CL: Chelsea vs Arsenal | 24/03/04

[Webdesignlab]

Kyla, honestly, destress. Chelsea played VERY well tonight - all the things they're good at came off. But they couldn't beat us. The ball is totally in our court, and I don't think Chelsea can be that good again - we can be a lot a lot better quite easily.

Yeah there is no doubt we did alright tonight. Chelsea will NEVER be that good again, and still they did not beat us.


Blimey remember that ... they are under tons of stress to beat us and still cannot. They are really depressed in their dressing room. THIS was surely the night to beat us ... and still they failed.

Advantage Arsenal ... no doubt about that.

I know I was predicting a 3-1 win to us, but to be honest Chelsea had us all nailed down. Henry was quiet, Pires and Toure were lions. 1-1 is a great CL result. remember Chelsea got through to the QF with just an own away goal. The CL games are very different, this is where I was wrong, a score draw is a great result for us in hind sight.

 

[matu]

chelsi will come to highbury looking for one away goal and then see what happens....... arsenal need to be careful, it is all about concentration now.........and i don't think real madrid are that much a threat, their defence is not that convincing

 

[Ljungbergfan]

You can't blame Lehmann when he saved us about 5 times after that howler. We barely even deserved this draw....

I just hope Lehmann doesn't repeat that on Sunday :wink:

 

[JazzG]

therock, your posts remind me of a certain poster. Dan_the_man anyone? If you don't wanna make valid posts just leave mate.

Excellent result. Good, hard, solid battle - Chelsea won't and probably can't play any better than they did from 20 - 60. And there goal only came about because of a fluke.

You simply cannot blame Lehmann for that. Wenger asks him to come out for those balls, and so the defender left it to him. Gudjohnson simply did very well to put him under pressure, and finished superbly well.

Desailly was about as stoopid as it gets. Comedy yellow, then got done straight after. So much for all the experience.

As with the league game earlier this season, Henry wasn't really involved, and Bergkamp probably even less so - but we got the result. This puts Ranieri in a real quandary for the second leg - they have to get a goal, but know we'll come for them anyways, so what formation does he pick? Who plays? He won't know, and the players won't know for sometime yet - which makes it much easier for us just to play our game.

Men of the Match? Kolo and Pires by a country mile. Bobby warmed up for that header against Boro in the cup (it was disallowed) - but tonight it came off. Great ball by Cole - as good as Pirlo's last night - and an unstoppable header right in the bottom corner.

With people like you around I don't even need to make detailed posts, agree with everything you said

It's worrying that we were so below par in a game that you would expect the players to be hyped for. I think Chelsea's goal was needed in retrospect. It forced the boys' hand a bit.

I remember telling you this a while back but I think you don't bother reading my posts so I'll say it again

Against a good side a score draw is a VERY good result, Chelsea have to score against us. Can they stop us from scoring? When was the last time they did? Their team has stopped nearly everyone else but even when we are ****e we score. In 104 PL games we haven't scored in 4 games, you think they can stop us from scoring?

Gudjohnson looked like he was about to cry in his interview, he looked so depressed and couldn't believe how they didn't win. They simply don't have the belief to beat us.

How did we deal with Duff in the 2nd half? I had to do something urgently so missed most of it

 

[leongsh]

1-1 is a good result considering that Arsenal did not play fantastically. It was a matter of determination by Arsenal. Chelsea had their opportunity to win the game but didn't. I'm confident about the next leg but that is in a couple of weeks.

Next match is the EPL match against Manchester United at Highbury. That is another hard and massive game.


One matter of note:
Sometimes I read some of the comments and opinions about the match in here and I really wonder whether I watched the same match. I am all for differing opinions but well argued ones please. Some of the opinions raised just shows shallowness of thought.

 

[lewdikris]

Jazz - I do my best!

Duff always looked dangerous, but Lauren had a SUPERB game against him. He was stuck to his ass like toilet paper whenever he threatened. Lauren has improved massively recently.

 

[Mark]

I was really worried about the potential damage Duff can do, but Lauren and the defence as a whole coped very well with him and he was a lot quiter than I've seen him in previous games. Definetly agree that Lauren has improved recently. Good time in the season to do it as well.

 

[n_henry]

Great result I think. Haven't seen any highlights yet, but it seems as though Chelsea deserved to win, if anything.

Very promising that even though they probably did dominate, they still can't buy a win over the Arse.

Good stuff - now off to Highbury.

 

[Webdesignlab]

Jazz - I do my best!

Duff always looked dangerous, but Lauren had a SUPERB game against him. He was stuck to his ass like toilet paper whenever he threatened. Lauren has improved massively recently.

Yeah I was all for Toure moving in on RB, but Lauren has been great lately ... thank F***.

He was heading for the bench, but in the last 3 or 4 matches he really has picked up his game ... good on him

 

[Legend#1]

We're through for sure. I really can't imagine Chelsea getting out of the second leg victorious. They will definetly come to Highbury with the same passion they displayed at home but if it wasn't enough at the Bridge, how could it be enough at Highbury? I will certainly sleep well tonight.

I wonder what was the matter with Henry tonight? He was just walking around. I can recall only couple incidents when he did well in the defense (!) but in the attack he was almost invisible.

Terry really kept Henry quiet, they kept it narrow and it forced Henry to drop deep to collect the ball and along with Bergkamp dropping deep it was always going to be hard to get clear cut chances, but the way Chelski played meant it was always going to be hard, so you can't fault the players

They didn't play well but they got the vital away goal, going into the next game our Confidence will be sky high while Chelski will be low, knowing they have to score

Advantage Arsenal 8)

 

[n_henry]

I wonder what was the matter with Henry tonight? He was just walking around. I can recall only couple incidents when he did well in the defense (!) but in the attack he was almost invisible.

So Titi disappearead? Was he marked a lot..as usual?

Hope he picks up for the return leg. :twisted:

 

[Mark]

I think saying they dominated is exaggerating a bit, but I guess that's the standards we set ourselves these days. They were certainly better than previous games we've played against them anyway.

 

[Sol man]

I think we played well enought to get our point. Well done to the players

 

[JazzG]

Problem with Henry was whenever he came deep and started running at them our players were so deep that there was no one infront of him to pass to.

Chelsea's tactics were not to concede a goal, the manager and Gudjohnson pointed this out. It knocked them back big time when we scored, it almost seems like they can hold onto leads against everyone except us.

As long as our players come through the man utd games in good shape we should be able to win the match at Highbury, I'm feeling good about that match.

Jazz - I do my best!

Duff always looked dangerous, but Lauren had a SUPERB game against him. He was stuck to his ass like toilet paper whenever he threatened. Lauren has improved massively recently.

Stuck to his ass like toilet paper lmao

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

I honestly was dissappointed by henry. I wasn't expecting any magic.but there was very little movement without the ball from him. Chelsea did a very good job on closing the middle path..so Vieira/lunjberg/pires and them could not run in. That completely took Lunjberg out of the game.

Credit to Chelsea for that they didn't come at us like the last EPL game. I think tinkerman realised that is playing with fire. Unfortunately they were playing at home with the mentality of an "away" team. Don't know what they will do when they come to highbury.

We on the other hand played a balanced "away" game. Solid overall performance.

 

[bobbypires]

Good result. It could be better, but it could be worse too. After 1-0 Chelsea could score the 2nd but Lehmann was great. But Pires header was brilliant and I think that we'll end the job at Highbury.

Negative things:
*Where was Henry?
*Lehmann's mistake
*The way we play (I think 50%)

Positive things:
*Pires (huge team player & scoring a lot again)
*Toure (he's tremendous)
*The away goal
*Chelsea were 100 per cent and they weren't better.

 

[MAK]

Guess I am happier than my Blue **** supporting aquaintances. Though we did OK. Thei goal was sloppy. Ours was a great way to respond. Who says RP7 is a bottler? No stomach for a fight? Afraid to get in where it hurts?

By the time we play the 2nd leg will have had 2 draining games against Merchandise United (plus an international). Even without Desailly they will be strong. We should have pressed for the winner when we had an extra man on the pitch.

Not enough of our passing came off. TH & DB were off the pace a bit.

Overall 6/10. Must try harder.

 

[Aussie]

Henry was fairly poor just like last time against Chelsea however he will bounce back. Pires was ok without being brilliant. I thought Lauren did a pretty good job. Dennis looked like he was struggling a fair bit.

Crucial thing was while we had a few players off there games we still put together a fairly solid performance and this now puts us in a great pos to qualify.

Also I though Reyes looked ok for the little bit he was on for.

 

[patrick42uk]

truly impressed by the way duff was dealt with. lauren has his critics but he was immense last night.

 

[jeromelee]

go gunners go

http://www.arsenal-world.co.uk/news/loa ... &id=149774

Here's a great write-up to ponder.