Chelsea v Arsenal - Sunday March 23, 16:00 - Stamford Bridge

[Anzac]

good point & perhaps why ManU have some different types of DM available????

 

[banduan]

Having calmed down somewhat, I come to the same conclusion.

While Chelsea deserved their win, we were nevertheless robbed by a blatantly biased linesman who gave an offside goal and 'missed' an offside during the attack which ended with the 2nd.

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

Having calmed down somewhat, I come to the same conclusion.

While Chelsea deserved their win, we were nevertheless robbed by a blatantly biased linesman who gave an offside goal and 'missed' an offside during the attack which ended with the 2nd.

Don't agree. They won but didn't outplay us or dominate the game.

 

[Anzac]

Having calmed down somewhat, I come to the same conclusion.

While Chelsea deserved their win, we were nevertheless robbed by a blatantly biased linesman who gave an offside goal and 'missed' an offside during the attack which ended with the 2nd.

Don't agree. They won but didn't outplay us or dominate the game.

F*ck it sure as hell looked that way for the last half hour or so.......

 

[Anzac]

Having calmed down somewhat, I come to the same conclusion.

While Chelsea deserved their win, we were nevertheless robbed by a blatantly biased linesman who gave an offside goal and 'missed' an offside during the attack which ended with the 2nd.

Must admit that only having seen the goals 'live' I missed any blatant offsides. Having said that I'm loath to blame the officials based upon what I saw - just as I don't blame them for the draws with Brum or Boro regardless of the decisions being poor / wrong, (this would be unlike the FA Cup final loss to LFC where we dominated the game in all aspects but some bad calls prevented us from taking the lead & putting the game to bed) - a Cup game being that much more crucial than a league game.

 

[DC Gunner]

Having been upset with most of the refs in recent matches [and I stand by it], I don't blame today's officiating for anything.

 

[banduan]

Having been upset with most of the refs in recent matches [and I stand by it], I don't blame today's officiating for anything.

Clutterburg was excellent, actually. But they linesman was a numpty to have missed that.

 

[Christofaux]

Chelsea dived all day

Linesman were the difference.

Toure was ****.

Season over.

 

[Gunner Ossie]

If we didn't f**k up the previous 4 matches, we wouldn't have to worry too much about this loss.

Exactly- If you can't beat the likes of Birmingham, Villa and Wigan, and keep out the likes of Aliadiere and Boro, Its pointless to cut ourselves up about Drogba and Chel$ki.
Those of us who said at the start of the season that the squad was too thin and (ahem) badly led, to win it had to bite our tongues as the winter transfer window closed and we led the pile. It seemed that Wenger could be proved right and we would make stars not buy them.
You could argue it two ways before- but only one way now. We need major investment in the team.
I'm being a bit premature as the season is not over and we may yet rescue something from it, And we may have a base to build on for next season. I say base because we will still be a long way off competing for the PL by adding in a few promising youngsters, which no doubt is Wenger's plan. We will need to go into the transfer market for proven replacements. A goalkeeper, winger and attacker for a start. As well as retaining our existing players even on higher wages. This will cost money, which they say we have......... And Wenger's will to be flexible about his "mission" which I'm not so sure about.

agree 100%. It is so so annoying that Arsène has this stupid habit of resting on his laurals, when he could so easily have created the perfect sqaud with the addition of a few affordable quality players in those blatantly obvious positions and the disposal of a few average players in other obvious positions.

the truth is that while benitez, ,fergie and grant spend millions to win trophies wenger still seems more pre-occupied with trying to do it on the cheap, and the he has the cheak to admit that he has loads of dosh at his disposal but wont spend it despite having traore as the only alternative to clichy.

I dont know how the hell arsenal fans have come to accept being PL also rans for the past 4 years.

Contrast that with barca who still buy henry, despite having ronnie, eto,messi etc etc. just because you have good players it does not mean you should not try to get those better ones before your opponents do.

 

[banduan]

Chelsea dived all day

Linesman were the difference.

Touré was s**t.

Season over.

Fair play to Chelsea for making a go of good football rather than their usual dross, but yes, they did indeed dive a lot- most of this being Ballack though, and mostly half-hearted.

Toure was not ****. I don't know how that came up- maybe the second goal? It was definitely his error in not marking Drogba properly. But he had been doing great for a lot of the match.

Season is not quite over. Plenty to do still.

 

[DC Gunner]

Chelsea dived all day

Linesman were the difference.

Touré was s**t.

Season over.

Fair play to Chelsea for making a go of good football rather than their usual dross, but yes, they did indeed dive a lot- most of this being Ballack though, and mostly half-hearted.

Touré was not s**t. I don't know how that came up- maybe the second goal? It was definitely his error in not marking Drogba properly. But he had been doing great for a lot of the match.

Season is not quite over. Plenty to do still.

I have to take an issue with the above analysis about Toure , had it been senderos, people would have jumped on him for making "his usual one mistake per game" , I personally think Toure was off in both goals.

For all the grit and tenacity that the flamester is showing, he is advancing too much going forward for my liking.

 

[Anzac]

Likewise I dislike seeing the CBs run the ball into the attacking 3rd..........and I noticed CLichy was ball watching again & was drifting into the middle - was lucky not to get punished by Anelka when he shot wide.

 

[ibby]

I have to take an issue with the above analysis about Touré , had it been senderos, people would have jumped on him for making "his usual one mistake per game" , I personally think Touré was off in both goals.

Toure is over-rated, I have been saying that for a long time. I remember the best defender thread on football talk, Toure was getting an awful amount of votes.

 

[AliBabaBrewer]

People are complaining an awful lot about Toure, but I'm a LOT more worried about Adebayor.

Was he even bloody playing?!

Bendtner was on for 5 minutes, and did more than Adebayor had done for 95, and I'm not even exaggerating to make a point.

Bendtner came on, made a run, hassled for the ball 2 and made a great long pass to Walcott.

Adebayor did nothing, all game. He had some rediculous passing with Eboue going on on one corner. That was it. He was useless. He was worse than useless, he was harmful to the team. Everything he touched turned to crap. I can't remember a single shot he had. He walked around everywhere and I think only once tried to hassle for a ball. It was like he wasn't bothered.

These are the games he needs to step up and make an influence, but instead he thought he'd continue his turn into Henry. He seems to think just turning up will get a result, but he actually has no where near the quality of Henry.

The Frenchman would get what, maybe 20 assists a season on a good season? Adebayor couldn't have made it into numbers requiring more than one hand to count on, and we're in the home straight for the title.

Yet Adebayor has adopted this sulk, where he wanders round aimlessly, waiting to be passed to.

I think it may be time to give him a rest before the other big games coming up.

 

[ibby]

Adebayor is one of them strikers that relies on good service, he hasn't been getting any during the past weeks.

Fabregas and Hleb worry me more to be honest.

 

[Captain]

He won't get service if he walks around in the middle of the pitch.

You make runs to receive the ball and create space for others, Ade has stopped making runs and is doing his best latter-day Henry impersonation

 

[Pádraig]

That's the last time I want to see an Arsenal player but the ball out of play for the opposition - especially if we're playing Chelsea.

 

[arsmile]

I’m putting my ratings here until a thread comes up, i don’t have time to make one or wait cause i’ve gotta catch the 18:34 from waterloo..... i’m gonna jump infront of it

Almunia-7.5- would have been nice if he had got a stronger hand to the 2nd, but his culpability is just one of about 5 for that goal... was good overall- few routine saves, couple great saves good handling, distance on punches, good rushing out...

Sagna-7- good goal- solid otherwise

Kolo-4.5- cant deal with long balls, miss kicks and panicky

Galas-5- canr deal with long balls- so poor in the air for a genuine CB...beaten by the admittedly powerful drogba 100% of the time- our Cb’s cant deal with balls like that, droba slaughtered them, and then when anelka came on it was like a joke how poor they were...i think if we are determined to stick with both of them, the whole team needs to learn to crowed round them and deal with the second ball...but that don’t solve the long ball problem

Clichy-7- good, nice and urgent at the end as well

Eboue-6- stupid booking, decent otherwise i thought, never gonna give you more than direct running and an inconsistent end ball though

Cesc-5.5- didn’t really influence the game

Flams-7- ran like he usually did and forced cuddicini in to what was really his only save

Vanpersie-5- exposed defensively on the left, so rusty it is untrue- he just needs games, but at least we had a forward player who was prepared to shoot

Hleb-6.5- good, but never uses competent passing range- never looks further than 10 yards for a pass, never shoots, interminably frustrating

Ade-4- poor, we didn’t have a game midweek so i thought it might refresh him- but his form has been unacceptable over the last 7 games, a think a little dropping can only do him good

Walcott-3- did not touch the ball in his first 9 minutes on the pitch- when he is poor boy is he poor- he would have made more of an impact by sitting on the bench

Diaby-6- yeah

Bendtner-6- why on earth he wasn’t given more time is beyond me- should be given a spell in the prem team, especially cause the titles gone a ade’s ability has gone with it.....if we had any competent back up i’d say we need changes...manure made 8 changes between 2 premiership matches, imagine that...8........

wtf? clichy was exposed a couple times and offered nothing going forward. Cesc like Flamini held our midfield and if anything he influenced the game a whole lot more than Flamini or did you miss all those misplaced passes inbetween the running? As for RVP "So rusty it's untrue?" first off he's not a left winger and second of all when he did have the ball he was almost impeccable. Hleb does look for longer passes but if they're not on or don't work there's nothing he can do. Adebayor, Walcott and Diaby all deserves zero's or something awfully close. Though Diaby has more impact than the other two combined he offered us nothing in terms of effectiveness. In short, your summary/ratings are probably the worst i'll have the displeasure of reading because you're talking s***e.

Jesus Christ mate...enough with the confrontational tone, god forbid a favoured member should set a good example.
If you disagree with me, you have obviously proved yourself in the past so how about you argue your point with me without resorting to the effing and blinding!- i understand we’re all emotional but jesus....
I thought clichy’s mistake was trying to do half of van persie’s job for him because he was always left 2 on one, on top of that cole is always difficult to deal with for a fullback because you cant show him inside or out (what clichy normally did well)- i did noit think our problem tonight was with the fullbacks though.
Vanpersie is not a left midfielder- he was bad defensively, therefore you mark him down based on him performance, senderos is not a striker but if he played their and did poorly you’d have to give him a low rating. And of course he is rusty- he’s barely palyed this season- and although he was prepared to shoot, all of his attempts were poor. Hleb does hardly ever play long passes, and often takes 3 steps backwards to make 4 steps forwards.
I gave ade a low rating- he was the worst guy on the pitch, i gave wallcott a low rating and was pulled up on it...so now apparently you’re picking me up on not rating him low enough- talk about cant win.

And the bold bit- so diaby, Walcott and ade all deserve the same 0 rating....despte the fact that diaby was twice as good as them both combined...and diaby ‘had an impact but was not effective’...if that is not a contradiction i don’t know what was

So to quote you in a way that is obviously acceptable on this forum- you my friend are the one that is talking sh**e!!

 

[mccroix]

Flamini 7?
His passing was woeful

 

[stiiphunn]

**** defending from us. Can't expect to win if we concede so many goals.

And what about the refs? How many **** decisions have they made in the last 4 games? Yes we aren't at our best right now. But the refs are a disgrace and they're costing us big time.