Arsenal v Chelsea | 10/5/09 | 16:00

[Invincible]

Were the players around them the same?

Football doesn't work like that Invincible. It's a team sport.

edit: klaus beat me to it lol

With the exception of Flamini, they were the same players.

I know it's a team game, but that doesn't excuse Silvestre's faults. He's made so many mistakes, some resulted in goals, many didn't.

Stats are an interesting way of looking at things. I just thought I'd post them anyway.

 

[True Gooner]

Silvestre's been okay, didn't really expect anything more from him to be honest.

Senderos was better, but he did want to move on - hopefully his experience at Milan has taught him that he's better off here.

 

[General]

Hiddink demonstrated the value of a proactive approach today by - when it looked like Bosingwa was getting aerially overpowered by Bendtner, he wasted no time in taking him off for the taller Ivanovich.

As for the Bendtner/Phil debate - It's one area of the pitch which demands the utmost quality and both are quite simply not good enough. I feel with better coaching, we can salvage something from Big Phil but the guy is an emotional disaster.

Absolutely shocking on MOTD - Wow. Some of our defending, especially in midfield was comical to say the least. At one point - we had Song,Cesc and Nasri in Chelsea's half without particularly pressing anyone. One ball took all 3 out!

 

[Invincible]

Hiddink demonstrated the value of a proactive approach today by - when it looked like Bosingwa was getting aerially overpowered by Bendtner, he wasted no time in taking him off for the taller Ivanovich.

As for the Bendtner/Phil debate - It's one area of the pitch which demands the utmost quality and both are quite simply not good enough. I feel with better coaching, we can salvage something from Big Phil but the guy is an emotional disaster.

Absolutely shocking on MOTD - Wow. Some of our defending, especially in midfield was comical to say the least. At one point - we had Song,Cesc and Nasri in Chelsea's half. One ball took all 3 out!

Wenger would never do something like that.

For brains, Hiddink>Wenger. Comfortably.

 

[ricky1985]

So does anyone have the phone number of a 6'2", athletically built, monster of a defensive midfielder that they can pass on to Wenger?

 

[Cruisio]

And how many games has Silvestre played this season? Basically im trying to work out his game to goal conceded ratio. Needless to say im not confident it will look too good. Im with anyone else that has said that loaning out Senderos and bringing in Silvestre wasnt Wengers best idea

 

[ricky1985]

Silvestre is nowhere near as bad as you lot are making out. Not even close.

He's not a great player by any stretch of the imagination, but he's reasonably solid in most aspects of the game. He is one of the most exposed centrebacks in the league at the moment. Constantly facing a one-on-one, or having to make last ditch tackles. Our defenders have it bloody hard with the midfield they have to play behind. It's tough.

 

[IBL]

So does anyone have the phone number of a 6'2", athletically built, monster of a defensive midfielder that they can pass on to Wenger?

I'm sure Kolo does

 

[General]

So does anyone have the phone number of a 6'2", athletically built, monster of a defensive midfielder that they can pass on to Wenger?

It won't take long for him to become a 6'2" walking disaster. I've been saying all along that our culture to defending needs to be seriously overhauled. It’s a deep rooted issue going back a number of seasons and the acquisition of new personnel will only paper over the cracks. We seem to pass the buck from one player to the other and it was quite piteous watching Alan Hansen (on match of the day) deliver a scathing indictment on our defending today. It was schoolboy stuff!

 

[sabret00the]

We can't get a break lately. I thought we were the better team today, which makes it extra painful to lose 1-4.

Wenger's ridiculous tactics actually worked today, RvP seems to be a much better targetman than Ade. He also seems to have realized that Nasri is an attacking midfielder and Cesc isn't. Shame we are still shocking defensively.

worked? we got one shot on target and the rest were from hard angles. walcott isn't a winger, get him central in front of goal, stop giving him all that work to do, against intelligent teams, he just doesn't have what it takes to get central. there are other problems with today too, but worked they most certainly didn't. our possession was innocuous and we paid for it in the scoreline. Wenger's ridiculous tactics failed again.

Behave.

We bossed their midfield and created twice as many easy chances. The defence was lacking at crucial moments (and by defence I mean the team as a whole) and Cech was in good form.

You're right, we did boss the midfield, even with two anonymous midfielders and one playing wide striker, but nonetheless our possession in the final third was benign when alls said and done. more seasoned strikers would've buried those chances but it takes pros at the top of their game to do that, not arsenal...

 

[JazzG]

Strange game, in the first half we played some of the best attacking football we have in months and carved open a very good Chelsea team almost at will but the finishing was so terrible. On another day Theo could of had a hatrick and his finishing isn't that bad you know but today in the first half he just kept ****ing up.

Chelsea were ruthless though and in the 2nd half especially every time they went forward they looked a threat. Our right side defensively was a disgrace, the amount of times Cole was allowed to bomb up freely was just silly. We can't keep playing Theo in that kind of a position if we are gonna leave ourselves so badly exposed like that. Scoreline flattered them big time as well

I looked at the system today and switch RvP with Eduardo and Diaby with Arshavin and I think the results would of been a whole lot better. Saying that I thought RvP was ok for us but we really need to incorporate Eduardo into our side as the number of chances we miss is just ridiculous.

 

[AFCFan4Ever]

The telling aspect of the match for me was that Chelsea looked like they were in second gear the entire game, esp. going forward, while we were in 3rd or 4th gear and yet they were still up 3-0...it was that easy. Shocking.

Wenger's stubbornness about tactics, players, etc. has been questionable for a while now but now it's just downright ridiculous. When will the man realize that you don't play a 4-5-1 at home, esp. with someone like van Persie who'd rather create and take players on, leading the line....or the fact that Abou Diaby a) shouldn't be anywhere near the Starting XI or b) CAN'T PLAY ON THE FRIGGIN' WING.

I mean these things aren't hard at all to realize, why is it that we can all see it but Arsène can't? So frustrating.

I can't believe he thinks we're one or two quality players away...we're at least four QUALITY players away from competing again. Sorry but the Diaby, Denilson, Silvestre, and Fabianski's of the world aren't going to win you trophies.

I just don't even know what to think anymore TBH.

 

[Cruisio]

Silvestre is nowhere near as bad as you lot are making out. Not even close.

He's not a great player by any stretch of the imagination, but he's reasonably solid in most aspects of the game. He is one of the most exposed centrebacks in the league at the moment. Constantly facing a one-on-one, or having to make last ditch tackles. Our defenders have it bloody hard with the midfield they have to play behind. It's tough.

The only reason I bring it up is because Gallas has been playing behind pretty much the same midfield all season, and we've not conceded nearly as many with him in the side. They only constant in those high conceding defeats compared to better defensive performances is Silvestre. Im not saying its purely down to him because it isnt, but its astounding how many goals we concede with him in the side

 

[Biggus]

So does anyone have the phone number of a 6'2", athletically built, monster of a defensive midfielder who's a free agent and willing to play for food from the Arsenal canteen, that they can pass on to Wenger?

Fixed. :wink:

 

[raphael_as]

The only reason I bring it up is because Gallas has been playing behind pretty much the same midfield all season, and we've not conceded nearly as many with him in the side.

While the personnel have been much the same, I have to say that I think the midfield have completely gone AWOL with regards to defending in the latter part of the season.

I really don't know what it is, but while I can recall us giving away stupid goals and such from set pieces, I don't recall us being so tactically naive/unfit/uninterested that there seem to be 3 unmarked players in our box in open play on a regular basis. Maybe it's just my mind excising the bad memories or maybe it's Arsène's insane tinkering in the last 10 games or so, but almost regardless of which particular players are playing in what I suppose could be loosely referred to as a system, I think this midfield is not simply bad defensively, it's almost completely absent.

 

[banduan]

We don't need a monster. We need harriers. Little engines. We have two decent ones in Song and Nasri, but we need someone more experienced and utterly reliable.

 

[ultradoc]

Strange game, in the first half we played some of the best attacking football we have in months and carved open a very good Chelsea team almost at will but the finishing was so terrible. On another day Theo could of had a hatrick and his finishing isn't that bad you know but today in the first half he just kept f****g up.

Oh but it is. Better believe it. He's ****ed up so many chances and half chances all the time.

 

[Biggus]

We don't need a monster. We need harriers. Little engines. We have two decent ones in Song and Nasri, but we need someone more experienced and utterly reliable.

Nanobots! Thats what I think I'll call our midfield.

 

[progman07]

Silvestre is nowhere near as bad as you lot are making out. Not even close.

He's not a great player by any stretch of the imagination, but he's reasonably solid in most aspects of the game. He is one of the most exposed centrebacks in the league at the moment. Constantly facing a one-on-one, or having to make last ditch tackles. Our defenders have it bloody hard with the midfield they have to play behind. It's tough.

Poor Silvestre, he had to jump with Alex at a free kick. How dare they let a CB mark such a dangerous header of the ball???

 

[Biggus]

Center halves often have to do that.




Or so I've been told.