Arsenal Vs Chelsea | Premiership 29/11/09

[StLGooner]

lol wenger says he has watched it 5 times and it was a chelsea player that kicked it out of his hands when it was clearly eduardo, so what the hell was wenger watching

Then he's a blind fool.
Correct decision awarded.

maybe we now know why he normally says he didnt see it lol

Wasn't it a fair ball to go for though? It wasn't all the way in Cechs arms was it?

I only saw it once, so I'm not totally sure.

[Fordy]

lol wenger says he has watched it 5 times and it was a chelsea player that kicked it out of his hands when it was clearly eduardo, so what the hell was wenger watching

Then he's a blind fool.
Correct decision awarded.

maybe we now know why he normally says he didnt see it lol

Wasn't it a fair ball to go for though? It wasn't all the way in Cechs arms was it?

I only saw it once, so I'm not totally sure.

this is one of them that you can arguee both sides for.

the rules are you cant kick the ball out of the keepers hands so it was right, but then again did the keeper have it under complete control?

so it can even with video eviendece be debated but from how the ref will of seen it its the right decission imo.

But the fact still remains Wenger said he has watched a replay 5 times and it was a chelsea player who kicked it out, when no chelsea player even had is feet anywhere near the ball.

I think wenger had every right to think the goal was ok and argue the point you just made but he didnt he claimed something that was clearly untrue

[cap06gunner06]

I've certainly seen em given

[StLGooner]

Their team balance has been much better than ours. Other than Song I haven't seen another player looking like they really want to desperately win this. Sagna and Eduardo have been pretty poor as well.

I don't think Chelsea deserve a 2 goal lead but they deserve a 1 goal one. Their defence has been watertight and are dangerous going forward and managed to do in a couple of attempts what we were trying all half.

We can aim for a draw now if we really want to, if we play like we did after the second goal for the whole of the second half then we can do it but if we play like we did most of that half we don't stand a chance.

Absolutely spot on Rev. They are willing to give us the possession game. They hustle full stop the length of the field to get numbers in attack and then back on defense. They had a game plan and excuted it perfectly, it was only going to go our way if we nicked a goal, but getting through their defense was always going to be difficult. They play total football if you ask me, it ain't always pretty, but its damn sure effective.

[StLGooner]

lol wenger says he has watched it 5 times and it was a chelsea player that kicked it out of his hands when it was clearly eduardo, so what the hell was wenger watching

Then he's a blind fool.
Correct decision awarded.

maybe we now know why he normally says he didnt see it lol

Wasn't it a fair ball to go for though? It wasn't all the way in Cechs arms was it?

I only saw it once, so I'm not totally sure.

this is one of them that you can arguee both sides for.

the rules are you cant kick the ball out of the keepers hands so it was right, but then again did the keeper have it under complete control?

so it can even with video eviendece be debated but from how the ref will of seen it its the right decission imo.

But the fact still remains Wenger said he has watched a replay 5 times and it was a chelsea player who kicked it out, when no chelsea player even had is feet anywhere near the ball.

I think wenger had every right to think the goal was ok and argue the point you just made but he didnt he claimed something that was clearly untrue

Thats Wenger for you. Anyway, it could have gone either way, but so could have the pen against Anelka, so I'm not fussed about that, we got outplayed and out coached.

[Gunner Down Under]

The only good thing to come out of this game was that I put Drogba as captain in my Fantasy team.

[Myrmedus]

I think once again we were completely outgunned by Chelsea in the tactical department and lost because of that more than anything else. If you give a good eyeballing to each of the games we've played against Chelsea since the Mourinho era started you'll see a clear pattern - they always play the same way against us, and it's the same way they play against Barcelona, and we always play the same way against them; the problem is simple: their tactics are setup specifically to stifle our own. Chelsea change their tactics when they face different teams, we do not, and that's why we usually lose this fixture home and away. Wenger doesn't appear to have the same tactical flexibility that Chelsea managers have had.

Today, like any other game against Chelsea, they had 6-7 players behind the ball almost at all times, and they defended very deeply. Usually their back-line was well into the penalty area even when we had possession only half-way into their half. Why? Because it counters the way we play perfectly: we always insist on playing the game by threading balls in behind the opposition and never vary our game. How can you thread the ball behind a defensive line when there's - at most - a 10 yard gap between them and the goal? And even if you succeed Cech just sweeps it up like all good keepers do? You can't, but we still continue to try for 90 minutes anyway....

When Chelsea play like this they're almost impossible to penetrate but they're extremely vulnerable to shots from the edge of the area, be they from a flanking position or from the "D". Usually they station two players ahead of their back-line but if we actually attempted to engineer openings in front of their back-line we'd find alot more shooting opportunities and we would score eventually - you cannot allow a team to take pot-shots at your goal from the "D" continuously because they will punish you. Unfortunately our team always seems to refuse to shoot, they insist on trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle, even when our opposition are specifically setup to quell those attempts, and 99 times out of 100 we lose possession and it amounts to nothing.

Honestly I don't expect this to change due to personnel because it's something alot more deep rooted than that. Yes, I'd say RVP could've made a difference because he's unusual for Arsenal in that he actually takes the shooting opportunities outside the area, however relying on a single player to patch up tactical weaknesses isn't a good way to go in my opinion....

I do have issues with some of the personnel to be fair (Almunia - the 3rd goal was poor) but today was largely a tactical loss.

Oh and we weren't unlucky today or on the wrong end of decisions at all. Anelka's first chance was a clear pen and we got alot of bitty decisions going our way. Yes, it could be argued Eduardo got the ball from Cech before he closed his second hand on it, meaning it was a legit tackle, but in all honesty we didn't deserve to get anything from the game. We lost because we were second best, Arsene making excuses just makes me worried that he's unable to see the weaknesses of the side and its tactics and thus won't ever fix them.

A very disappointed Gooner.

[SE13]

Cracking first post there Myrmedus.

Come and say hello in the introductions area: viewforum.php?f=2 and feel free to add thoughts anywhere

[S4cePL]

looking at the scoreline during the game, being 0-2, then the final 0-3 nail in the coffin, i wanted to think that this was just a freak result and that we will recover from this in due time,,, while the return to form and scoring prowess may still happen before January, I could not overlook the fact that the loss of RVP is even more devastating than the Chelsea loss

[maslo]

i came in from work and saw the result and i'm so dissapointed feel totally gutted.
lots of people seem to be suggesting it was a bit of a poor reflection on the game and making excuses for it, but we have just lost 3-0 at home so i dont think its excusable, seems pretty darn poor to me. I know we have quality but we need more strength and tactical noust, you cant always outplay a team to win. and even if we all think the gap is not that big its showed that on paper it is, 11 points between us (granted we have game in hand) but its worrying to see that gap. Maybe chelsea are just too good this year?
That said i feel we could get furthest in champs league, its consistency we struggle with so prem is gonna be tricky.
were there any positives from the match? who played best for us?

[SE13]

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

[Goose]

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

Indeed, although the Yids are already acting like it was them that won the match made even worse by the fact that they are above us

The first 2 goals came down Sagnas side, would Eboue have done better?

[Myrmedus]

Sagna's defending vs. Cole was incredibly naive - of any team in the world we should know Cole as well as any. We know he's pretty much all left foot yet, especially for the first goal, Sagna appears to be falling for Cole's dummy - why?! You KNOW he's all left foot so don't buy the dummy, cover his left and if he wants to cut inside let the winger help you out. Show him onto his weaker foot not his stronger foot >.<

The issue I have really is that this isn't a case of consistancy at all because we didn't play poorly per se, and in terms of possession we dominated Chelsea...we actually played better than they did. They gave the ball away on many occasions and didn't offer much over the game. However, this is indicative of struggling to beat teams that setup to counter our Plan A, regardless of how badly they pay. Chelsea weren't at the races today by their accounts yet they drowned us nonetheless.

[Goose]

Yup and our plan B sucks

Plan A, through balls or walk in the ball

Plan B, useless crosses into the keeper

Cole owned Sagna, which is a sad thing to say

[Myrmedus]

I feel dirty saying this, terribly dirty, but we missed Adebayor today (ouch...).

Plan B wouldn't have been so useless with him there.

Still, can't understand why we don't have a "Plan C" to shoot from distance. I still remember the 6-2 Blackburn game 4 of our goals were scored from outside the box....