Second half goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Pedro Neto saw the spoils shared between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.
The home side had some dangerous moments, but overall the Gunners were the better side on the day. It’s not the ideal result but after two successive away defeats, and a run of tricky away fixtures, it’s a point to build on at least.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal match report and see the goal here
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Cannot wait for the end of the interlull
Also, how many bloody interlulls are there this season?! Am I going crazy or are there more than usual? Seems to be every other week the players are being dragged off to play in games that no one cares about!
I think there are a couple more interlulls, and also you’re probably going crazy, which is understandable, because it’s a crazy amount of interlulls.
… if we use it wisely, starting from keeping our key players especially odegaard and saka out of the stupid internationals. Fingers crossed
At least Saka and Rice look like they’ll get a rest…
It’s not going to stop soon, bring on the Club World Cup. Maybe we can win that!
Frustrating game, our passing game has become so slow and we go sideways too often.
I’m liking Merino, once he’s fully integrated I think he’ll be really good for us.
Big risk playing a hurt Rice instead of him today. You could see Rice wasn’t himself, his set piece delivery was poor and his passing was poor. Think Merino is good enough to fill in.
Attack is a little out of touch, like the 95% Arteta said. Missplacing a pass by that 5 percent, missing a touch by small margin. Hope it comes better.
More depressing though, almost 2 years since singing Trossard, we seem to have no attacker to reliably change the game expect Trossard. Jesus, Zinc don’t look the players we signed. Sterling has shown nothing this far. Feel if we are to get anything this season we need a very good attacking reinforcement.
A prolific striker and a midfielder who can dribble through defense preferrably. The way Fofana drove the ball forward against us yesterday reminds me how bad I miss a Cazorla kind of player in this team.
Yes, hope Ethan could be that guy!
I think that’s a bit harsh on Sterling considering he gets brought on at the worst of times. He was okay at Bournemouth until he was sacrificed.
I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you
I’d love to change PGMOL
But I don’t know what to do
Maybe if we have a little help from our friends
Hey Joe, what are you doin with that gun in your hand?
Bravo
thought Partey did really well today, had some great turns evading their press and progressed it forward, a key part of our ability to keep some measure of control over this game. Odegaard so good despite not being anywhere near his best, I forgot how fun it is to watch him play, how he suddenly pops up as a second right back to give a passing outlet and a minute later running at the opposition keeper. Missed him so much.
Most just his passing and availability, his overall leadership and his pressing make him a really unique baller.
Partey did a great turn to pass to Odegaard for the cross for Martinelli’s goal. I also thought he was great today.
Partey is a great player, injuries blur his merit a bit, but an in form Partey is probably one of the best in the world.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Partey, but his recent performances have been really really good. He was one of those I wouldn’t have objected to letting go, but was happy to keep “in case of emergency (injuries)” – but he’s been so solid and calm lately.
I apologize for doubting you, Thomas. You’ve definitely still got it.
..it’s like some of our “fringe” players are actually pretty good, once they get a run of games… (.. I really miss Tomiyasu.. I just like him and his attitude)
Thomas Partey seems to be genuinely modest. He does not take on unnecessary risks or try to dribble three opponents in order to draw attention to himself. His game Sunday was excellent. I think the most important quality in modern football is moving the ball quickly, in which Partey excels.
Agree with your rating on Merino – that was the player I was expecting to see. I was encouraged by his performance against Liverpool, and today even more so. His arrival kind of reminds me of when we signed Gilberto. People were expecting step-overs because he was Brazilian – and when fans saw something different they were a bit perplexed. For me Merino is a Xhaka type option; perhaps a Kovacic. Not spectacular but top managers seem to trust them and believe in their contribution to the team
I was really encouraged by his performance today. Confident taking the ball in tight spaces on the half turn and using quick feet to break into space. The most progressive I’ve seen him play.
There were a couple of heart in your mouth moments where I thought to myself if he loses it here we’re in trouble – on each occasion he looked assured and made it look pretty easy. A combination of technical competency and physicality usually works well in the prem, and I suspect we are going to see more advanced play from our fullbacks joining the attack rather than sitting in midfield – and placing trust in CMs that specialise in ball recovery and progression that allows the full backs to press on (I suspect califiori and timber will be the… Read more »
Good analysis. But downvoted from me because you mentioned Kovacic. That guy should be banned from playing football after what happened last season.
That is fair. In support of your stance have an uptick
So furious with Trossard right now.
Would it make you feel better knowing it looked pretty clear that a goal wouldn’t of stood for offside
Only about half as much. Both chances he missed were probably off side but the wastefulness is what is getting to me rather than not scoring.
I thought that but the announcers acted as if it was the miss of the year.
I thought he was industrious. All strikers miss chances. He’s usually one of our better finishers so one off day isn’t the end of the world.
So Rice in midfield with Merino ahead of him or Rice in midfield ahead of Partey?
What do people think?
Merino in front of Partay.
On top of Odegaards injury i do think we are now suffering from Saka, Rice and Saliba barely getting a rest in the summer. The former seems to be feeling it at the end of every game and the other two have been short of their best with Rice in oarticular seeming a but leggy. Give Rice some weeks off.for aholiday before busy christmas period
Rice Partey Odegaard. People are disrespecting Partey way too much. Maybe some unconscious bosses there. He’s been our best midfielder this season.
Merino has looked off the pace so far but today’s cameo was an improvement. Rice is also better at eight as he doesn’t have the press resistance or passing range of a Partey. He’s very good but doesn’t offer what we need at 6 but offers a lot for what we need at 8.
I understand I wrote bosses instead of biases but I don’t know how to edit comments once posted
I think we have the best holding midfielder in England and we’re playing him as a left 8. But that just like, my opinion man.
I agree on Rice being the best at what he does.
Always play your best players in their best positions. Not always possible, but in this case it is.
That late Trossard touch hurt. can’t blame him for attempting unless Kai was calling him off. Although the one replay American TV showed it was possible Saliba was offside. They didn’t linger on it because it didn’t go in anyway
Just to help Trossard sleep, it looks like the flag went up for offside against Saliba in the build up to that chance.
Went up against Martinelli in the first half when he was clearly onside. I thought with marginal offside calls they’re not supposed to raise the flag or stop play until the phase of play is over. But they’re very quick to act when it comes to us.
They “allowed” Jackson goal.
What a joy to have Martin Ødegaard back! Fingers crossed everyone is back healthy and fit after the interlull because the team looks knackered and not 100% fit. Wish they could have that one week in Dubai!
It is a weakness that we are so dependant on Ødegaard. He is a magican of course but without him our game is grey.
Arteta has to stop this annoying habit of trying to hold on to a lead, even when we are the better side!
Chelsea was there for the taking and would have conceded a second if we kept our foot on the gas.
not sure it is Arteta. I think it is a team mentality thing.
The reason he’s manager is to reinforce right habits and talk the wrong ones out of them, I presume.
I think it’s a confidence thing and that no one is necessarily choosing to shut up shop (or attempt to at least) unless a player has been sent off.
Trossard and Jesus are the opposite of super subs. Shittersubs?
Are you the opposite of an Arsenal fan?
Quick question – are you only a fan if you are a cheerleader for players that wear our shirt ? Are you not allowed to demand more as it’s the club you support and not the players ?
What happens when we sell Jesus and trossard – which we will At the end of this season btw ? Do you then childishly say they are past their best as you can now be honest as they don’t wear out shirt ?
Fair play to vote me down for this comment. Just frustrated after this display even if it was better than a few previous. We look very different from last couple of years. Great defence but not a lot of fluency going forward. And our squad is so limited. Jesus and Trossard were very poor coming on. Trossard doesn’t do a lot except finish and he was woeful today. Sorry for frustration. I have been a fan for 52 years so I’ve certainly seen a lot worse.
Fair play to you for your reply. I do get the frustration. It’s been a frustrating year all around with injuries, refs, tough schedule, and bad luck.
Weren’t people complaining just two games ago how Trossard shouldn’t start and be a super-sub instead? He’s VERY good from the bench if you look at stats. Agree on Jesus, I wish we had more insight into what’s going on with him (injuries etc) as he once spearheaded the entire team for a whole season.
For a half season, or more like a third
Jesus is clearly struggling for form, but Trossard had some good play. I thought blogs was very kind to Martinelli in the ratings and had Saka as way more dangerous, obviously he didn’t score though.
How on earth is Trossard a shittersub? New?
Is it just me, but is Cuc actually Sideshow Bob, come to life because of some ancient curse?
More a Temu version bought on sale. The Original Sideshow Bob is still giving me heartburn, the twat. Just had to have good games against us, similar to Drogba…
He’s Marouane Fellaini’s mini-me.
The Rat boy Neville made Cockerella MOTM what a farce!
Cuntarella
GNev knows a billy-no-mates bellend fullback when he sees one. Game respects game.
He completely shut the right side down. Was a fair award.
I’m in Poland on holiday at the moment so I couldn’t watch the game. I did see about the early goal disallowed though. Did the refs get one over on us again?
No, it was a pretty clear offside. Depends on who you ask, Arsenal either had a decent game and gained a point, or not good enough and should kiss the title goodbye
Decent performance but 2.points dropped. Shouldn’t kiss the tittle goodbye, but have made it so hard that need to work near perfect to earn one
I watched it in Germany on NBCsports.com by logging into my US Dish Network account from my friend’s VPN. I love this team. We’re going to be fine. First trip to the Emirates on the 23rd. COYG!
I need to learn how to do that magic when I go abroad. I normally have to buy a skysports package for Switzerland to get the matches.
Yeah. I forgot to sync my DVR before I left home so I couldn’t log in to it through mydish. The key is the VPN if, like me, you have Peacock, satellite, Paramount+, and ESPN+ subscriptions in the US to watch all the Arsenal matches and then travel to Europe only to be reminded that you can’t access those platforms from here.
It looked offside by a small margin. It seemed fair.
It was a free kick for us that was quickly taken when Kai started a sprint to find himself behind the perplexed Chelsea defense. Chelsea started complaining to Oliver, supposedly for the quickly taken free kick, but he had no issue with that and seemed to allow the goal. VAR then showed that Kai started a bit too early and was maybe 20-30 cm offside, but it was pretty easy to see even without their lines. (They did show the image with lines as well, though) All in all quite unlucky. Don’t think that Chelsea could have prevented anything if… Read more »
Thanks everyone for informing me. Fair decision then for once. Although let’s not forget that these refs are still a bunch of bent wankers who should be tarred, feathered and carried out on a rail never to be seen or heard of again.
I am most encouraged by the performances of Odegard and Merino today, for the first time in four away games I actually thought we may score when we attacked. Shouldn’t have played Rice, anyone who has broken a toe knows how much that bloody hurts and you cannot expect to play at anywhere near 100 per cent with it.
Partey marked Palmer out of the game for long periods and definitely feel he deserves more credit for that
Blogs doesn’t like him for some reason, always marks him down. I just disregard the TP and Ben White ratings at this point, they are based very loosely on their performances, more on how much he likes them (which is his right I supposes).
Palmer had the one very good shot early and did very little the rest of the match. I think it was mostly Partey, but I’d have to watch again.
9 pts seems like a lot, but Liverpool will come down. It’s too early to be looking at them.
I’m more concerned with how far we are from City.
5 of our next 7 fixtures are teams not in the top ten, the two that are in the top ten currently are Forest at home, Fulham away.
It’s time to go on a run
Bournemouth, they were not in the top ten too… and ???
And we got a red card which cost us the game.
I think we all understand nothing is guaranteed in this league, thank you for the reminder.
Exactly!! Before we look at the opposition we need to look at ourselves and improve performance. Today’s performance should be the Bare minimum or we have more disappointments to come.
“Life is like a box of chocolates”…..
Lets go on that run
6,5 for Partey ?? I think , was the best player today alongside Odegaard
Cheer up all, Ipswich got their first win of the season!
Odegaard back is HUGE and we will undoubtedly be better going forward.
We were good in many aspects.. True, we didn’t get 3, but I take positives.. We need to stick around, keep the guys fit and start putting the ball in the net.. And go on a run of wins…With a little bit of luck, we could have all three today.. COYG… We’ll get better..
Patience.
this game we love between competitive teams is always about taking half chances. Right now we are on a streak of bad luck going ba k to august.
first time since august our preferred 11 started and our most important player played.
Personally I was a little excited to see a yellow for delay on a player not in red.
of course Oliver was disgusted he had to give it.
Colwil should have got one for backing in on Raya’s goal kick, and Palmer just before
Jesus falls down a lot. Clearly, he will be moved in the summer. Trossard can’t seem to get out of his own way but at the end of a match you go for everything. I wonder if havertz called for it. Havertz is a work horse. Nothing stops him. I felt we dominated. White so much that neto moved to the other side, something I wish our wingers would do more of. But we looked so much better with odegaard. Clearly. Our away schedule has been brutal and we’ve had to do it with injuries. Maybe we can make a… Read more »
Liverpool had a strong lead last season into March. We’ve already been to man city. Newcastle. Villa. Spurs. Chelsea. We are still in it.
Merino looked more up to pace today, I finally started feeling like something might happen with him on the ball. His close control in midfield is something we can really use at the moment. We showed today that when we can advance it forward through midfield we create open play opportunities. Gods knows we need more of those at the moment.
Arsenal is getting a little predictable. Saka and Martinelli are facing 2 defenders, reducing their effectiveness. The team need to take more shots from the centre and hope for a lucky bounce.
Calafiori / Merino will help Martinelli to blossom
We’re all over the place at the moment, hard to make out where we stand. Some things are relatively clear though:
On a positive note, I’m not sure how we can play worse/more disjointed than we currently are.
Hey, in the clear light of day, going to Stamford Bridge and coming away with a draw isn’t a disaster. Yes, we’ve been on a bad run, but in isolation, this wasn’t bad. Yes, we could have one. Yes, we should have won. Yes, Chelsea are absolute wankers, and none more so than that mop-haired twat.
*we could have WON* Apologies. Hung over.
Rice is best # 6 in league. We need Georgino and zinchenko who are CREATIVE, like Saka and Odegard. Who else is creative?
Rice is best #6 in Premier League! We need our creative players like Georgino, Zinchenko, Saka and Odergard. Who else?
Why Havertz got yellow card?
’cause Oliver is a twat