Ratings and post-match dicussion vs Chelsea

[TheEconomist]

My concern is that Wenger is blooding another talented youngster that will not know the joys of being a champion, lets face it as a team we've become a collection of losers!

I wouldnt worry too much about that mate, im sure when he hits 22 or 23 barca or real will come calling. im more worried about us

 

[lagos]

i hate to say it, but it was men against boys in the physical sense, especially once diaby went off (not that i disagreed with the sub), and we're kidding ourselves if we think we're technically superior to chelsea. we're not.

Did you actually watch the match, or see the result and get hype-hype after the fact? We dominated them possession wise throughout the whole game. Was not outplayed at all, we weren't out-muscled at all and the only difference was, that for their inferior number of chances created they actually field goal scorers where as we had chamakh who opted to try and buy a penalty with every touch he had in the box, we had nasri who shot wide at every opportunity and we have arshavin who will appears to be well on the patch to his gastric bypass.

I hate these bullshit posts that absolutely and totally ignore the game as it happened. we were the better team today in every sense of the word except the one that mattered and that was finishing.

The fact is Sabre over the course of the last 14 or 15 or whatever number of games that Chelsea keep raping us, I can't think of more than 2 games where you can say we played badly and we've always dominated possesion (in areas of the pitch that pose no threat but who cares) but if you keep playing well and dominating and your opposition keeps ending up with the points especially when they haven't been that brilliant, doesn't that suggest that the "played well, controlled possesion and dominated" model is flawed as an absolute measure of effectiveness?


Also I would be interested to see not only in games against Chelsea how much of our possesion actually takes place in the oppositions 18 yard box or how much of this so called domination of possesion actually results in an advance to the oppositions 18 yard box or a shot on goal because for a team with so much possesion and players with close control you'd think that if we having so much possesion in dangerous areas (i.e the 18 yard box) expect us to get at least a penalty a game. Furthermore at one point close to the end of the game if my eyes served me right, we dominated possesion but chelsea had double our shots on goal. For any other team possesion might mean something for us it means **** all, every football manager and his dog are no longer scared of us having possesion 'cos they know most of it occurs outside the 18 yard box and by the time we summon up courage to broach the area they are waiting for us in numbers!

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Fabianski 6
Sagna 6
Squillaci 5
Koscielny 5
Clichy 6
Song 5.5
Wilshere 7
Diaby 7
Arshavin 5.5
Nasri 7
Chamakh 6

 

[SA Gunner]

The hardest part about this result is not the loss, but the fact that we dropped points in our last two league games.

Back to this match. The signs were evident against Partizan, we do not take our chances when they arrive. Against "smaller" teams it is covered up by the win at the end, but against the bigger sides it is made evident.

The issue of composure in front of goal creeps up yet again.

My MOTM was Fabianski. A very good performance by him today in relation to what we are used to.

I was also content with our coping in midfield.

Ratings...

Fabianski - 8 MOTM

Sagna - 5.5
Squilacci - 5
Koscielny - 5
Clichy - 5.5

Song - 5.5
Diaby - 6
Wilshere - 6

Nasri - 5.5
Chamakh - 5.5
Arshavin - 5

Subs:

Rosicky - N/A
JET - N/A
Vela - N/A

Re-adjusted ratings, looking at the performance as a whole.

 

[fabo]

Terrible ratings mate.

Squillaci put Anelka in one-v-one and was beaten for the first goal. No way he was better than Wilshere.

 

[Y va marquer]

I'm afraid I only remember the mistakes that Squillaci made today so my impression is that he had a poor game - cannot see how he could be rated higher than Wilshere :shock:

 

[GDeep™]

Fabianski 6
Sagna 6
Squillaci 6
Koscielny 6
Clichy 5 (very frustrating in attacking situations)
Song 6
Wilshere 7
Diaby 7
Arshavin 5.5
Nasri 7
Chamakh 6

 

[sabret00the]

i hate to say it, but it was men against boys in the physical sense, especially once diaby went off (not that i disagreed with the sub), and we're kidding ourselves if we think we're technically superior to chelsea. we're not.

Did you actually watch the match, or see the result and get hype-hype after the fact? We dominated them possession wise throughout the whole game. Was not outplayed at all, we weren't out-muscled at all and the only difference was, that for their inferior number of chances created they actually field goal scorers where as we had chamakh who opted to try and buy a penalty with every touch he had in the box, we had nasri who shot wide at every opportunity and we have arshavin who will appears to be well on the patch to his gastric bypass.

I hate these bullshit posts that absolutely and totally ignore the game as it happened. we were the better team today in every sense of the word except the one that mattered and that was finishing.

The fact is Sabre over the course of the last 14 or 15 or whatever number of games that Chelsea keep raping us, I can't think of more than 2 games where you can say we played badly and we've always dominated possesion (in areas of the pitch that pose no threat but who cares) but if you keep playing well and dominating and your opposition keeps ending up with the points especially when they haven't been that brilliant, doesn't that suggest that the "played well, controlled possesion and dominated" model is flawed as an absolute measure of effectiveness?


Also I would be interested to see not only in games against Chelsea how much of our possesion actually takes place in the oppositions 18 yard box because for a team with so much possesion and players with close control you'd think that if we having so much possesion in dangerous areas (i.e the 18 yard box) expect us to get at least a penalty a game. Furthermore at one point close to the end of the game if my eyes served me right, we dominated possesion but chelsea had double our shots on goal. For any other team possesion might mean something for us it means **** all, every football manager and his dog are no longer scared of us having possesion 'cause they know most of it occurs outside the 18 yard box and by the time we summon up courage to broach the area they are waiting for us in numbers!

I hear what you're saying and you have a great point. However you need to then look at the manager and the fans. The fans that talk up the likes of Arshavin, Nasri and Chamakh. Players that bottle it on more than one occasion and have no place being in our front line. Everyone's all about this ball **** possession, but where was the willingness to score? The closest we had to a player that took that game by the scruff was Wilshere and he was taken off. Wenger's substitutions in no which way said we were going out there to win the game, they said he wanted to salvage a point. That's a disgrace.

Wenger had Henry and Bergkamp and every forward must be compared to them, they must be selfless and do what's best for the team, but what does that mean when we need goals? Well that goal-getting mentality is promoted in midfield hence the Fabregas hole being created and Billbong Iniesta.

The culture regarding strikers wanting to score more goals than their team-mates was killed by Henry in his hazing of Reyes and Wenger never took responsibility. Now we have a toothless attack at the best of times in games where professional strikers should be on hat-tricks. I mean there was a time when Wenger would consistently take van Persie off before he could complete his hat-trick. And this leads to people rating the front-three on here more than five's for their inability to get a shot on target. ****ing marvellous I say.

 

[Kain]

@ lagos

Agreed with most of what you said but we always had more shots & shots on target than Chelsea, infact it was one of the many positive & pointless statistics we had better than them, atleast for the opening 70 minuets not sure about the final whistle tally.

Most important is your last section in the paragraph as it's absolutally spot on, we didn't dominate possesion thats a fallacy from watching the game, they simply let us have possesion and asked us to break them down which we had no answer for then continued to hit us on the break, a method used by United and Chelsea against us for many seasons now.

You could literally count the amount of times we found space 20-25 yards away from their goal on one hand, actually thats probabaly a poor example as it would imply as many as five I can only think of the Arshavin first half blaster Cech got his finger tips to & the Rosicky breaking forward moment where he caught them slightly off guard & Nasri at a push where he opened them up once though he didn't have much time or space to work with in that example.

 

[Bossa]

In tight games like this where both teams are equals, the players with that extra bit of quality win you the games. We missed Cesc, RVP and Theo. Chamakhand Nasri are good players to have in the squad but they lack that extra class.

 

[SA Gunner]

Terrible ratings mate.

Squillaci put Anelka in one-v-one and was beaten for the first goal. No way he was better than Wilshere.

Come to think of it, Ive given our defense a bit more credit, and possibly forgot about our most important player on the day... THE LINESMAN

I guess the fact that Fabianski had a good game takes away from the fact that our center backs battled and were indeed caught out a few times.

With that being said though, I dont think Wilshere (who indeed deserves a better rating) was any better in midfield. We were controlled by Ramires, Essien and Mikel.

Regarding Klaus' comments of our regulars boosting us to perhaps beyond Chelsea, I say its not as clear as that. The issues are still that our indecisiveness and lack of composure in front of goal is evident in too many first teamers. THAT is the key that keeps Chelsea ahead, they are CONSISTENTLY able to do in front of goal what we cant.

 

[GDeep™]

Why does Clichy bother attempting to cross the ball, or even worse, take a shot, was linked with Real but i don't see why, not alot to chose between him and Marcelo.

 

[Y va marquer]

Yes Clichy should really call a halt to the shots on goal.
His 2 attempts today were woeful.

 

[sabret00the]

Why does Clichy bother attempting to cross the ball, or even worse, take a shot, was linked with Real but i don't see why, not alot to chose between him and Marcelo.

Clichy doesn't like us racking up such high possession rates, as such he attempts to single-handedly half the rate of possession by giving the ball back to our opponents in clever ways which the manager won't suspect. Initially he only thought of crossing it to no one. As no one would suspect the blind cross. However, now he's got another trick in his locker; The shot.

 

[Rorz]

In tight games like this where both teams are equals, the players with that extra bit of quality win you the games. We missed Cesc, RVP and Theo. Chamakhand Nasri are good players to have in the squad but they lack that extra class.

This is what I'm thinking as well. Our tactics may still have been a bit dodgy, but at least with RVP or Cesc on the team, you know anything can happen. We weren't outclassed today, they just had that extra bit of quality and knew how to beat us with it.

 

[Zico]

Things that killed us today:
Problem 1: Not creating good chances. We really only had one great chance - that Koscielny knocked over goal. Other than that, we had half-chances. We needed more moments of brilliance, given how slow our attack us.
Solution: we need a ruthless player in our frontline. We should also consider a 4 4 2 for now with Vela playing of Chamakh. I think the latter can create space and chances for the Mexican

Problem 2: Chelsea are fantastic on the fast break. United can do it. Chelsea can do it. Why can't we? Because we lack speed and power. It was amazing to see the way guys like Anelka and Drogba just got away from us whenever Chelsea recovered the ball from a corner.
Solution: on defense, start playing Denilson in front of central defense. Song is disinterested. On offense, we need to start practising our own counters.

 

[lagos]

The slowness is down to Wenger's desire to win the CL, he has created a team for Europe that's not good enough to win silver ware in Europe and and no longer has what it takes to win silverware at home

 

[SA Gunner]

Also I would be interested to see not only in games against Chelsea how much of our possesion actually takes place in the oppositions 18 yard box or how much of this so called domination of possesion actually results in an advance to the oppositions 18 yard box or a shot on goal because for a team with so much possesion and players with close control you'd think that if we having so much possesion in dangerous areas (i.e the 18 yard box) expect us to get at least a penalty a game. Furthermore at one point close to the end of the game if my eyes served me right, we dominated possesion but chelsea had double our shots on goal. For any other team possesion might mean something for us it means **** all, every football manager and his dog are no longer scared of us having possesion 'cause they know most of it occurs outside the 18 yard box and by the time we summon up courage to broach the area they are waiting for us in numbers!

Basically the formula still works, the likes of City, United and of course the bottom league teams, as well as the Mourinho's will take note of what they have seen today and be ready for us if and when we meet.

 

[Big Poppa]

Fabianski 8 - A few great saves, kept to scoreline respectable for us. 2 unsavable goals, loved his anticipation to come off his line.
Sagna 6 - Put in alot of hardwork, but let down by some defensive lapse
Koscielny 6
Squillaci 6
Clichy 6 - left behind too much exposed space
Song 3 - Absolutely horrendous stuff
Wilshere 8 - For someone of his age, some of his play were outstanding
Diaby 8 - Excellent, held up ball nicely, spreaded play well.
Nasri 7 - Hit and miss
Chamakh 5 - Poor poor misses
Arshavin 7.5 - Hit and miss as well

how the he'll does nasri get a 7, arshavin a 7.5, yet song gets a 3!

You guys let our attackers off waaay too easy. The middle third of the pitch was pretty much our only area of dominance. This could not have been achieved without the hard work of Song, Diaby and Wilshere, who rendered Essien and Obi Mikel pretty anonymous. Where we failed yet again was that lack of decisiveness in the first and final thirds of the pitch. Song's criticism is yet again excessive - his job is much more difficult than someone like Nasri.

 

[Zico]

The problem with this style of attack (passing the ball sideways in front of the opposition penalty area) leaves us open to counters because all our players end up high up the field. All it takes is two or three clever opposition players breaking down the field. Of course, the opposition has to be able to absorb the pressure.

Trust me, Citeh are going to do us in the exact same way. I've watched enough of both teams this season to expect this.