EPL | Chelsea vs Arsenal| 04/02/17 | 12:30 K/O (GMT)

[skip spence]

What annoys me a few hours later is that Chelsea didn't even play that well. Theyre not this fantastic unbeatable footballing Everest, like for example Barca some years back. Not even a great team imo.

The same team were down at the relegation spots last year ffs.

We gave then plenty of chances to kill us on the break but they didn't take them. We got several clear cut chances, most of them thanks to poor defending from their part.

Alas

 

[rich 1990]

 

[Lookin' for a new Baby]

The other clubs it doesn't harm is Manu paying waaay over the top on wages and transfer fees, Chelsea with pretty big transfer fees when they want to, but they also won the CL recently and the PL, so even though they go out of top 4 one year, you know they will challenge.
City paying whatever anyone wants, and challenging regularly, pool doesn't really attract the big name players. Tottenham hasn't really gotten any really big name players either.

So yes Sanchez baby, it will hurt Arsenal alot, as FA cup wins won't be something big name players care about.

And we don't pay high wages for great players. We pay great wages for average and below par players.

Maybe we should stop messing about paying our top players wages that are not in some way comparable to other top clubs and stop rewarding our bit part players with long contracts and high wages

 

[VancouverCanuck]

Maybe we should stop messing about paying our top players wages that are not in some way comparable to other top clubs and stop rewarding our bit part players with long contracts and high wages

There is no evidence to suggest our wages for the top players are in anyway inadequate. If Alexis is not willing to extend, it's because we have a manager who is tactically inept and there is zero chance we will be able to challenge for top honors under him.

 

[Revolution]

Players with less ability will always be exposed in Wenger's system, simply because they haven't recieved proper instructions that will mask their flaws.

The best thing about Wenger's early years was that raw talent would always flourish under his system. When you give freedom to duds however you get performances like today.

Wenger needs to leave for his own sake. The problems keep cropping up, regardless of the personnel.

 

[Gooner Zig]

An important part of being a man is admitting when you're wrong. I said Bellerin bottled the game by going off, but Jesus, I hereby sincerely apologise to our Cockney Spaniard.


The worst thing about the whole thing is Neville on commentary. Completely glossed it over. "He gets a crack in the face but Alonso is just too big and strong for him."

Neville has a boner for strong players. He probably goes home and cracks one out to pictures of Vieira and Petit.

Ffs you can literally see his eyes glaze instantly as he's falling mid-air. Unreal it wasn't called.

 

[bingobob]

Think we've had this conversion.

What you're saying there is that our squad is pretty average bar 4 players and I agree.

Chelsea are strong in all positions and they've got the likes of Fabregas and Willian as subs ffs.

Every conversation has-been had before on Am. I wouldn't say we've an average average squad we've a lot of good and very good players but lack in great players. That puts us into a good position, some rivals have a great player then nothing in support. So our drop off is never that bad.

 

[Aevi]

This game has genuinely changed a lot for me, it feels like the end of the Wenger era. There is still stuff to play for but... the game just had that feel to it. The straw that broke the camel's back. I don't want to go overboard with "Wenger Out", but this was the game that has brought me over the line. It encompassed so much that isn't quite right atm, and how little we have really improved.

Time for some change.

 

[bingobob]

I'm fed up. Roman either ruined the game or made the game. Like any political society I'm a servant to my background. That's Arsenal. My background, a working class mo fo, will always be fecked over regardless if its roman or the romantic way. Give me Roman. Hate love vs love hare.

 

[rich 1990]

I'm fed up. Roman either ruined the game or made the game. Like any political society I'm a servant to my background. That's Arsenal. My background, a working class mo fo, will always be fecked over regardless if its roman or the romantic way. Give me Roman. Hate love vs love hare.

You pissed?

 

[James Bond]

Look what Wenger has reduced the fans to

LOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLL

 

[Giroud]

Absolute torture being amongst the Chelsea fans for this game. Horrible performance. Felt sick when Fabregas scored.

They also have a big banner with The Roman Emperor on it. Worship a ****ing crook those Chelsea fans do. Embarrassing.

 

[rich 1990]

Absolute torture being amongst the Chelsea fans for this game. Horrible performance. Felt sick when Fabregas scored.

They also have a big banner with The Roman Emperor on it. Worship a ****ing crook those Chelsea fans do. Embarrassing.

Shouldn't have beaten up Anthony Taylor then

 

[Trilly]

Look what Wenger has reduced the fans to

Probably my 10th view now. Still funny.

Ramsey right mid....that don't work
But Wenger still tries, that's what hurts!

 

[Aevi]

Probably my 10th view now. Still funny.

Ramsey right mid....that don't work
But Wenger still tries, that's what hurts!

 

[Giroud]

Chelsea's organisation when they drop off and get in shape is always fantastic and with us missing key players in midfield it was always going to be incredibly tough to break them down in possession. Kante was incredible again and both he and Matic didn't let anything get near their centre backs and reduced us to crossing. You're almost better off telling your players to never even attempt dribble Kante because he's is just so good in the tackle.

Alexis up front was clearly not working as we didn't have the physical presence or even the ****ing numbers in the box to attack the crosses Chelsea reduced our attack to. Yet despite that Giroud and Welbeck were only introduced with 20 minutes left. They're the only 2 players we have who can attack crosses consistently and it was no surprise that Giroud grabbed our goal and Welbeck was the only other player to get close in the 2nd half as far as I can remember, both from crosses.

Then what was with the set up at the start of the game? Like I said Chelsea are incredibly tough to break down when they get in shape not to mention when all your starting midfielders are out. However when they come up against pressing teams they tend to struggle a little more. We went at them at the Emirates and Cahill gifted us the opener, City should have thrashed them, Tottenham caused them plenty of problems and Liverpool got 4 points off them. All of those games involved the opposition pressing Chelsea hard. We started with Özil out wide and clearly didn't come with any plan of pressing which is where you can catch them out on that transition from defence to attack. I had a great view of the pitch from my seat and I couldn't believe how poor our press was. It was so easy for Chelsea to play around us because when someone pushed on to challenge one of their players there was next to no support or cover. They destroyed us on the counter and we probably got lucky that they didn't have more shots on Cech's goal.

We got our tactics completely wrong before the game and when things weren't working we took an age to bring Giroud and Welbeck on. I couldn't believe how slow the management were to react. And it was obvious in the first place that to beat Chelsea you need to win the ball high and catch their defence on the transitional phase because when they get in shape they are so hard to break down. Really poor stuff.

On a side note Monreal was terrific again. Yeah he's losing his pace and getting susceptible to being beaten 1v1 but if there's any sniff of an interception in his zone he wins the ball. His positioning is top class and he's such an asset defensively on the left.

 

[bojed]

Our best attack came from Nacho and our best defensive display came from Ox.

There's a reason why Chelsea are leading the table.

 

[celestis]

I'm Canadian and even in a sport like Hockey that is an actual game misconduct and a ****ing multiple game ban. Wouldn't be surprised if Hector suffered a concussion there, absolutely brutal. For all the **** going on with retired NFL and NHL players linked with **** and multiple drug abuses due to head trauma, it actually bothers me to see how little football does as a sport to combat head injuries.

Yeah in all other contact sport that would have been deemed a foul play .

 

[Hyruga]

On a side note Monreal was terrific again. Yeah he's losing his pace and getting susceptible to being beaten 1v1 but if there's any sniff of an interception in his zone he wins the ball. His positioning is top class and he's such an asset defensively on the left.

Wasn't Monreal the one who did not stick close to his opponent and allow Chelsea the easy cross for the first goal?

 

[Hyruga]

Let's watch free crosses, free headers, free dribblings.

http://www.footytube.com/video/chelsea-arsenal-feb04-473857?ref=hp_tbox