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

[goonerwarsh]

Hey this is our biggest Home defeat at The Grove isn't it??????

Yes, and apparently our biggest home defeat in the League since 1977

 

[General]

The opening 20minutes was just typical Arsenal flattering to deceive. Like the Carling Cup final a few years ago - there was no way we were going to sustain that tempo for 90 minutes, especially against Chelsea's powerhouse midfield. Yes we looked good and could've had a couple of goals but then again we looked equally vulnerable whenever Chelsea came forward. This was Liverpool all over again but with no Arshavin. The sad thing was that Chelsea didn't look like they broke sweat and picked us off at will.

I thought Robin was good and he played a very intelligent game. He linked very well with Walcott, who despite his poor finishing, had to beat the Cech from some acute angles.

 

[HollandGooner]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1180430/Facing-Arsenal-easy-taunts-Ashley-Cole-Chelseas-Emirates-romp.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... -romp.html</a>

Facing Arsenal was easy, taunts Ashley Cole after Chelsea's Emirates romp

Ashley Cole added insult to Arsenal's injured pride by claiming a trip to the Emirates was just what Chelsea needed after crashing out of Europe.
The Blues inflicted Arsenal's worst home league defeat for 32 years with the 4-1 thrashing, bouncing back from their fiery Champions League exit to Barcelona in midweek.
The club are set to be charged by UEFA this week for failing to control their players during and after last Wednesday's semi-final, and Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Jose Bosingwa face charges over their treatment of referee Tom Henning Ovrebo.


Chelsea's playing style was also heavily criticised in Spain after their negative approach in the goalless first leg at the Nou Camp.
But Cole, a none-too-popular former Gunner, believes the defeat of Arsenal shows they are not the enemies of football.

haven’t kicked a ball you can’t talk about those emotions and you don’t understand,' the England left-back told London's Evening Standard.
'Against Arsenal we showed how good we are. We didn’t get in too many battles or too many fights this time. The lads have done well.
Head boy: Alex rises above Mikel Silvestre to score for Chelsea
'A lot of people would have thought we’d all be down and out, but we showed a lot of character. At times we defended really well and now we’ve clinched third spot.'
Cole said the 'mood was down' during training on Thursday and Friday and added: 'Everyone’s disappointed when you lose in the semi-final of the Champions League. It’s life and there is nothing we can do about it.

'The players here have got great character. I have played with a lot of big players, but at Chelsea they seem to be able to motivate themselves very quickly. It showed against Arsenal and it had to show.'
The 28-year-old is never likely to be warmly received at Arsenal after the nature of his departure to Chelsea three years ago.
But Cole taunted the Emirates boo-boys for helping him to recover from the crushing disappointment of defeat against Barcelona.
Asked if he found it hard to play so soon after the European exit, he said: 'It was easy for me but I have different reasons for that. Coming back to my old club, I hate losing to Arsenal so it means I’m more motivated.'
Referring to the abuse from fans, he said: 'It is always there — I don’t blame them. I just want to play my game and win for Chelsea.'

 

[progman07]

"Facing Arsenal was easy, taunts Ashley Cole" ?? Ridiculous headline. He only said it was easy to focus on us because he considers it a big game. Nothing about us being easy.

 

[ricky1985]

The opening 20minutes was just typical Arsenal flattering to deceive. Like the Carling Cup final a few years ago - there was no way we were going to sustain that tempo for 90 minutes, especially against Chelsea's powerhouse midfield. Yes we looked good and could've had a couple of goals but then again we looked equally vulnerable whenever Chelsea came forward. This was Liverpool all over again but with no Arshavin. The sad thing was that Chelsea didn't look like they broke sweat and picked us off at will.

I'm sorry mate I know you've flipped your lid a bit lately after some huge dissapointments, but that's rubbish.
In the first 25 minutes we played them off the park, they couldn't get out of their half. We created 5 great chances, and we did it by playing some absolutely fantastic football.
Defensively we are an utter shambles, without the ball we are crazily naive/poor, but for the first 25 minutes yesterday their was no 'flattering to deceive' we were simply absolutely brilliant. Full stop.

When we stop our opponents from getting into our half we are really quite good :wink:

 

[General]

I haven't denied that we looked good - I said we did and could've had a couple of goals :wink:

We started the game like Villa always do - a suicidal and unsustainable tempo that was more random than measured. The vulnerability was there for all to see every time Chelsea attacked hence flattering to deceive.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

Chelsea just couldn't get near to be honest; it's not the first time and probably won't be the last. Our pressing was very good in the first half too and we made them look slow.

Drogba, however, looked like a player whose antics on wednesday had taken a serious toll.

The mood out here is we can never be credit for making a descent team look ordinary. Its always the case of the other team "NOT TRYING". Such a defeatist mentality but well i guess it serves them well. We played well and unlike the FA semis where their goal galvanized them and we got deflated, yesterday, we still kept playing our game. I know its tough times but no need to be hell bent on just stripping the team of any positives just cos u upset. They were quite a lot of positives to take from the game.

 

[General]

Erm I think you're using the 'defeatist mentality' phrase incorrectly mate. You won't find many with a defeatist mentality on here although I'm sure you'll find many amongst our current playing staff. You'll certainly find a lot of sceptics on here and all for the right reasons. I saw nothing yesterday that I haven't seen all season. Attacking wise, we can be fluid when we hit the right gear and this didn't even come close to our performance at Bolton earlier in the season. Sadly, a football game is 90minutes long not 25. Don't let those opening 25minutes give you delusions of grandeur about our adequacy to the task ahead. Spin it all you want- the positives were little to non-existent. Same ol same ol

 

[JazzG]

yes, but did chelsea even bother in the first 20-25 mins or so? we played well, but i think it was as a direct result of chelsea's lack of agression and effort. their defending was sloppy and slow; hardly what you'd expect from chelsea.

i think it would be very unwise to estimate relative strength vis-a-vis chelsea on this match.

Fair point but I do think we have shown in the past as well we can get at this Chelsea side, not the first time we have come out all guns blazing against them and made them look very uneasy at the back. Our problem as always though is we can't usually sustain that pressure and sooner or later their physical advantage over us becomes very obvious and they start to dominate.

But yes this performance while good can't be taken too seriously due to the nature of the match, both teams essentially playing for nothing and only a bit of pride.

There is a fundamental problem with the culture and attitude at the club towards defending, and there has been since we last picked up a meaningful trophy. Until that is addressed, from the top, there is no point lynching people like Silvestre, who are probably as pissed of with it as we are.

Spot on and I have mentioned this before, defending isn't simply about the back four it is about the midfield and even the strikers. Watching Chelsea play Barca look how deep and organised they were against them. Just having 10 men back isn't enough, they defended as two solid lines of four that were very close and at times almost parallel to each other. Everyone knew what they were doing. Even Man utd have adjusted their game and have shown they can switch seamlessly to a solid resolute unit and switch into an attacking and flowing side. Last time we won the league we were solid as a unit and all our players worked hard, the season before we had been much better in attack but that season the balance was right. You need hard working players and right now we have too many players who don't want to do the hard work. This might come from not having an experienced player in the squad to guide them, someone for them to look up to. Right now they are doing things how they want and our manager had to answer for that.

This team has no defensive know how and no killer instinct in them. When it is the 93rd minute, you are on the back foot with a goal lead you run to the ****ing corners and waste time. Not our brave players and their pure footballing mentality doesn't allow that however throwing away the lead is ok as long as we play the right way :roll: Our basic approach to games need a re-think, we aren't a great attacking force either

 

[Anzac]

Hey this is our biggest Home defeat at The Grove isn't it??????

Yes, and apparently our biggest home defeat in the League since 1977

Oh wow - 32 years!!!!!
That REALLY sums it up doesn't it.
Instead of mollycoddling this message should be driven home to the players.

Yes AW we really have been making progress & this season has been successful hasn't it.........

 

[Biggus]

The mood out here is we can never be credit for making a descent team look ordinary. Its always the case of the other team "NOT TRYING". Such a defeatist mentality but well i guess it serves them well. We played well and unlike the FA semis where their goal galvanized them and we got deflated, yesterday, we still kept playing our game. I know its tough times but no need to be hell bent on just stripping the team of any positives just cause u upset. They were quite a lot of positives to take from the game.

No, you lot are the defeatists, It's not us that accept Wengers pathetic excuses and make our own after another calamitous hammering.....We don't accept defeat failure and mediocrity.

“To be or not to be that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.” W.S.

Positives? I hope the biggest positive is that it hastens the departure of Wenger. :wink:

 

[Anzac]

Chelsea just couldn't get near to be honest; it's not the first time and probably won't be the last. Our pressing was very good in the first half too and we made them look slow.

Drogba, however, looked like a player whose antics on wednesday had taken a serious toll.

The mood out here is we can never be credit for making a descent team look ordinary. Its always the case of the other team "NOT TRYING". Such a defeatist mentality but well i guess it serves them well. We played well and unlike the FA semis where their goal galvanized them and we got deflated, yesterday, we still kept playing our game. I know its tough times but no need to be hell bent on just stripping the team of any positives just cause u upset. They were quite a lot of positives to take from the game.

Where do you find positives in our biggest Home defeat in 32 years????
As for keeping playing our game - you could say we did the same in the CL S/F 2nd leg, and for the same result. 'Our game' as it stands is simply no longer good enough with these resources.

And AW's performance is likewise no longer good enough. Sure we ended up with 3 strikers on the field, but the reality is that unless he played them as 3 strikers then it is misleading to count them as such, to say nothing of the usual timings of the substitutions.

When was the last time we saw AW throw caution to the wind, but do so in a constructive manner? Ever????? When was the last time he got aggressive in his tactics, substitutions or formation?? When did he last try to take the game by the b*lls?????

 

[HollandGooner]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1180853/Arshavin-We-treated-Chelsea-like-training-match-hammered-better-team.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... -team.html</a>

Arshavin: We treated Chelsea like a training match and were hammered by
the better team

Andrey Arshavin has criticised his Arsenal team mates for their lacklustre performance against a 'more skilful' Chelsea, saying the Gunners treated it like a training ground match.
'Arsenal played properly only in the starting 15 or 20 minutes,' he said.

'After that, there was a feeling that it wasn't an important match but some ordinary training session. We woke up only after getting a goal back but that wasn't enough.
'Chelsea managed to convert their chances and we didn't - they were more skilful.'
Arshavin missed the game due to flu but was at the Emirates Stadium to see the 4-1 defeat.

The forward bumped into his national coach Guus Hiddink at the start of the second half. Hiddink embraced him then mockingly kicked him.

'Guus asked about my health and then told me: "It's very good that you're not playing today, get away from the pitch"'.
'It's as if destiny doesn't let me play against Guus. In the cup match, Wenger kept me on the bench and allowed me to play only for several final minutes. And now I had to miss premier league game too.'

 

[progman07]

How different it would have been with him on the pitch... We might actually have scored from one of our 10-15 clear cut chances.

 

[Unforgiven]

Is it every player no which has come out saying that there are problems with Arsenal and we are ****?

 

[Zico]

Is it every player no which has come out saying that there are problems with Arsenal and we are s**t?

Denilson, Diaby and Denilson are surprisingly quiet. Maybe it's because they know they'd have the most to lose from any reinforcements.

 

[hujja]

Is it every player no which has come out saying that there are problems with Arsenal and we are s**t?

Denilson, Diaby and Denilson are surprisingly quiet. Maybe it's because they know they'd have the most to lose from any reinforcements.

:?: