Alexis Sánchez ~ El Niño Maravilla

[Angelito]

Oh Gosh, this is gold.

We already have a bunch of wind up merchants screaming how Ozil is the reason we don't beat big teams at the Emirates 3-0, or in the FA Cup. The least we need is some rather fine posters criticizing Alexis for Wenger's issues.

It's not because of Ozil or Alexis that we don't win big away games. Just check our manager's record. It's not their fault that we suffer from defensive lapses.

If you have Alexis on the left and Ozil on the right, you don't instruct Ramsey to play as a CF. If you play with a two man midfield, you don't have an immobile and slow thinker like Xhaka in the midfield.

Xhaka played deep for much of the game yesterday. But he lost it three times, from what I remember, as soon as some Chelsea players hounded around him. Only thing is Ramsey/Kosc/Elneny were around to bail him out.

I want us to use Elneny more. He's not spectacular but he's well rounded. Elneny alongside Ramsey would work well in a 3-4-3 in big games.

We're not West Brom to be glad that Iwobi and Welbeck's presence enables us to get 0-0 draws away from home, especially when you're already 6 points behind an incredible City side, five games into the season.

[Mike Dean]

Oh Gosh, this is gold.

We already have a bunch of wind up merchants screaming how Ozil is the reason we don't beat big teams at the Emirates 3-0, or in the FA Cup. The least we need is some rather fine posters criticizing Alexis for Wenger's issues.

It's not because of Ozil or Alexis that we don't win big away games. Just check our manager's record. It's not their fault that we suffer from defensive lapses.

If you have Alexis on the left and Ozil on the right, you don't instruct Ramsey to play as a CF. If you play with a two man midfield, you don't have an immobile and slow thinker like Xhaka in the midfield.

Xhaka played deep for much of the game yesterday. But he lost it three times, from what I remember, as soon as some Chelsea players hounded around him. Only thing is Ramsey/Kosc/Elneny were around to bail him out.

I want us to use Elneny more. He's not spectacular but he's well rounded. Elneny alongside Ramsey would work well in a 3-4-3 in big games.

We're not West Brom to be glad that Iwobi and Welbeck's presence enables us to get 0-0 draws away from home, especially when you're already 6 points behind an incredible City side, five games into the season.

[Arsene Nose]

I think people are missing the point about the Chelsea game. What Iwobi and Welbeck were able to do is tuck in covering any lapses Xhaka and Ramsey made and forcing Chelsea wide where they had to contend with the fullbacks as well as the wide CBs. It's a straightforward question of whether you play a CAM (Ozil) and have him wander looking to create or a midfielder who is more positionally aware and keeps the shape. Playing Ozil is only worthwhile when it translates to lots of goals. I think we should be more open to dropping him when needed.

[DiamondGooner]

We're not West Brom to be glad that Iwobi and Welbeck's presence enables us to get 0-0 draws away from home, especially when you're already 6 points behind an incredible City side, five games into the season.

LOL

I don't know if you've noticed the standards of today's typical Arsenal fan in particular the WKB who celebrated the draw like we won the CL.
Tbf they're used to getting absolutely embarrassed at the Bridge so I can understand their relief, I noticed even Wenger on 70mins was on his feet in the dug out salivating the fact that he didn't have to leave the conference and take prozac to get through the rest of the day.

Welcome to the new Arsenal.

Tbf in this instance it was a good tactical display to minimize damage but if people think we should do this every game then as I said before ......... we will have given up and become a posh Stoke.

If we want to go full Mourhino then fair enough but he bought the players to make them elite, Mourhino's Inter Milan are one of my favourite teams ever.

He put together a side which beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich ........ but again he had a plan and bought suitable players, we just ride the wave every week hap-hazard.

[Arsene Nose]

Who is celebrating like we won the CL? It was the WOBs who were so convinced we were going to lose and are butt hurt at a credible performance. If people saw West Brom in our performance against Chelsea then maybe they should see more of WB to know the difference. When you play against a side like Chelsea who have some of the most creative midfielders in the world it is smart to show them respect and not get overrun in midfield by being all gung ho in attack. For once, Wenger takes the pragmatic option and get's criticized for that as well. When was the last time Chelsea went goalless at home?

[fredd1]

Who is celebrating like we won the CL? It was the WOBs who were so convinced we were going to lose and are butt hurt at a credible performance. If people saw West Brom in our performance against Chelsea then maybe they should see more of WB to know the difference. When you play against a side like Chelsea who have some of the most creative midfielders in the world it is smart to show them respect and not get overrun in midfield by being all gung ho in attack. For once, Wenger takes the pragmatic option and get's criticized for that as well. When was the last time Chelsea went goalless at home?

Because I want Wenger out doesn't mean I want us to play poorly.I want us to win all the time even if Wenger is in charge or Peter Kay

[fredd1]

Sanchez should of started and not that useless t**t Iwobi

[starmandb]

Who is celebrating like we won the CL? It was the WOBs who were so convinced we were going to lose and are butt hurt at a credible performance. If people saw West Brom in our performance against Chelsea then maybe they should see more of WB to know the difference. When you play against a side like Chelsea who have some of the most creative midfielders in the world it is smart to show them respect and not get overrun in midfield by being all gung ho in attack. For once, Wenger takes the pragmatic option and get's criticized for that as well. When was the last time Chelsea went goalless at home?

16 th April 2016 3-0 man city

[22-0]

yadayada 1 performance and we're suppose to forget the last 10 years.

[DiamondGooner]

yadayada 1 performance and we're suppose to forget the last 10 years.

Top 4 trophy has been reduced to "Draw against a top 4 side" trophy.

Standards innit.

[Cripps]

Another game without winning at a rivals stadium.

[Zedie]

Some of you lot are buzzing. No one has hailed it as a title pivot, people are just glad that we went to Stamford bridge and looked better than Chelsea for just over half the game but actually came away without a crushing defeat for a change.

Mourinho does this and GW hails him as a genius with his billion pound squad.

You lot spend every waking moment going over how shit we are and are then surprised when we don't do well against mega teams? Lol

We all know Wenger and co aren't going to spend to force us into top tier, why are you surprised we didn't beat the champions when you were all predicting a demolition?

A lot of the same posters are claiming we'll struggle against the likes of BATE etc in the EL.

Make your mind up. Are we shite or should we be handling the champions like kids?

[CaptGooner]

We all know Wenger and co aren't going to spend to force us into top tier, why are you surprised we didn't beat the champions when you were all predicting a demolition?

'We don't spend so we have no chance' is such a defeatist mentality. If money was everything, then City would be winning the title every year. Hell, looking at past few seasons I don't think Chelsea is that far in front of us in terms of net spend. Not even going to mention Spuds..

But I will admit I was predicting us to get beat pretty bad, so it was encouraging to see us put in a performance. I believe most of the frustration stems from the wind-up merchants (kudos to them for being annoying as sh*t) claiming Arsenal battered Chelsea, and that Wenger proved he is a top class manager. At the end of the day, we are still in the bottom half of the table so let's pump the breaks.

[Angelito]

If people saw West Brom in our performance against Chelsea then maybe they should see more of WB to know the difference. When you play against a side like Chelsea who have some of the most creative midfielders in the world it is smart to show them respect and not get overrun in midfield by being all gung ho in attack. For once, Wenger takes the pragmatic option and get's criticized for that as well. When was the last time Chelsea went goalless at home?

Spoken like someone who doesn't watch Chelsea play, but is too eager to offer inputs anyway.

Go and check the prediction thread. I was the only one who predicted an Arsenal win because I felt we could do it, because we've rattled Chelsea lately (which is why Conte was happy with a point), and because Chelsea aren't functioning well this season, at least not until now.

That game was very winnable. If we hadn't lost against Stoke, the point would have been valuable. However, that doesn't change the fact that we played for a point against Chelsea too. We had more clear cut chances to win than Chelsea did. I'm aware that a draw at Stamford Bridge seems like stuff of dreams for you and some other folks here whom I don't wish to name. In isolation, it's a good result.

But nobody can deny that we looked more threatening than Chelsea did and with some extra incision in the final 10-15 mins, we could have come out of the Bridge with all 3 points. We did get a draw by playing like West Brom do most of the time. But guess what, that's West Brom or any midtable team, who don't hold the creative impetus or the burden to win games as we do.

Tell you something. We could get such 0-0 draws at OT and Etihad too. Against City, it gets tricker, but I'm sure we could do it at United. That would mean nothing though - if we can't beat them at home, or win all the games teams out of the regular top-4/top-6. That's how Mourinho made his reputation.

Out best tactical game was against City when we won there 2-0. That's as good as we have executed a pragmatic game plan in our history at the Emirates.

Some people have been talking about how dropping Ozil (he was injured) and Alexis, and playing players like Welbeck and Iwobi, enabled us extra defensive security. Yes, that's absolutely true. What's also true is how deep Xhaka played. And, how restrained and positionally prudent Ramsey was. If only that were the case with both even with Alexis and Ozil out there, you'd think we would have a more stable midfield.

There are many dynamics to a game. It's a shame how we only choose to look at surfacial issues.

[EliteKiller]

Some of you lot are buzzing. No one has hailed it as a title pivot, people are just glad that we went to Stamford bridge and looked better than Chelsea for just over half the game but actually came away without a crushing defeat for a change.

Mourinho does this and GW hails him as a genius with his billion pound squad.

You lot spend every waking moment going over how shit we are and are then surprised when we don't do well against mega teams? Lol

We all know Wenger and co aren't going to spend to force us into top tier, why are you surprised we didn't beat the champions when you were all predicting a demolition?

A lot of the same posters are claiming we'll struggle against the likes of BATE etc in the EL.

Make your mind up. Are we shite or should we be handling the champions like kids?

Getting a point at a rivals gaff is now a 'measure of success' ... bottom line it's two points dropped ... that's 8 points dropped in five games ... barely mid-table stuff ...