Arsenal Vs Chelsea | Premiership 29/11/09

[Gunflash]

Today was very dispiriting. Losing at home is bad enough. Losing 3-0 is bad enough. Losing to Chelsea is bad enough. But what's worse is that the team looked so devoid of ideas and inspiration. There was plenty of possession but no penetration, which goes to show what a lie possession statistics can be. I never saw anything where I thought Chelsea were in trouble. For years they couldn't beat us, now it seems this fixture is a guaranteed victory for them.

After the game, Terry said he knew Chelsea would be pressed back but that they could live with it, presumably because he knew Arsenal weren't brave enough to take shots from distance. It's a cliche when you hear pundits saying things like "Arsenal like to walk the ball into the net" but that's only because it's true.

Eduardo was really poor. Fabregas and Arshavin didn't look at the races and Sagna probably can't even cross his legs, let alone a football. Walcott has a lot of pace but he doesn't have any guile. That hat-trick in Croatia is looking more and more like an aberration.

I think there's been something rather misleading about Arsenal's early season good form. Defensively there were always jitters and in points terms, I think we're only two better than this time last season. Wenger said it was time to end this whole "young team" thing. It was time for the team to step up. Well after seeing that result, judge for yourself.

[Myrmedus]

I must add I do think Walcott actually looked good, especially considering he's not 100% fit yet. He was one of the only players in our team that injected something into the game.

I actually didn't think we played poorly today but more that our game was ineffectual against a Chelsea team specifically designed to counter us.

[freddybhoy]

A lot of negativity I understand, but I'd rather lose by 3 to them than the Yids.....

Sorry mate, but losing 3-0 at home to anyone is unacceptable. Yids or not!

[freddybhoy]

Sorry to say gooners but this result, coupled with the long term loss of Van Persie has probably ended your title hopes for this season. Chelsea were more streetwise than Arsenal. Outgunned upfront, outthought in midfield and outmuscled in defence. I thought you were well equipped to end your trophy drought, with a great chance of landing the big domestic prize.

Sadly, it looks as though that prize will be heading to West London.

[CynicalGooner]

I can't understand why Rosicky didn't start today, I really can't. He MUST be match fit by now! He also usually plays well in big games. Why doesn't Wenger ever play our strongest team?!

Not only was Denilson again chosen ahead of him in CM (insane IMO), but Nasri, who had a terrible game and is also coming back from injury, was chosen ahead of him too.

Anyway now that's off my chest, we can only look forward. 11 points behind with a game in hand. Most seasons I would say that's our title chance more or less gone. This season? I don't think so

And f**k off November, you bastard.

[S4cePL]

I can't see how Denilson gets the nod ahead of a healthy Rosicky either. I still see Denilson as a DM regardless of what anyone on here says so playing Song and Denilson at the same time is redundant. Denilson does not offer the same as a Rosicky or Nasri going forward. He's like our version of Pool's Lucas.. so play Song in CDM and use Walcott/Rosicky?Nasri on the flanks with Cesc at CAM..

Denilson on the bench

[Popey]

but nasri was very poor yesterday... denilson had a good game

[Rockin' Robin]

I thought Nasri was our 3rd best player but Denilson and Traore to be honest. He actually shot a couple of times!

[gooneritis]

personally thought denilson was as shit as usual, trying not to be bias because i think he's a shit waste of space, but it just seemed the usual everything he touched turned to shit. loose passes, bottling challenges etc.
he should have tackled terry to prevent their goal.

but i shan't make him the scapegoat, it was the usual f***ing bullshit. all pretty play with no end product. totally f***ing sick of it and it will never change under wenger. for years now we've moaned about not finishing teams off, playing good football and not scoring when we need to and still nothing changes. as usual it's cost us and it's another season without winning the league.

i thought we'd an outside chance to steal the league a few weeks ago but the last 2 games have been a disgrace, all pretty play with noone wanting to shoot. yesterday just took the piss, arshavin, walcott and mr overated eduardo all deciding not to shoot when through on goal.

and as usual after playing the opponents off the park they go up the other end, carve up our disgrace of a defence and score with ease.

pretty football in the middle of the park gets you nowhere when you can't score when it matters (banging in 4 against a shit opposition means f**k all) and get opened up with ease in every match.

sort the defence out and start being more f***ing clinical.

but then we've been saying that the past 5 years and it hasn't and will never change.

[gooneritis]

it's quite simple really, until we learn to get clinical and find some defenders who can actually defend and keeper who makes at least one save a game we aren't going to win the league.

not sure how gallas keeps flying under the radar but he's been terrible this year, always out of position, trys to take on attackers and attempt fancy touches, he leaves vermaelen exposed non stop.
same goes for sagna, how many goals this year have come down our opponents left wing!

the unfortunate thing is that it's been like this for some time and i really cannot see it changing.

[absolutely_fabregas]

totally gutted about the performance, but we crept back in to the arsenal of the past few seasons and were as one dimensional as i have ever seen us, which i thought is something we had begun to iron out

having no van persie, or bendtner, means we literally cannot play another way though, i was surprised wenger didnt go with theo from the start, because he would have stopped cole going forward, as he does evra when he plays, and his direct running(end product or not) would have rushed their defenders into making a couple of mistakes

i dont like nasri or rosicky playing so high up the pitch and i dont think it suits them at all, although with song and cesc "untouchables" and denilson had a goodish game again, so theres not alot of me thinking that they will be brought back into midfield

its a shame about eduardo, he just hasnt got his touch back yet, and we all know it can take a year sometimes to fully get back firing after a major long term injury, so i hope people dont just dismiss him yet, although at present i think we should go with vela, until bendtner returns and that will be a big boost, as it gives us an extra dimension

i have come to the conclusion, that almunia is simply not good enough at all for us, how many big games over the last 3 seasons, has he been at fault or partially to blame, its getting a bit repetitive now and looking at the goals, apart from the first one. he just isnt a top keeper, the 3rd one obviously he just schoolboyed and wrong footed himself, but the seconf, why was he off his line in that ridiculous position when there was 3 players in front of him all with a good chance of reaching the ball


at the end of the day thouogh we were beaten by a quality team and with little or no weaknesses, and i think they will win league and champions league this year

[Inchpräctice]

As far as the whole Rosicky/Nasri/Denilson thing is concerned I would definitely have started Denilson and Song together if it were up to me.
Playing two DMs against Chelscum is the right decision imo. The only thing I would've done differently is started Rosicky ahead of Nasri.
Nasri didn't have a bad game at all but Rosicky is just a far better player imo.
It may be that he was tired after the mid-week game though I don't know.
Once again Vela made little or no impact when he came on which didn't surprise me at all. He also blatantly dived towards the end of the match.

Not making excuses but was it me or was the ref completely shite?
Gave Traore a yellow card for f**k all and yet that giant lump of shite Obi Mikel was allowed to kick lumps out of our players for the entire game as much as he liked.
Something tells me that ref is on Abramovich's Christmas card list.

[SE13]

Dear Supporter,

We are all very disappointed with the result on Sunday, but I feel the 3-0 scoreline against Chelsea was a very unfair reflection of the game, but we cannot change it now.

I believe that Chelsea had absolutely everything going for them on Sunday and we can only respond in our next game. With their first shot on goal, they scored. With their second cross, they scored. And after it was difficult.

The turning point was when the referee disallowed Arshavin's 'goal' early in the second half. I feel it was a very unfair decision. That was a very important goal in this kind of game, and I feel it was a mistake by the referee.

Of course, Chelsea are in a very strong position now, but this team, for me, they can drop points. I'm convinced of that. That's an impression I have. Before we speak about the title, we now have to get back to winning games.

Also when you look back at the game, I think Carlos Vela could have had a penalty. I think it was at least a foul on the edge of the box. If the referee gives a foul when Drogba scored from his free-kick, he cannot say it was not a foul on Vela. But I do not want to talk too much about the referee. I think we make mistakes; we need to look at ourselves and ask why we conceded the goals.

Drogba is a good player. It's funny because he doesn't do a lot, but he's efficient in what he does. You would be surprised by the number of balls he touched on Sunday. But Drogba is a great player, nobody can deny that. He's very efficient. I think as well, at the moment he's in a period where he kicks the ball and it goes in. On the first goal, at the moment he has complete confidence and he doesn't wonder 'will I score or not?'. He just goes for it and he did very well. It's a great goal, the first one, but it's a goal of a striker in complete confidence.

I do not think the title race is over. I think we are fighters and we have to show that in the next game. The problem we have at the moment is that people will not believe in us, so we have to make sure that lack of belief does not diminish our belief.

That's where we have to be mentally stronger than we were until now. Because until now, we had some credit that we earned at the start of the season from the 'specialists', and then we a lose a game. And now it will be harder for us.

Thanks for your continued support.

[ken day]

dont you lot get pissed of with the bollox coming out of wegers mouth, Drogba did not do much, this chelsea team will drop points, he is turning you into the laughing stock of the prem.
Arsenal were bullied everywhere around the pitch, your little boys are no match for the power and strength of a chelsea team firing on all cylinders.

[Myrmedus]

My main concern with Arsene is that he always seems to point the finger at other things nowadays rather than at his own team's shortcomings. He never used to be quite so brazen with it, it's something that seems to have creeped into his management over time, heh.

Against United it was the same arguments: "Fletcher fouling people all over, unlucky 2nd goal etc."; against City it was the same: "Adebayor should've been sent off, City didn't have many shots on goal"; and now against Chelsea we see it again: "They score their goals from first shots, we should've have a pen, our goal shouldn't have been disallowed".

If teams are consistantly scoring goals with their first or second shots against us, to the point where there's a pattern, then that's not luck but rather something seriously wrong with our defence or (more likely IMO) goalkeeper. Arsene is meant to be an intelligent man and versed in Economics I believe? Then he should be good at picking up patterns - there's a distinct pattern in the way we concede against big teams: it's called not having a good enough keeper.

First goal was unstoppable (from a keeper point of view, Sagna's defending was poor though) but the other two? A keeper like Cech I would expect to prevent those and you're looking at 0-1 at half-time - a much more managable scoreline. It was the same deal vs. Man U aswell: the penalty was so naive of Almunia to give away, I saw it coming a mile off, and the second goal I expect a world-class keeper to save it even from his own player's head.