EPL – Arsenal vs Chelsea – 12:45pm – 29/9/12 - SS2

[AnthonyG]

Which beggars the question as to why the frak didn't we change our midfield shape & roles?

Because Wenger is an inept manager and tactician who should have been sacked 6 years ago.

 

[Anzac]

Which beggars the question as to why the frak didn't we change our midfield shape & roles?

Because Wenger is an inept manager and tactician who should have been sacked 6 years ago.

Really? :shock:
Have you come over to the Dark Side Ant?
Or are you missing a smilie for sarcasm?

Me thinks the latter but then that would indicate that your response is a bit over the top & typical of the 'we can't compete' / '50m player' type comments. :roll:

But if it makes you feel better/justified - WENGER OUT. :bounce

Have a Happy Day.
:wink:

 

[AnthonyG]

I 'missed' the smiley for extreme dry sarcasm. Here: :wink:

 

[perspolis]

Koscielny had some fantastic games last season... he was inspirational and was monumental at the back. So let's put things into perspective. He had a terrible game on Saturday. I think it's natural, normal and expected for a player to have a bad game every once in a while.

Giroud should've equalized? Maybe... maybe not. It's hard to tell. I can remember RVP missing a hundred of those chances. Last year he had 6 shots on target PER GOAL! 6 shots!!!! That means 5 misses almost for every goal! Giroud has been fantastic in winning the ball up front and holding on to it for others to arrive. I think that's what Wenger really wants him to do anyway and he does an excellent job at it.

Honestly, we just had a terrible day. That's all. Any other day, we would've easily walked over Chel$ea. Where was Matta? or Oscar? or Hazard? They had a quite night... with all the bells and whistles... they just couldn't do much against our midfield. That's a good sign.

John Terry was excellent at the back... but does anyone remember what happened in our last encounter? <a class="postlink" href="http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/john-terry-slip.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/ ... y-slip.jpg</a>

 

[titi perfection]

Koscielny had some fantastic games last season... he was inspirational and was monumental at the back. So let's put things into perspective. He had a terrible game on Saturday. I think it's natural, normal and expected for a player to have a bad game every once in a while.

Giroud should've equalized? Maybe... maybe not. It's hard to tell. I can remember RVP missing a hundred of those chances. Last year he had 6 shots on target PER GOAL! 6 shots!!!! That means 5 misses almost for every goal! Giroud has been fantastic in winning the ball up front and holding on to it for others to arrive. I think that's what Wenger really wants him to do anyway and he does an excellent job at it.

Honestly, we just had a terrible day. That's all. Any other day, we would've easily walked over Chel$ea. Where was Matta? or Oscar? or Hazard? They had a quite night... with all the bells and whistles... they just couldn't do much against our midfield. That's a good sign.

John Terry was excellent at the back... but does anyone remember what happened in our last encounter? <a class="postlink" href="http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/john-terry-slip.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/ ... y-slip.jpg</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good post nice to hear a voice of reason on here now and again.

 

[trunks206]

Shame we couldn't add any footage of the last two home matches against Chelsea to this great video.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7fdCe-vG8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7fdCe-vG8</a>

Last two times out against them have been totally forgettable performances.

 

[celestis]

The last time we played them wasn't a forgettable performance at all.

 

[albakos]

The anger of losing still didn't sunk in.

I have to say Wenger's decision not to play Mert ranks amongst one of the most terrible/shocking/intriguing, in same effect as not playing Arshavin in FA Cup semifinal loss to Chavs in 2009.


Both goals conceded by cheap free kicks given by Vermaelen, and both goals were Kos' fault.

Wenger said he chose his CB's based on the opposition we had, but I don't think ManCity's attack is less dangerous that Chavs, and Mert was superb in that game.

As the old saying going goes: "If it works don't fix it". Mert was our rock in defence and leaving him on bench was a terrible decision which made our defence struggling to cope at set pieces.

 

[Glovegun]

Unfortunately Wenger has always failed to recognise the importance of defensive organisation. TA has said that they never practised set-pieces in training. Luckily the defence was still superb for the first few years of Wenger's reign because they were so well drilled under George Graham, and then Campbell arrived who imparted his knowledge to Toure, Cole and the others.

Set-pieces have been an achilles heel of ours for a while now because there is a complete lack of leadership and a cohesive system. We've seen team after team come to the Emirates, get battered and then simply float a bog standard ball into the box and invariably get something from it.

I keep on prattling on about it, but if you play at centre-back then you have a lot of responsibility. You have to shout, talk, point, get everyone around you in the right position. Be dominant. Koscielny is a very good defender, we all know that, but until he starts to worry about the defence and not just his own game he will never be a great one. There's no use making all these amazing tackles and blocks if you're going to get the basics wrong. Letting Torres in because he let the ball bounce in our half (when a Sunday League player would've known to just get his head on it) was genuinely amateurish, and quite frankly I'm sick of seeing a side composed of multi-million pound players, coached by arguably the greatest manager in our history, concede goals that you'd be angry if you conceded in pub football.

Mertesacker talks, Koscielny doesn't. And therein lies the difference.

 

[trunks206]

The last time we played them wasn't a forgettable performance at all.

Sorry if I was confusing with my statement but when I said the last two games I was including the game on this past Saturday. The time we played them before Saturday was (at home aswell, since the video showed only home matches vs Chelsea) when they played a skeleton side due to a big CL second leg on their horizon and we were completely uninspiring and we couldn't get a result (ended 0-0) despite playing our best XI...I remember leaving the pub thinking how bad a match must have been to watch as a neutral.

 

[Anzac]

Koscielny had some fantastic games last season... he was inspirational and was monumental at the back. So let's put things into perspective. He had a terrible game on Saturday. I think it's natural, normal and expected for a player to have a bad game every once in a while.

Giroud should've equalized? Maybe... maybe not. It's hard to tell. I can remember RVP missing a hundred of those chances. Last year he had 6 shots on target PER GOAL! 6 shots!!!! That means 5 misses almost for every goal! Giroud has been fantastic in winning the ball up front and holding on to it for others to arrive. I think that's what Wenger really wants him to do anyway and he does an excellent job at it.

Honestly, we just had a terrible day. That's all. Any other day, we would've easily walked over Chel$ea. Where was Matta? or Oscar? or Hazard? They had a quite night... with all the bells and whistles... they just couldn't do much against our midfield. That's a good sign.

John Terry was excellent at the back... but does anyone remember what happened in our last encounter? <a class="postlink" href="http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/john-terry-slip.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://backpagefootball.com/wp-content/ ... y-slip.jpg</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Totally disagree with this.

IMO CFC were set out tactically to nullify our 3 role CMs to stop us playing through the middle to attack the front of the 'D', & allow/encourage us to play from the flanks in the final 3rd.

Unless we play Giroud then our CF role is all about movement ahead of the ball through the middle to create space for the likes of Podolski & Cazorla to exploit. However when we are forced wide then the movement is negated & we lack a genuine presence in the area until we bring on Giroud.

As such CFC achieved exactly that & did so playing with the ball on the ground. Their 3 behind Torres were far better at holding the ball & controlling possession in the attacking 3rd than we were.
We were forced to make 20 crosses in the 1st half alone (which is a handful less than for the entire game v Saints), but less than a handful actually got beyond the first defender.

As for JT being excellent - about the same measure IMO as the 2 soft goals we gifted them = he was only any good because we didn't put him under any pressure as we were unable to get at their CBs down the middle or to attack the channels.
Likewise our transition in attack was so pedestrian that CFC were able to set along the edge of the area & in general were not required t turn & chase anything - unlike our defence that was caught high a few times - hence the FKs that led to the goals.

That said CFC did not come here to do anything other than to stop us playing, and anything beyond a point was a bonus for them. The didn't come to kill the game, but they were more concerned with stopping us as opposed to playing their 'normal' game.
Some would say that they didn't look to impose their game upon us, and yet tactically that's exactly what they did.