Match Reaction vs Sunderland (home).

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Winning comfortably is bad for business. Nothing to moan about.



Sunderland were poor but it was a good solid win nevertheless. Slightly worried about some of the one touch flicks and passing moves we do play. There's nothing wrong with it but I'm concerned we do tend to over rely on it more than other teams. It does look fantastic when you pull it off (Rosicky's goal) but those times are rare even for the best teams and better defences are able to deal with them comfortably (see game against United at home).

Would prefer for the Ox or Gnabry to come in for Stoke to add some pace and directness and for us to mix up our play more often.

[Özim]

Winning comfortably is bad for business. Nothing to moan about.



Sunderland were poor but it was a good solid win nevertheless. Slightly worried about some of the one touch flicks and passing moves we do play. There's nothing wrong with it but I'm concerned we do tend to over rely on it more than other teams. It does look fantastic when you pull it off (Rosicky's goal) but those times are rare even for the best teams and better defences are able to deal with them comfortably (see game against United at home).

Would prefer for the Ox or Gnabry to come in for Stoke to add some pace and directness and for us to mix up our play more often.

Pretty much agree with this, I don't like the tippy tappy because it's very hard to pull off and pretty much impossible to pull off against the better sides. It's frustrating to watch, for that reason playing Sanogo makes more sense as it opens up our game and makes us move forward with more urgency, just as Rosicky, Oxo and Gnabry do.

Wenger seems to prefer the short passing, slow paced game sadly and this will be our undoing IMO. Good win on Saturday, but an expected win especially at home.

[AFC Leveller]

Tony Gale and Stuart Robinson just cant hide their hatred/envy.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

To be a little pedantic. If you ignore the first half of Rosicky's goal and just take his 1-2 with Giroud in isolation...one might argue that is exactly the sort of goal and play the ball on the deck, pass it around nicely and fluidly team play.

It is the sort of play that got Szczesny sent off against Bayern.

Our undoing will be our fundamental lack of quality in key areas in key games. A team with Sanogo/Giroud has no real right beating teams like Bayern, Manure or City.

[selassie]

Good 3 points and Rosicky's goal, awesome!!!

We have a toughie coming up at Stoke before the "brutal march" schedule.

[Özim]

To be a little pedantic. If you ignore the first half of Rosicky's goal and just take his 1-2 with Giroud in isolation...one might argue that is exactly the sort of goal and play the ball on the deck, pass it around nicely and fluidly team play.

Rosicky adds pace to our play for sure, however there's too much passing in our football most of the times, against Spurs and Bayern we attacked at pace and we much more direct, we cut out a lot of the short passes, didn't dwell on the ball and pass it sideways and allows the defenders to get back, most of the time we pick up the ball, look around, pass it sideways, then it goes forward, back again etc etc etc.

[selassie]

I have to say, after a good, convincing win compared to the other two teams in the title race, the bias on the BBC football homepage is astounding. Chelsea get a mention, Man City "keep up the pace on the leaders", or words to that effect (In spite of them being third and Us only a point behind Chelsea) and we get a small "sub-story" if you will about a Giroud double seeing off Sunderland.

We're allowed to be pessimists. I've said that time and time again. But if the media, who are continuously begging to see a title race, don't want to consider a team in 2nd as title contenders, it becomes rather infuriating.

Yep, there is a major bias against us from the BBC when it comes to the Title race. I am as pessimistic as they come when it comes to our chances, but the BBC have pretty much written us off from day one and give us little to no credit.

[Letters]

Good win today, the acid test is the run in March though, until we prove we can beat the big boys then we won't be considered serious challengers IMO, we need to get through this mental block we seem to have.

If we'd lost or drawn there would have been a million posts on here about bottling it and
We have a tough run coming up, all the more reason we win the games we 'should' be winning.
Nice to see a comfortable win in response to the Bayern defeat.

[Özim]

If we'd lost or drawn there would have been a million posts on here about bottling it and
We have a tough run coming up, all the more reason we win the games we 'should' be winning.
Nice to see a comfortable win in response to the Bayern defeat.

At home against Sunderland, yes of course there would be because it's a game we should win at home.

Fact is these are wins we expect, the only unexpected ones will be in the games against the big teams, if we win those there will really be something to get excited about, right now not so much, the title will be won and lost when we play the likes of City and Chelsea again, not now as expected.

I think noone genuinely believes the title is realistic as noone believes we'll come through that run in one piece, even most Arsenal fans, the recent run against Liverpool, Man U and Bayern has done nothing to change that.

[Letters]

At home against Sunderland, yes of course there would be because it's a game we should win at home.

Fine, but if you've ever seen football you'll know that results don't always go that way. It's not always because a team has 'bottled' it. Football just goes like that sometimes.
In the last 5 league games Chelsea have drawn with West Ham at home and West Brom away, both games they should easily win.
I don't remember you saying Chelsea bottled it.