PL: Chelsea vs Arsenal | 10/12/06

[RocktheCasbah]

Some of the comments on here are quite amusing- we were missing our first choice central defence partnership- which saw a clown do an impersonation of an Arsenal #6- and the greatest striker on the planet and we were five minutes away from doing what no team has done to Chelsea in 51 games. We'd have all taken a point before the game and it took something special to beat yet another clown doing an impersonation of an Arsenal goalkeeper.

The lads were immense yesterday, they should know now that they don't have to be afraid of anybody.

 

[kel varnsen]

The lads were immense yesterday, they should know now that they don't have to be afraid of anybody.

i can definately see the basis for comments such as these, but to me it is a remnant of the old, outdated look at football where terms such as 'heart', 'boys', 'pride', 'grit' etc are used in some form of combination.

however, to me these are all aspects of football one should be able to take for granted. these are professional footballers and anything but a 100% effort is unacceptable. as such, yesterday's performance was nothing special. our passing game was sloppy, the movement off the ball was lacking, same goes for composure on the ball and the central midfield offer close to nothing going forward. all in all a mediocre performance that needs no further discussion. let's move on and hope we can play better against wigan...

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Well, kel, we exceeded your stated expectations...

hardly create a single decent chance going forward.

I see where you're coming from regarding the performance actually, but not sure what you expected with a fifth choice midfielder in the centre, our star striker, arguably our best midfielder this season and our first choice centre backs all missing. If it was an Arsenal team with the first team all present and accounted for, I'd have more sympathy for you. As it was, this was a team short on experience, and most of the sloppy passing came out of defence.

 

[brady]

Hey it wasn't the greatest performance but no way was it mediocre. If we were mediocre, we would have been slaughtered. Yes we rode our luck at times, but our possession play was quite good in patches and that helped. Plenty of good intelligent performances too, and not just sheer grit.

I did feel though that this game showed why Senderos is not consistent or intelligent enough to be a top class defender. Jourou acquitted himself much better.

And Gilberto was my man of the match too!

 

[YeahBee]

Meanwhile, Ashley Cole and Cesc Fabregas were involved in an "amazing tunnel fracas" after the Arsenal man refused to shake his ex-team-mate's hand. (The Sun)
http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx ... oId=188138

if this really did happen then rightly so, why should Fabregas shake that backstabber's hand, another reason to love cesc fabregas only 19 and already an Arsenal great

Great done cesc if you are reading this, it shows you are a gunner thru and thru

 

[sabret00the]

you seen the ratings the sun gave us?

 

[kel varnsen]

rtc:

i expected us to be overrun and as such, you could say that the performance was better than expected, but i still don't think it was very good. however, as we we were missing a number of key players, i don't agree with gurgen who said it was the worst performance in years. to me it was a fairly mediocre game that doesn't really deserve a lot of praise nor a lot of criticism.

what i do think is worrying though, is the fact that our passing game has been poor for weeks now and it doesn't look like it's improving either. we struggled scoring goals earlier this season, but at least we were dominating games week in week out. now, we've taken another step in the wrong direction. we're still not scoring goals(especially from open play), but in addition we're not really dominating the games either.

 

[lagos]

you seen the ratings the sun gave us?

yeah i thought you might have something to say about rvp's rating

of course no way was that a 3 performance, but neither was it a MOTM performance either :shock:

 

[bojed]

Cesc and Cole in tunnel ruck

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002 ... 82,00.html

hole: you're no paddy. swallow it.

cesc: wait wait my mobile's vibrating. you want?

legend.

 

[marco]

first teddy and now cashley...

what a gooner

 

[kooldawg]

ALL HAIL CESC

 

[M+D]

Meanwhile, Ashley Cole and Cesc Fabregas were involved in an "amazing tunnel fracas" after the Arsenal man refused to shake his ex-team-mate's hand. (The Sun)
http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx ... oId=188138

if this really did happen then rightly so, why should Fabregas shake that backstabber's hand, another reason to love cesc fabregas only 19 and already an Arsenal great

Great done cesc if you are reading this, it shows you are a gunner thru and thru

He is an absolute LEGEND. Serves Cahley right. So far in his career Cesc has:
Started on Teddy Sheringham. (Twice his age, Man Utd and Sp**s player)
Got his revenge on Cashley (Do I need to explain!)
Started food fight against Man Utd (Possibly. According to Cashley's autobiography)

I can see that he is always going to be welcome at Arsenal. He's definitely a Gooner.

 

[tristan]

Finally get a chance to comment on this game:

We (Chelsea) should've won it. Let me put it in this perspective, as I don't think anyone else has yet: Chelsea are admittedly the more defensive minded team, rather plain going forward. Yet we created a lot more quality chances, and we also had more on target shots. You guys barely looked threatening, and took advantage of one of your two opportunities, and honestly, had Hilario not been the keeper it would've been saved properly. I guess that's my response to the "Cole fouled Hleb we got screwed!" crowd. Bad decisions go both ways and there were a couple on both ends of the pitch yesterday.

Having praised my team like that, I must say that I don't understand this slagging off of your team at all. Think of the players you had playing. Djourou, Senderos, Flamini, Clichy, Adebayor. These are young, young players. Perhaps two of those will go on to be above average (Djourou and Adebayor IMO). This is not a title winning team you put out there, this isn't a CL winning team, it's a quality, YOUNG (emphasis on young) team that can win more often than not, but will have trouble against the top tier teams in the League and in Europe. You came to Stamford Bridge, a fortress, with a severely weakened team and it took a wondergoal to deny you a point. I can honestly say that I was impressed with the Arsenal yesterday, and I really can't believe all this negativity shown towards your lot, although I've been here awhile so I'm not sure why I'm surprised.

Saw a couple of comments about SWP coming on and changing the game. He did, he gave the ball away about 6 or 7 times in one on one battles when he had acres of space. Joe Cole would not have lost possession so easily. I think Mourinho is giving SWP his chance to prove himself and he's not taking it, for whatever reason you want to argue.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

you seen the ratings the sun gave us?

yeah i thought you might have something to say about rvp's rating

of course no way was that a 3 performance, but neither was it a MOTM performance either :shock:

3 for van Persie?

I know I've not been his biggest fan, but that's extreme. Of course, I think saying he was MotM is extreme too. And that's not just me.

 

[RockyRocastle]

p.s when that goal went in i cant describe what went on....
ended up 3 rows in front somehow absolute quality...
singing as we came out as well- still recovering now

As I said before, that celebration is in my top 5 ever. I dont think it went that mad even at the CL final. I wish I could have seen what it looked like from the Chelsea end - how **** were they by the way!

Loads of good lads out yesterday, our away support especially in London is getting its old egde back which is only a good thing. Shut the mugs up outside who usually scare everyone away.

 

[Clrnc]

anyway cole was again the downfall for us. fcuking **** has no intergrity whatsoever.

till now, i am still surprised we managed to match chelsea for so long and drew with them when our team is basically 1/3 fringe players. what a result

 

[goonerwarsh]

I'm with you 100% here Casbah...I think the performance yesterday was full of heart. Did we have moments where we rode our luck yeah of course we did....Did anyone expect us to go to Stamford Bridge and not have a few heart in the mouth moments? Cos Chelsea sure have enough of them when they play us at home

To go to that ground with 75% of the spine of the team missing and to get something out of it is something to be optimistic about. Note where we can improve but don't dwell on it. The last ten minutes have altered people's perception of the whole 90 I think.

 

[Alfonso]

but will have trouble against the top tier teams in the League and in Europe.

I dont think that's our problem mate. We have the best record in the top 5 so far this season, and last season we beat the likes of Real Madrid and Juve with this young side. Our problem is not the big games, but the smaller games, like the Wigan game on Wed.

If we played like we did against you lot on Sunday, against the majoirty of teams this season, we may still be in title race.

 

[lagos]

After yesterdays performance add to that our performance against manu and liverpool we could easily have been top of the table now.

Sometimes Wenger bigs up the team and you at times think he's just saying it to instill belief. I really believe him now, maybe we need one or two players and most importantly the mentality to take every game like we are playing the top teams and we'd be unstoppable

 

[1970*Gooner]

On a brighter note, Pardew sacked

Well thats good news, good enough for the tosser.