Chelsea v Arsenal - EPL - Sun 7th Feb 2010 - 16:00

[ibby]

**** Barca.

Using Barca as a template as how we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

 

[AshburtonGhost]

If someone told Song to carry out a role, I'm sure he would. He's another one who I think is being mucked around by Wenger's 'total football' ideology.

 

[Big Poppa]

Few points after coming back to reality from last night:

- The moment I saw Dean as a ref, I knew there will be no decisions going our way.

- As in most matches, keepers have blinders against us. Cech was unbelievable. It's no wonder to have a great defence when you have a commanding goalkeeper behind your back.

- Theo is clearly not match fit yet. He is probably under immense psychological pressure that he WILL miss the WC, ****ley had him for breakfast. Eboue was much more dangerous on the wing durign that cameo than Walcott was during the whole time he was in.

- Unfortunately, the ACN curse strikes again. Song is nto the one we all craved to have him back ASAP. He is probably too tired and is not at the same form as before he left.

- Wenger still makes the same mistakes. You will never score against Chelsea by walking the ball in the net. Even a fantastic Barca side failed to do that, only for a last gasp wonderstrike by Iniesta to score. Our only chance ws to have someone who could hold the ball (Bendtner) so we might've get a chance to score from outside the box (Cesc, Nasri or Arshavin)

- Same undisciplined defensive errors coming back to bite us in the arse once again. Their second goal was textbook counterattack. It's pathetic because in two games we conceded three such goals (Rooney, Park and Drogba), which even the likes of Pompey should be ashamed to concede in such a manner.




Arsène wake the f**k up.

We had the same opportunities to score against Chelsea than they did against us except we bottled it and they didn't. We created these despite being without a striker. It's that absence of a genuine threat up top though, that will cost us in any potential big games that remain this season.

I keep reading fans comments on blogs etc. about how we should have bought a striker in January. No. The opportunity was last Summer. If we were selling Adebayor, we should have replaced him. van Persie was effectively shoe-horned into that lone CF role, and it was a gamble but we had no pro-active solution. It's very hard to rectify that in the January window when nobody of genuine quality wants to move and take risks before the world cup.

 

[dyeruz]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Struggled against Chelsea? Won
Struggled against Man U? Won

????

 

[dyeruz]

Few points after coming back to reality from last night:

- The moment I saw Dean as a ref, I knew there will be no decisions going our way.

- As in most matches, keepers have blinders against us. Cech was unbelievable. It's no wonder to have a great defence when you have a commanding goalkeeper behind your back.

- Theo is clearly not match fit yet. He is probably under immense psychological pressure that he WILL miss the WC, ****ley had him for breakfast. Eboue was much more dangerous on the wing durign that cameo than Walcott was during the whole time he was in.

- Unfortunately, the ACN curse strikes again. Song is nto the one we all craved to have him back ASAP. He is probably too tired and is not at the same form as before he left.

- Wenger still makes the same mistakes. You will never score against Chelsea by walking the ball in the net. Even a fantastic Barca side failed to do that, only for a last gasp wonderstrike by Iniesta to score. Our only chance ws to have someone who could hold the ball (Bendtner) so we might've get a chance to score from outside the box (Cesc, Nasri or Arshavin)

- Same undisciplined defensive errors coming back to bite us in the arse once again. Their second goal was textbook counterattack. It's pathetic because in two games we conceded three such goals (Rooney, Park and Drogba), which even the likes of Pompey should be ashamed to concede in such a manner.




Arsène wake the f**k up.

:shock: It was the refs fault then?

 

[marco]

same old arsenal really drogba is a different class and we have all the possesion with no real pentration and cant f****g defend..
not even that gutted to be honest.
whoever bought that flare in today deserves a lifelong season ticket.. talk about galvanising the atmosphere.
the 5-10 mins after that flare went off was absolutely eletric in the away end.. so much so that im not even that fussed we lost.. seeing those chelsea wankers faces to our right as the flare was lit was priceless they were so s**t scared it was laughable..

nice to see theo start a big game he defenitely desrevres his big chance

were you downstairs?

yeah but way to the right of where the flare went off..
has it been mentioned anywhere on news or anything?

 

[albakos]

Few points after coming back to reality from last night:

- The moment I saw Dean as a ref, I knew there will be no decisions going our way.

- As in most matches, keepers have blinders against us. Cech was unbelievable. It's no wonder to have a great defence when you have a commanding goalkeeper behind your back.

- Theo is clearly not match fit yet. He is probably under immense psychological pressure that he WILL miss the WC, ****ley had him for breakfast. Eboue was much more dangerous on the wing durign that cameo than Walcott was during the whole time he was in.

- Unfortunately, the ACN curse strikes again. Song is nto the one we all craved to have him back ASAP. He is probably too tired and is not at the same form as before he left.

- Wenger still makes the same mistakes. You will never score against Chelsea by walking the ball in the net. Even a fantastic Barca side failed to do that, only for a last gasp wonderstrike by Iniesta to score. Our only chance ws to have someone who could hold the ball (Bendtner) so we might've get a chance to score from outside the box (Cesc, Nasri or Arshavin)

- Same undisciplined defensive errors coming back to bite us in the arse once again. Their second goal was textbook counterattack. It's pathetic because in two games we conceded three such goals (Rooney, Park and Drogba), which even the likes of Pompey should be ashamed to concede in such a manner.




Arsène wake the f**k up.

:shock: It was the refs fault then?

No it's not the ref's fault. Don't be a prick and make yourself sound like a rawkite.

Last night there were many times when he should have carded chav players such as Malouda hacking into Walcott with both arms, then Ivanovic and Ballack hacking on Cesc etc..

 

[abz_14]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Struggled against Chelsea? Won
Struggled against Man U? Won

????

What game were you watching? Barca were under the cosh for 10 minutes, with Ronaldo seemingly wanting to take all the glory himself, soon as they found their rhythm they toyed around with Man Utd. I likened it at the time to the semi final second leg against us, we started off blisteringly and United just picked us off after the 10 minute mark.

I agree with ibby on this, the 4-3-3 works well against the 'lesser' teams, it is when we come against teams that beat us on the counter where we need to change. Wenger is stubborn, we all know that, that he brought a sub on at 60 is laughable when we are two behind, it is his failure to learn from the last 10 or so games against teams higher in the league that has cost us the last 6 points.

I admire Fergie for this reason, in his 20 odd years he changes to the current footballing climate, it is his ability to adapt to whatever challenges that face him that have made him one of the best managers to grace the game.

 

[dyeruz]

Few points after coming back to reality from last night:

- The moment I saw Dean as a ref, I knew there will be no decisions going our way.

- As in most matches, keepers have blinders against us. Cech was unbelievable. It's no wonder to have a great defence when you have a commanding goalkeeper behind your back.

- Theo is clearly not match fit yet. He is probably under immense psychological pressure that he WILL miss the WC, ****ley had him for breakfast. Eboue was much more dangerous on the wing durign that cameo than Walcott was during the whole time he was in.

- Unfortunately, the ACN curse strikes again. Song is nto the one we all craved to have him back ASAP. He is probably too tired and is not at the same form as before he left.

- Wenger still makes the same mistakes. You will never score against Chelsea by walking the ball in the net. Even a fantastic Barca side failed to do that, only for a last gasp wonderstrike by Iniesta to score. Our only chance ws to have someone who could hold the ball (Bendtner) so we might've get a chance to score from outside the box (Cesc, Nasri or Arshavin)

- Same undisciplined defensive errors coming back to bite us in the arse once again. Their second goal was textbook counterattack. It's pathetic because in two games we conceded three such goals (Rooney, Park and Drogba), which even the likes of Pompey should be ashamed to concede in such a manner.




Arsène wake the f**k up.

:shock: It was the refs fault then?

No it's not the ref's fault. Don't be a prick and make yourself sound like a rawkite.

Last night there were many times when he should have carded chav players such as Malouda hacking into Walcott with both arms, then Ivanovic and Ballack hacking on Cesc etc..

No need for that, keep your insults to yourself pal and keep this civilized. You mentioned the ref, he had absolutely nothing to do with the manner we lost the game.

 

[dyeruz]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Struggled against Chelsea? Won
Struggled against Man U? Won

????

What game were you watching? Barca were under the cosh for 10 minutes, with Ronaldo seemingly wanting to take all the glory himself, soon as they found their rhythm they toyed around with Man Utd. I likened it at the time to the semi final second leg against us, we started off blisteringly and United just picked us off after the 10 minute mark.

I agree with ibby on this, the 4-3-3 works well against the 'lesser' teams, it is when we come against teams that beat us on the counter where we need to change. Wenger is stubborn, we all know that, that he brought a sub on at 60 is laughable when we are two behind, it is his failure to learn from the last 10 or so games against teams higher in the league that has cost us the last 6 points.

I admire Fergie for this reason, in his 20 odd years he changes to the current footballing climate, it is his ability to adapt to whatever challenges that face him that have made him one of the best managers to grace the game.

United tried to start off using power and speed, and yes they had a lot of chances but in the end they controlled the game and scored, we always have good possession against united but unlike Barca we seem to shoot ourselves in the foot with elementary errors rather than the opposition being brilliant. It's moulding flair with hard work and experience, including players like Fletcher and Park Ji-Sung who is a capable goal scorer but also work hard and makes intelligent runs, Wenger's been here long enough to know how to win the league, surely he must know this team is not good enough, and when we had the opportunity in a poor/more competitive league ( I can't decide which is which when Liverpool after having such a poor season can still be in fourth with a shout at third) to reinforce our squad he didn't do it and money is no a factor because he tried to do three deals at the last minute when he had all freaking January to do it.

 

[TakeChillPill]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Struggled against Chelsea? Won
Struggled against Man U? Won

????

They didnt beat Chelsea they won on away goals; Chelsea were the better team over the two legs; in the second leg i think barca had one shot on target and that was the goal.

Truth being told Barca were very very fortunate; a bit like us beating Villereal in 2006

 

[TakeChillPill]

Wenger should have started with Bendtner simple as that...both sagna and clichy crossed the ball amples of times in the box...but it was rather pointless because there is none who can header in the box. We were never going to play through Chelsea lessons from the first game should have told us that.

 

[Don Pacifico]

With Bendtner it was a question of fitness. He wasn't ready to start yet. The issue of crossing has plagued our game all season and we're not a team with the personel to make of the most of crossing, even if it were of a good standard, which usually it isn't.

 

[dyeruz]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Struggled against Chelsea? Won
Struggled against Man U? Won

????

They didnt beat Chelsea they won on away goals; Chelsea were the better team over the two legs; in the second leg i think barca had one shot on target and that was the goal.

Truth being told Barca were very very fortunate; a bit like us beating Villereal in 2006

They won because they went through the rest is just semantics..you could say the same about us against cska moscow in the champions league where we battered them senseless, countless goal scoring opportunities but..we didn't score, Villareal didn't take their chances they went out, we won. All Chelsea had to do was score at the Nou Camp they didn't, Barca scored at the bridge away goals rule..they won.

 

[Bossa]

Wenger should have started with Bendtner simple as that...both sagna and clichy crossed the ball amples of times in the box...but it was rather pointless because there is none who can header in the box. We were never going to play through Chelsea lessons from the first game should have told us that.

He didn't start Bendtner because he probably feared that he would get injured if he starts him with a slight knock. Can you imagine Bendtner getting injured? It means that we'll play Arshavin as our CF for the rest of the season. He couldn't take the risk.

 

[TakeChillPill]

of coruse he was ready to start (maybe not to played the full 90 mins) but could have easily played for 60 mins.

Well whats the point of crossing it then? might aswell pass the ball back to chelsea... the point that im trying to make is if your going to make your full backs overlap (since of midfielders don't provide natural width) and get crosses in at least play someone who can head the ball or is going to cause a problems for chelsea...Ancelltoi got his tactics spot on...Wenger didn't.

I dont think there is any team in the world (including barc; say what you want just my opinion) that can match our pass and move game...teams know that and dont come to play ball....Ancelloti tried it when he was at milan and his team got destroyed...Scolari tried it last season at the Bridge and we outplayed Chelsea and won.

Wenger and our players rely to much on natural talent and ability rather then proper tactics and a game plan; this has to change.

Look at a crap Grecce side winning the euros (beating france, Czechs, Portugal along the way)

An average Italian side winning the world Cup.

Both won due to good game plan than skill....both Ferguson and Ancelloti have shown us up in that respect.

Sad but true!

 

[TakeChillPill]

Wenger should have started with Bendtner simple as that...both sagna and clichy crossed the ball amples of times in the box...but it was rather pointless because there is none who can header in the box. We were never going to play through Chelsea lessons from the first game should have told us that.

He didn't start Bendtner because he probably feared that he would get injured if he starts him with a slight knock. Can you imagine Bendtner getting injured? It means that we'll play Arshavin as our CF for the rest of the season. He couldn't take the risk.

thats an if and a but....This was a title defining game for us; we have played Arshavin for for most of our unbeaten run as CF....so for me i know we can beat the likes of botlon westham without a big CF we've proven it;

Wenger risked cesc and he won us the game against villa and wenger said he would do it again if it meant winning the game!

This is bendtner's goal vs protual, guess who was marking him?...chelseas very own Carhvalho

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQFSLr_Mhy4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQFSLr_Mhy4</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(btw big nik, still has a long way to go in my opinion....but he would have caused chelsea all sorts of problems...at least would challenge for all those sagna crosses)

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

f**k Barca.

Using Barca as a template as who we should be playing is a no go. They are in a different league to us where the footballing philosophy is extremely vast to England. They play in a league where attacking football is advocated, where even the bottom clubs come out and try and attack the likes of Barca and Real. Is it a coincide that the most 'English' team they faced they struggled against?

Barca is a template, because they are the most succesful team right now so why not use them as a template? How many CL cups have the english clubs won? You see how ManU were found out in their last final game. Park of the counter was useless Park out there. ManU was found out on that day because once a team that relies on rushing you and beating you on the counter goes down, then they cant rush you anymore. Its very simple logic. They now have to win the ball and keep it patiently then create chances, something they clearly dont have.


By the way Barca's defense is just as porous as ours, you will be deluded to to think otherwise. You just have to see the personnel. Players good with the ball tend to struggle doing the job of spoilers just as spoilers find it hard going against good possession team football once they go down.

Once again even with our football we have been more successfull against majority of teams in the EPL and if we are to be found out by Manure or Chelsea thats fine with me as long as we rack points against others because in most cases thats what determines who wins the title and not your individual record against Chelsea.

You have to score first period then the whole bllsh* being spewed by the media and the likes of you is reversed and attention will now be the Manure/England national team for failing to play the game of football which requires the ability to keep possession. There is a very thin line there for those c*nts who make a living as pundits.

I was listening to the commentators yesterday when we were down by 1-0 and playing with real intent..their talk at that time was on how we were looking good and one even dared to suggest you might not know what team is behind. At that time Chelsea was struggling to keep the ball completely. Then came the counter..and that c*nt just swtiched to how deadly Chelsea play and how arsenal have no bite bla bla.

We absolutely have to take our chances and do a better job defensively. We can never defend like Chelsea does but we can do better than that and success in doing so will make a huge diffference in games against the likes of Manure/Chelsea.

 

[xcdude24]

same old arsenal really drogba is a different class and we have all the possesion with no real pentration and cant f****g defend..
not even that gutted to be honest.
whoever bought that flare in today deserves a lifelong season ticket.. talk about galvanising the atmosphere.
the 5-10 mins after that flare went off was absolutely eletric in the away end.. so much so that im not even that fussed we lost.. seeing those chelsea wankers faces to our right as the flare was lit was priceless they were so s**t scared it was laughable..

nice to see theo start a big game he defenitely desrevres his big chance

were you downstairs?

yeah but way to the right of where the flare went off..
has it been mentioned anywhere on news or anything?

I haven't read anything about it- there's a couple clips of it on youtube, though. I noticed one of the dudes that sits near me at the Emirates was down there, i'll have to ask him on wednesday what happened.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

of coruse he was ready to start (maybe not to played the full 90 mins) but could have easily played for 60 mins.

Well whats the point of crossing it then? might aswell pass the ball back to chelsea... the point that im trying to make is if your going to make your full backs overlap (since of midfielders don't provide natural width) and get crosses in at least play someone who can head the ball or is going to cause a problems for chelsea...Ancelltoi got his tactics spot on...Wenger didn't.

I dont think there is any team in the world (including barc; say what you want just my opinion) that can match our pass and move game...teams know that and dont come to play ball....Ancelloti tried it when he was at milan and his team got destroyed...Scolari tried it last season at the Bridge and we outplayed Chelsea and won.

Wenger and our players rely to much on natural talent and ability rather then proper tactics and a game plan; this has to change.

Look at a crap Grecce side winning the euros (beating france, Czechs, Portugal along the way)

An average Italian side winning the world Cup.

Both won due to good game plan than skill....both Ferguson and Ancelloti have shown us up in that respect.

Sad but true!

Bullsh*.. too much is made of tactics being the difference. Final score is usually a result of too many variables LUCK and breaks being a major factor.

But look back all the way to the 70s if you wish to. Look at teams that have been successful and the football they have played. You can apply this on clubs and international. Has Chelsea won the CL yet even with the "genius" or "special one" leading them?

Good teams usually win. If you keep possession of the ball, you are more likely to do more damage than if you dont. Stats dont lie on that..most teams that win usually had more possession.

We watch too much EPL football that we speak in that very language of our lazy ass pundits/commentators. So much was made of Barca's only shot on that day against Chelsea like just shooting is the only factor to determine a moment of danger.

You take a shot and it goes wide and thats to be considered a plus on your attacking power. You curve the team and your final pass to a open player is few cms short and goes off but that is not considered a dangerous moment even though the person was all clear to score had he received it. You will be accused of passing and passing with no final product by our beloved know it all english media.