Chelsea V Arsenal Saturday 18 August 17:30 kick off BST

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pedro cuts inside but sends it way away.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Great awareness from Bellerin as ever.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Oezil on the volley but scuffs it.

Good move though.

[SMatthews]

Good start.

1-0

[Globalgunner]

That didnt take long

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 Pedro.

[Globalgunner]

Honestly, at times we look like a complete amateur team, as if we dont even belong in this league.

WTF is going on?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Just over from Barkley.

[I am invisible]

Nobody should play because they have youth on their side so if Leno isn't good enough as a goalkeeper why should he be standing there as the last line of our defence? How many people would want Bravo playing for us, just because he can pass a football? Nobody would because he's just not the standard of keeper required.

Emery wants to pass it out the back every time so we have to ask why is he not playing Leno?

Is it any real different to wanting Giroud to play ahead of Aubameyang because he's good at defending our goal at corners.

Well, this is one of the reasons I started that last post by saying that I don’t know where I stand on this issue - Leno’s competence is one of those unknowns that I just don’t know enough about yet. Maybe he’s not being picked because he’s shite? Maybe Emery is trying to spare him a confidence- / reputation-destroying hammering in his first two PL games? Who knows? For now, I’m choosing to look at this as more of a theoretical choice between GK A (Cech), who represents the more traditional keeper, vs GK B (Leno), who represents the modern, ball-playing keeper. If the reality turns out to be a choice between a competent keeper vs an utterly incompetent keeper, then there is no choice and this entire debate is moot.

With regards to opting for a keeper because they’re able to play out from the back, I think it’s a cometely different situation to someone wanting Giroud over Auba because he can defend corners, firstly because it wasn’t a critical part of Giroud’s job as a forward, secondly because it was nothing that any other player’s job was dependent on, and thirdly because I would assume that that person had never watched football before. in these modern systems though, your keeper’s ability to play out from the back has a direct impact on how we shape the team in our defensive third, as well as how we instruct our CBs and DMs to play (and it may even dictate which players are picked to play around him). A ball-playing keeper gives you the base point of a defensive diamond and provides a vital get-out for the other defensive players when they’re being pressed - If your keeper isn’t a reliable option to pass to and receive from then those those passing triangles at the back disintegrate, and our shape and style of play will have to alter accordingly.

Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that keeper’s who can’t play out from the back are redundant (or, in our case, that Cech doesn’t represent the better of two imperfect options), but l do feel that if we’re going to go with someone like Cech then we should probably have a rapid rethink about how we’re trying to coach the CBs and DMs, because this business of having the CBs split wide as passing options, while the DMs drop into the gap between them as a third option just isn’t going to work. If the keeper can’t play his part in that kind of system then we’re going to be able under constant pressure and relying on those players being able to get themselves out if trouble. Probably need to go back to a solid line in front of Cech, and park trying to teach the defence fancy ways of playing until we can sign a new keeper who we trust.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Wenger has left this team a complete fucking mess.

Yet somehow we’ve managed to pick a manager that could possibly be worse.