a CB, we wont win ANYTHING, not this season anyway.

Aussie gooner

We can moan about the referee all day, and he was fucking shit , but the truth is, and Not many will wanna hear this. We didn’t deserve anything out of that game.

ozil is fucking shite, best attacking midfielder in the Epl could have come to us but we chose to let him go to Chelsea , and today we payed the price, that fact that ozil got 90 minutes today while santi got taken off is absolute bollocks.

In saying all of that, fuck mourinho and those cunts from Chelsea

Gooneron

Painful to say it but it was men against boys. Many players did disappearing acts in.this game. Wilshire however tried to make things happen. Wengers substituions at times perplex. Oh and by the way Mourinho is a cunt.

Arteta's hair

Here we go. Özil the scapegoat as usual.
“Fucking shite”, but arguably our best player in the last 3 games. Wasn’t bad today either.

We lost as a team today, against a, frankly, better team. It fucking sucks, but that’s reality.

Aussie gooner

Ozil’s job in a game like today is to break down defences, you all said he struggled last season because he had no pace ahead of him, well guess what? We now have pace and he’s still going missing in big games.

Cazorla > ozil

john

Flamini, Wilshere and Cazorla didn’t create quality possession, all the possession we had was on Chelsea’s terms and where they were happy for us to have it. Our game management and intelligence is sadly missing when we play the big matches

Gooneron

another reality is that Ozil wasnt particularly good today also hence the critism.

Podobviouski

BEST?
Give me an honest answer, would we have been worse off if Chamberlain started in place of Ozil?
No.
Did you see that one bit when he was under no pressure and he failed to keep the ball in play? All he had to do was stretch a leg. But no, he’s too “languid” for that. We lost possession countless times because of him. He’s a good player and all, but he has to be benched for good.

Arteta's hair

Özil’s Arseblog player rating in the previous three games:

vs Villa: 8,5
vs Sp*rs: 7,5
vs Gala: 8,5

Now one below par game, and he has to “be benched for good”?

Short term memory, huh?

Szczesny's left thumb

Oh pls!! Cazorla at least tries to get into such positions where he combines for the Wilsher type 1-2 passes and the final ball is a sweet ball over the top of the defence with a charging sneakybforward on the end of it with only the keeper to beat. You’d expect the one time best assister over five seasons in all of Europe to do this with ease! You’d also expect a Fabregas for Costa OR Song Billong for Van Persie type passes between Ozil and our fast and physical forwards Sanchez, Welbeck but hes goddamned too busy trying to… Read more »

Pearson

How difficult is it for Mourinho to shut down a one footed player?
Ozil will never shape against Mourinho

WindyCityArse

Has to be either Ozil or Cazorla in the no10 role in these games… Cazorla over Ozil every-time unless Ozil changes his attitude and stops poncing and faffing about the field like a fairy.

German Gunner

Fuck, that was depressing, Ozil is the lazyist cowardy fucker I have ever seen in an Arsenal shirt, He needs to go, what does he have to do to get substituted? Even his team mates are on his back, I said this last Wednesday and predicted that he would be shite today and got 4,000 thumbs down, shows what they know. Anyone can see that he is not suited to the premership

muchadoaboutnot

I’m quite surprised at a few of the choice words being used on Ozil here on a day when he played well but just does not have the Fabregas midas touch 😉

0o2Be

Honestly, fuck your opinion. I saw exactly what you said last time and it was bollocks as well. We shot ourselves in the foot once again today, and I’m not happy about where we are right now, but putting it on one player in the manner that you have is just unsubstantiated. Don’t try and take the high ground, it doesn’t sit well at a time like this

muchadoaboutnot

Yeah, that gets you a few thumbs up including mine.

Hi-brid

…and that, sadly, is why we will never again win the league under Arsene Wenger. What have we learned in the last ten years about how to beat the big sides? I fear it cannot be down to individual playing personnel – we have a very good side on paper – but to collective organization and invention.

Remember the invincibles

It’s amzing that we’re below Man Utd with all their documented troubles. And below Spurs. that’s emabarassing. Time to go on a proper winning run.

Giroud Awakening

But in fairness, Utd have had a string of fairly easy games, whereas we have played City, Chelsea, Everton and Spurs, 3 of whom are above us.

A Yank

That Spurs side is shit. How we couldn’t beat them at home is baffling. That and Everton have about the worst defense in the league right now. But we dropped points to both of them. We can’t beat legit title contenders and we drop points to teams that we’re probably going to end up battling for 4th. I’m not going to shout for change just for the sake of change—United don’t seem to be doing too well post-SAF—but the people in charge at Arsenal seem to think that doing the same things over and over might somehow yield a different… Read more »

Remember the invincibles

We should have beaten City, Everton and Spurs. We were poor in those games.

Oly

There are too many deluded Arsenal fans, did we beat ManU last season even with the shit manager they had?

The problem has been with us for over 6 years yet our deluded manager thinks he can win with these midget boys in MF.?

Mr. White

I fuckin hate chelsea

Nick

I will never ever understand how a rational human being can support Chelsea.

cb

Most are kids, who only want to support a winning side, or hooligans from the 80s.

SFGiants

They’re called bandwagoners. Or front-runners. You see them in all sports, and it’s best to ignore them.

WengersNoseHair

Finally a comment we can all agree on.

halifa11

I had started to suspect that Venga has started to grow a clown’s big red nose. However, not in my wildest dreams had I imagined he’d substitute Santi before Wilshere or Ozil today. He’s reached new levels of incompetence he has. (Btw, Ox should’ve started. He was making the right signals before the match and played really well when he came on.)

supertom7

For f**k’s sake

La Défense

I just don’t know anymore… What do we have to do to beat chavs

Gargoyle

We didn’t win, and we never will, because Mertesacker is slow as fuck, even if he does have other qualities. Our defenders are not mobile enough to be threatening from corners or set-pieces and our play makers suddenly get amnesia when it’s time to deliver one. Because players work their socks off, yet their efforts are largely misdirected and fruitless because there is no real team coherence. That’s why we’re good at passing but horrendous at everything else. Because even though we have decent passers, most lack the passing range to execute razor-sharp passes that would stretch opposition defenders. We… Read more »

Gargoyle

Sorry, guys. My only crime was hoping that, for once, we will win it. Little did I know that the team will do their best to stomp on my hope enough times that I snap and rage-comment on Arseblog news.

WindyCityArse

You mentioned BFG’s lack of pace and the tactical limitations it causes against the better sides… Behave… Can’t have people pointing out obvious flaws in bfg’s game on here. It’s bordering on criminal behavior..

john

What we need is a really quick defender like John Terry! :/

Rodders1971

Out play them?Score more than them?Simples,no?

ThaatArsenalGuy

I hate the fact that this could have been redemption for last year, but also a sign of progression. Instead, we are once again fucked over by a combination of naive team selection/subs, and an atrocious referee.

vnet

I don’t think the team selection was wrong nor can you blame the referee. We actually looked more solid. But in the end, we’ve got to face the truth, Chelsea were better than Arsenal in all departments.

Gargoyle

Oh, which defender should’ve we selected to not concede a penalty?

Gargoyle

vnet nailed it.

vieria

blame the ref thats something our loser manager gets off sayin, give me a break. dont even mention the ref ffs, absolutely nothing to do with our loss today, one shot on target and trying to tippy tap it down through the middle of chelsea, na the ref and mourinho are cunts – sad bastards

Mootilated

No surprise. Expected. Onto the next game

gnabry's arse

I love ozil but why can’t he play those kinds of fabregas’s through passes more often

ach

Because Chelsea have 9 player behind the ball , while Arsenal only got 2.

Lickin Wang

because he can’t

vnet

Forget Fabregas. Compare Ozil’s vs Oscars workrate. I know who I’d rather have. If he is the best number 10 in the world, why do we spend most of our time defending him.

blackstargooner

I wouldn’t have Oscar. He should have been sent off; it took him 6 fouls before he earned a yellow. Ozil played well for the first 25-30 minutes. When we went down a goal and Chelsea started playing deep, which is expected, then he began his over-elaborating his jukes and gave the ball away. Matic and Hazard are the biggest differences between Arsenal and Chelsea; with Matic, neither Cahill nor Terry had to press Welbeck because Matic could sit deep and cover him, while the other two defenders doubled up when need or covered gaps for passes. Chelsea are beatable.… Read more »

Penguin

just bored now.

I would sack Wenger just to freshen things up, if nothing else, because every season with us now is a foregone conclusion.

CB

We lose to bigger spending teams, full stop. I don’t think a new manager would change that and would probably make it worse.

Let’s see how Arsene does now the financial handbrake is off a bit.

ach

Ozil is good, r-right guys?

Eric Blair

I couldn’t watch the game today and I wasn’t too disappointed beforehand, expecting more or less what happened. Of course I can’t make a good judgement on the game having only followed the live blog, but quickly checked the statistics, 0 shots on goal which to me tells a story, a story that has so often been repeated in big games over the last three to four years. They even had their reserve goalkeeper in and we really ought to have tested him. Too often we are limp, seemingly impotent to impose our game against top opposition. It cannot be… Read more »

Sheffield Goon

Agreed. Out of the C1 Cup, seventh in the league, the manager is simply not capable of getting the team to play consistently well. Millions spent and we are still soooooo dull and frustrating. Bollocks.

Kos the boss

Really ? that’s a reserve keeper?

blackstargooner

How many shots on goal did Chelsea have? It was a game of few shots, but several chances created by both sides that went nowhere. Statistics are fine, but if you didn’t even watch the game, then how can you contextualize what happened?

Silent Stan's Content Mustache

Shit all around, at least we got this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5hd-RJUHIg

naijagooner

Oh, that was a good day!!!! I still remember seeing that and genuinely thinking Terry was dead.

Rictastic

I resigned myself to the fact we will never win the league under Wenger 5 seasons ago so to me winning games against big teams is usually a bonus. As I said last season when we lost to City, we’ve lost to the eventual champions.

Lickin Wang

At least it was only the two goals this time! Camaan, look at the positives

Pi

what the fuck were those substitutions?

I’m sorry but Ozil was shite today

La Défense

Worryingly inept 2nd half performance.

Le_Dooner

Same shit. Different season.
Failure to invest in key areas has cost us again. Tactically outsmarted as usual. No surprise really.

Glocken

Same old shit, same shit tactics, same small weak squad. same old past it Manager still in charge.

Wenger out.

dickarse

Poor management costs AFC another year without progress. Time for change.

GarmentDistrict

We have so many creative players, yet create hardly anything. No shots til the 90min is q joke. We were all over them for most of the 2nd half but they sucked it all up and then bam straight up the other end and goal.
Ozil must be the weakest player in the league, strengthwise. If we sent Sanogo away to build up his body strength maybe we should do the same with Mesut. Makes me sick to see Cesc pulling the strings for them when he could’ve so easily been doing it for us.
Pissed off

spinner

9 points off the lead. Behind Manure and Spuds.

Barca – “do you want Fabregas back?”
AW – “erm, no thanks.”

natural-gooner

The last 4 games we have not scored an single goal against Chelsea, they have scored 10 against us.. We are again and again getting showed off with our performances, we were second best in all defensive apartments. We see no change in performance against the topteams, wenger needs to go and he needs to go now. Out of idea’s and he has not invested money in to the defense and defensive midfielder position which was what costed us today. Koscielny was mindlessingly stupid to pull his leg out in an situation like that instead of just trying to stop… Read more »

La Défense

I feel for the teams collective confidence after a performance like this. The likes of Sanchez must be wondering wtf have I signed up for…

Should have played Coquelin instead of Wilshere. Cowardly tactics from the manager I’m afraid.

Policeman's Bangers 'N' Mash

The real tragedy is all is no-nothing armchair fans could see it made sense bringing Cesc back and that it was no surprise at all seeing Cesc be Cesc and destroy us with the pass to Costa. Whereas Ozil minutes later walked the ball out of play. Horrible contrast and just horrible to see. It saddens me to see the rather awesome albeit paint-dry tactics of Chelsea completely extinguish our choking play. It’s horrible to watch Mourinho do that to us consistently. Tactically superior yet abhorrent and just a better bunch of players overall. 2 wins 4 draws 1 loss.… Read more »

UnByeUsGoner

Just want to say, I was wrong. We never got devoured or smashed or embarrassed, but you’d have to say another Mourinho master class.

Did you see the attempted lofted pass by Wiltshere, only for Fab to show him how it was done, really peed me off man.

The boys did really well though, atleast it wasn’t another cricket score.

Don Cazorleone

The saddest thing of all is that there were no masterclass tactics from Mourinho. Standard tactics are enough to beat us these days. Stop us from playing “our way” and that’s about it. This idealistic philosophy from Wenger, that we don’t need to worry about the opposition and just to concentrate on ourselves, is as un-evolving and static as knowing that stoke are going to kick you and play long balls. It’s predictable. That monstrous twat Fergie said in his “book” that the way to beat Arsenal was simply to let us have the ball, we eventually make our own… Read more »

dirty neilo

saw my team play against chelsea and stay in pthe game for 75 mins so so not all bad. *sobs*.
still fucking love them.

Dexterbear

Key Moments:

Cahill not seeing red

Terrible defending for first goal

Wilshere miss control when had a golden opportunity to equalise

Terrible defending for second goal

taking off santi

Giroud Awakening

Cesc’s blatant hand ball

Dexterbear

Yeah sorry forgot that.

blackstargooner

One announcer from BEIN said that the rules state it is a handball if the arms are not in a natural position (i.e. by your sides); the other (I muted it later because he was on the WUM) said that Fabregas’s arms were in a natural position (in the air), therefore not a handball. Complete twat of a commentator.

MERTESCIELNY

John Terry is a cunt

Cracked

It was all a bit predictable wasnt it? It was a very even game settled by two moments of brilliance, but how many times have we seen this before

Legrande

If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.

Gooner Mon

Everyone was shit today. Singling out Ozil doesn’t mean our other players were any better. Nothing at all in the world would change the outcome of that match. Chelsea controlled the game well and at no point did it even look like we would get anything. Ozil was shit but again so was everyone so stop this ridiculous blame game. I really dare anyone to pick a moment of brilliance from anyone today… Go ahead

Dexterbear

we were just as good as them until 2-0. I have to agree tho that apart from wilshere and alexis both miscontrolling when through on goal we created nothing

Paki Gooner

I’ve been defending Ozil for too long. The difference between him and the other Arsenal players is that he’s our most expensive signing and he’s supposed to be one of the best players in the world. Every time he plays bad, he’s showing that he’s not worth the money and he’s not as good as people thought.
A player like him has to be pulling the strings, just like Fabregas is doing for Chelsea. Ozil really needs to step up his game.

Dexterbear

he does but he his not a winger. when he starts in the middle he finds space by drifting wide. a bit like henry did. start him wide and he drifts inward into congested areas.

for example chambers has the skill set to play cb or rb but the bfg who is an excellent cb would be rubbish at right back.

santi can play all over the place but özil has to start in the middle or not at all

Indian_Gooner

To be very honest, there was nothing unpredictable in the result. The one game where I wanted Ozil to show his real worth, he was disappointing to say the least, as was the entire team. The only thing worth watching today was Wenger pushing that c*nt of a manager on the touchline.

Goontang

Pathetic really. Never looked like we were in the game, which is becoming pretty standard these days against the big clubs. Not sure why that is, but wengers definitely got to take the blame.

He seems more fussed about talking to the forth official about time wasting than focusing on the tactical game.

Same old same old dog fight for 4th place type of season.. man utd have jumped us in the table. How depressing

john

17 defeats from 21 away matches against the other teams in the top 5 from the last 5 seasons, that a loss percentage of over 80%!!! The manager has to go. He has no intension of changing tactic or players to try to compete and that means his job is untenable. It doesn’t matter which formation we play if the personnel are wrong. Playing Cazorla or Wilshere in deep lying midfield doesn’t make us stronger in defence, they are just not suited to the job and until that is addressed, or even attempted to be addressed we are doomed to… Read more »

Bellerin's Bellend

Fuck Cesc Fabregas. All of you that fawn over him as if he won us multiple leagues and european cups are genuinely misguided folk. He conned us and traded us for pieces of silver. The look on his face when he celebrated the second like he came through the Chelsea youth ranks makes me sick. And a word for. Wenger, your arrogance is costing us and is manifested in your obsolete tactics and prehistoric attitude to football. Shape up or ship out.

natural-gooner

Blame wenger for letting him go to Chelsea, lol.. There is a reason why he did not go here.

gunman

I will probably get thumbed down for this , but mertesacker is a liability in big games . Whenever we go a goal down we cant push up and if we do , ball over his top and he doesnt even run back . It showed in algeria too when germany played high line where neuer saved them and he was dropped. It happens every time and kos cannot always cover him and often suffers as a result . I love the man but we cant push up with him at back . Worst thing is he doesnt even run… Read more »

Wangge

It has to be said, tactical-wise, Mou is better than Wenger.
You can’t cloud that fact by downvoting me.

Dexterbear

how was it in anyway tactical? they both just played basicaly the same team and set up as always.

the big differences were hazard (who we couldnt afford when he signed) and 2 pieces of woefull defending.

natural-gooner

They made us look like shit offensively, we did not create much at all. They saw us out with our performance and won it easy.

4 last games..: Chelski 10 – 0 Arsenal… Surely, it has to do with more than just individual quality? Just the fact that we do not even manage to score against them in over 360 minutes says it clear thing. I honestly think that Wenger should go.

Dexterbear

if chelsea had changed tactics from previous games against other teams then it would be tactical but they played their normal 4321.

If you have enough players of higher individual quality then you should win right?

also i only meant about today. last year at the bridge we were awful tactically

natural-gooner

They are usually way more aggressive, they played defensively and waited for our naive approach to things to occur and it did. They know that they can make damage to us on the counter as the only threat we make to them are offensively.

blackstargooner

What tactics did you see that overwhelmed the game? Hazard made a great run through the middle of the field, past our slow DM (Flamini), past Mertesacker, and over Koscielny who took the wrong angle and probably should’ve let Wojiech see the ball out. It wasn’t a counter against naive Arsenal; it was a moment of individual play. The first half against Chelsea was probably the most stout/resilient of a performance from Arsenal this year–the players fought back against Chelsea’s cynical tackles and dirty tricks (Cahill leaving his foot in on Sanchez). Matic and Hazard were the main differences between… Read more »

Nick

Unfortunately it’s not even just tactically anymore. That’s what I hate most about Chelsea this year. They needed a great striker and a creative midfielder, and that’s who they bought.

We needed a defensive midfielder, striker, and center back, and only got one of those.

DialSquareGoon

The 6-0 loss was embarrasing. With this one, i just feel helpless. I mean, what do we have to do to beat these fuckers?! Why do they cut us us so easily? Fuck!

aich0

At the end of the day, our players really did play ok (although not fantastic), and stats also say that we really kept Chelsea off their attack. It’s just so sad to see Arsene lose once again against Maureen and see our players suffer defeat from those cunts.

I hope we can come back stronger after the interlull.

2he0 Walcott

Seen that performance so many times over last 10 years. Red arrow all you like but as a club we will go nowhere with Wenger in charge. He’s had the money last 3 windows and done nothing and his obsession with Ozil is a joke.

A Yank

Fucking hell. I know I should move on from not buying Cesc back but today was every reason why we should have done it.

We didn’t need him? Bullshit how does any team not need one of the best creative mids on the planet. Sell players to make room for him. This is on Wenger in so many ways.

fury

Ozil is never subbed off, even when he is playing shit! I dont hate him, santi was wayy better so was wilshere who i thought was our best player offensively

whatever

I cant ever see us defeat chelski or mancity, and our innate arsenalness will make us drop points against lower opposition and anyone who have banks of physical defenders……….could we compete with the players we got? we should, please remove wenger, because I cant blame all our players anymore and hold him the saint, he’s a legend but he has to go, last season us leading was only a mirage and we should not give the man another chance to the man off of that. get Simeone or Conte or Klopp. Please or we will never win anything and be… Read more »

George the Gooner

Predictable rubbish. Before the game we all knew we’d lose. Sort it out WENGER!

Kos the boss

I hate to say this , but we don’t even play beautiful football anymore and we haven’t for a couple of years. We have no identity as a team just attempted flicks near a crowded penalty box is not a game plan. Really need to start getting results and playing better as well

Die Hard Gunner

We can moan and cry all we want but that won’t bring back the 3 points, onward and forward, it is not the end of the world. But in between, Mourningho still remains a massive c*nt as well as johh terry.

butters

Best thing to do is to move on to next match. I always try to see fans of palace or Norwich who day by day supports their team when being thrashed 10-0 to top clubs. If Mourning is our manager one day I’ll support the club on its worse nightmare days. Better luck next time

fresh prince

Can we do ‘Wenger out’ yet or will the holier than thou brigade come and shut us up with a balance sheet? How did ozil and Wilshere not get dragged off at half time or even before. How has Wenger managed to go all this time without forcing ozil to toughen up. Send him to the gym ffs. He is fucking useless, we missed out on Cesc because of that lazy twat? And then he pulls Cazorla off, bonkers. As for the ref being awful, he was awful for both sides. Kos should have gone as should have cahil. No… Read more »

Crew

Wilshere was our best player today and Ozil actually has good body strength he just doesn’t use it (maybe because he’s always trying to avoid injuries) which is very frustrating. seeing Silva, Coutinho etc holding their own while Ozil looks like a little kid getting shoved off the ball constantly is ridiculous.

meletios

Ozil is not a big game player and then AW takes Cazorla off, ofcourse he was not happy. Ozil should not be played in big games.

Dont know what else to say, f****d up my weekend, you have AW.

CB

Like they World Cup Final? Hmmmm….

CB

Like the World Cup Final? Hmmmm….

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