Match Reaction: Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal

[Master Splinter]

Game should have been over at half time considering all the fluffed chances.

The team barely came out after the break.

Poor team selection. Pointless heroic comeback. Defeat.

WUMger does it again.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Grim stuff.

Still I've always said the first two matches of the season don't count so on we go. :scarf:

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Horrible lack of control in midfield at times.

[selassie]

This team is still finding its way and to be honest I didn’t expect anything out of these first 2 games anyway.

Defence is still a mess, Bellerin still a mess, Midfield looked better without Xhaka. Same old players are still stinking up this team post Wenger.

[bilko22]

Oh don't be silly, I was please with the end end of the first half performance, we've not played like that for a long time.
Green shoots for sure, it'll take time and players that don't fit or step up - shocked by bellerin today, really poor - will be shipped.
I really hope the front two players make it but i wouldn't be surprised if we we have a couple new forwards this time next year.

[selassie]

Oh don't be silly, I was please with the end end of the first half performance, we've not played like that for a long time.
Green shoots for sure, it'll take time and players that don't fit or step up - shocked by bellerin today, really poor - will be shipped.
I really hope the front two players make it but i wouldn't be surprised if we we have a couple new forwards this time next year.

I’d get rid of Bellerin, Xhaka, Mustafi & Ozil if we could find decentish fees and replacements.

[Letters]

Still I've always said the first two matches of the season don't count
I don’t think that’s how the league table works :(

[Globalgunner]

The team that ended the match should have started it, with 2 changes. Cech is the past , we need to give Leno a chance or what was the point. He`s 26 not 20. ramsey can go and laca takes his place. Mikhi for Ozil. That team has a chance of top 4.

Chelsea were mighty lucky to win that. Auba its all on you?

[Letters]

Saw most of the second half and can’t really agree Chelsea were lucky to win it.
They were well on top for most of what I saw.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

None of the big hitters until Liverpool in early November now, though that's on my birthday. :doh:

[Globalgunner]

Saw most of the second half and can’t really agree Chelsea were lucky to win it.
They were well on top for most of what I saw.

Agreed but they did not miss 4 sitters like we did. When you see the highlights of the 1st half you will weep.

[Chippy]

I don’t think that’s how the league table works :(

Agree! looking forward to a relegation six pointer with the Hammers next week!

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Thought Auba missed the worst of the game and Xhaka coming off at half time said it all. Cech was very good today.

[Özim]

Not unexpected defeat, lineup was shocking, Emery deserved to lose that game on that alone, didn't learn any lessons from the first match. Defence was terrible as expected considering we haven't really invested much in that area, Auba had a poor match and should have put away his chances.

2nd half learnt next to nothing and to be honest, 1st goal we scored the keeper should have done better.

Emery will get time but not if he keeps sticking with some of the duds he insists on playing, needs to show a willingness to change things and ability to learn. I think our poor summer of recrutiment might come back to haunt us, 5 goals shipped in two games already so defence isn't looking good.

[Chippy]

Not unexpected defeat, lineup was shocking, Emery deserved to lose that game on that alone, didn't learn any lessons from the first match. Defence was terrible as expected considering we haven't really invested much in that area, Auba had a poor match and should have put away his chances.

2nd half learnt next to nothing and to be honest, 1st goal we scored the keeper should have done better.

Emery will get time but not if he keeps sticking with some of the duds he insists on playing, needs to show a willingness to change things and ability to learn. I think our poor summer of recrutiment might come back to haunt us, 5 goals shipped in two games already so defence isn't looking good.
Different Manager same shit. The board will panic if we are in the bottom half at Christmas and bring in someone else. My money is on someone like Brendon Rodgers. God help us.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Let's not get carried away...

[Ralpheroo72]

Abysmal defending, abysmal finishing.

[Mac76]

Agree! looking forward to a relegation six pointer with the Hammers next week!

That's no joke either, if we don't sort out our defence we're gonna be giving away goals like anything this season

[Chippy]

That's no joke either, if we don't sort out our defence we're gonna be giving away goals like anything this season
:gp:

[Marc Overmars]

A nice effort but as usual we fall short in these games against the top sides.:sleep:

[Özim]

I can accept the defeat, realistically we weren't expecting to get anything more than a draw. What I can't accept is that horrendous lineup persisting with players like Xhaka which Emery seems to like despite having zero talent, the minute I saw the lineup I knew for sure we'd lose.

Chelsea deserved to win based on the whole game, but it's worth noting Sarri hasn't been in charge long at all, much less time than Emery so he's hardly settled in either, I'm not convinced we can get top 4, not if Emery refuses to learn lessons from previous games.

Liverpool, Man U, Man City, Spurs and Chelsea are probably all better than us to have to outdo two of those to get into the top 4 based on our summer dealings is unrealistic, we really haven't brought in enough quality.

The next game should be an easy win as West Ham are dreadful so that won't really be much of a measure of anything if we win (or indeed relegation candidates Cardiff or Newcastle), inthe same way these two games aren't a measure of much, games against the likes of Everton our reals rivals will mean more.

[Power n Glory]

Only just seen the highlights. Great showing from the world's most expensive goalkeeper. ;)

We should have won that game from the looks of the chances we missed. Ozil should havs put us in the lead, Aubameyang should have definitely equalised, he missed two sitters, so did Mkhitaryan. Mkhitaryan looked to have had a good game! Progress at least.

Ozil and Xhaka should be shown the door. Ramsey as well.

But on we go. I'll be disappointed if I see Xhaka staring another game for us this month.

[Bumble]

watched the game this morning, Auba's miss was followed with Chelsea scoring their second goal. We cut through Chelsea in the first half and could have had 4 or 5 but sloppiness has cost us. In the 2nd half Chelsea took control.

Luckily our next 3 games are against teams either shambolicly run or invest less than we do. So we should be putting together 3 wins in a row and that will build confidence.

Xhaka is awful, he does not add anything in the slightest to the team. I can only presume that in training he is incredible but in the games he is useless.

[Gooner23]

Only just seen the highlights. Great showing from the world's most expensive goalkeeper. ;)

We should have won that game from the looks of the chances we missed. Ozil should havs put us in the lead, Aubameyang should have definitely equalised, he missed two sitters, so did Mkhitaryan. Mkhitaryan looked to have had a good game! Progress at least.

Ozil and Xhaka should be shown the door. Ramsey as well.

But on we go. I'll be disappointed if I see Xhaka staring another game for us this month.

Mhiki was awful for about 40 mins until he scored and assisted out of nowhere. Missed a sitter and was defensively a liability all game, leaving Bellerin 2 on 1 constantly.

I stand by view he and Ozil cannot both start against a top 6 side. Based on yesterday though Ozil should be the one to drop. 15 completed passes is embarrassing.

Defensively we're still a shambles. I think we'll really struggle to break into Champions League. How many chances will Xhaka and Mustafi Have? Would rather see Torreira and of the young centre backs get a string of games.

[Ralpheroo72]

Ozil and the money he is on, is a luxury we cannot afford. Xhaka is not up to it, needs to be sold. The Greek bloke and Mustafi are accidents waiting to happen. The summer recruitment is being exposed, and it certainly wasn’t what was required. Stan owning the club oughtright has come at the worst possible time.

[Mac76]

Xhaka is awful, he does not add anything in the slightest to the team. I can only presume that in training he is incredible but in the games he is useless.

I was thinking the same about Xhaka and why he gets picked, remember Ivan and co decided to award him a new contract in the summer so my guess is Emery needs to be seen to give him a chance before he can defend a decision to drop him altogether, plus torreira has apparently been getting back to fitness

Hopefully Emery now will feel, after subbing Xhaka in the first match and bringing him off at HT in the second that he can drop him altogether amd make Torreira the default in the DM position.

Cech will take longer to replace - i was listening to the post-Man C Arseblog podcast and they said there was talk that Leno wasn't doing that well in training so isn't currently making the case to replace Cech, but no doubt we'll see him get starts in EL and Lge Cup games. Arseblog also rightly say we should have sold Ramsey while we could get a decent price for him, a real mess-up by the club :doh:

Elsewhere, we really need to start with Laca for Ozil in the W Ham game, and lastly, I think Guendouzi will come good, still young and chucked in at the deep end in his first two games but i think he could turn out to be an excellent player over time

[Xhaka Can’t]

I don’t think that’s how the league table works :(

No.

It generally gets bought by Russian oligarchs or repressive Middle Eastern countries.

[Penguin]

It was disappointing how open we were again. Xhaka really exposes our back line because he just hovers in the most pointless positions without doing anything. He doesn't put any pressure on the opponent's midfielders so they always have space to turn and play a pass through to their strikers. Torreira did okay when he came on, but he made a couple of silly mistakes and looked a bit off the pace. Still, our midfield looked a lot better with him there so hopefully he'll start from now on.

Mustafi and Sokratis struggled with the high line. Bellerin was arguably the worst player on the pitch. When Hazard got subbed on he was either too tired to defend properly or just gave up. He really needs to get his act together.


Cech will take longer to replace - i was listening to the post-Man C Arseblog podcast and they said there was talk that Leno wasn't doing that well in training so isn't currently making the case to replace Cech, but no doubt we'll see him get starts in EL and Lge Cup games.

I don't listen to any of these podcasts, but how would Arseblog know how Leno (or any other player for that matter) was doing in training?

If it is true it's disappointing but I'm happy with Cech at the moment. As long as we don't try to force him to overplay the ball because that's not his game and never will be. He didn't do it against Chelsea which is a good sign.

[Power n Glory]

Just seen a clip of our second goal. Build up play all the way from the keeper to end up with a Iwobi finish, Mkhitaryan finish.

Iwobi looked good too the little I saw. May it continue.

Patience is needed. Look at it this way. Last week we looked nervy as hell playing out from deep, this week, we score a cracking goal away from home against Chelsea.

Oh, the sitter that Auba missed, did everyone see that splitting pass Guendouzi played to Mkhitaryan? What a pass.

[Marc Overmars]

Way more encouraging than what we saw last week at least. Fluffed our lines when it mattered and that's what separates us from the best teams but we did play some nice stuff at times, which isn't much consolation I know.

It was an unfortunate opening 2 fixtures to have and it's disappointing to come out of them with no points but these fixtures could have been at any point in the season and we still would have been very unlikely to win them purely because we're not a great team and very much a work in progress.

I hope Emery is ruthless enough to weed out those who let him down the most, rather than stubbornly persist with them. That's what will endear him to the fans the most and buy him enough time to have a fair crack at making us decent again. Needless to say we really need to be looking at maximum points from the next few games against the teams we "should" be beating.

[GP]

Just seen a clip of our second goal. Build up play all the way from the keeper to end up with a Iwobi finish, Mkhitaryan finish.

Iwobi looked good too the little I saw. May it continue.

Patience is needed. Look at it this way. Last week we looked nervy as hell playing out from deep, this week, we score a cracking goal away from home against Chelsea.

Oh, the sitter that Auba missed, did everyone see that splitting pass Guendouzi played to Mkhitaryan? What a pass.


https://www.clippituser.tv/c/elxwda

The kid is a gem.

[Goonermerree]

Positives, we scored and Monreal is back! Like him or think he's on the scrap heap, he took the ball by the scruff on the neck when Willian dithered. We scored at least. We could have had more goals, such bad misses.
There is playing a high line and there's suicide, for their second goal our defence was stuck on the half way line!!!

[Marc Overmars]

Considering Xhaka has been hauled off twice now, I don't think it will be long before Torreira is given a run of games. Pair him up with Guendouzi and that should offer up a fresh balance in the centre.

[Power n Glory]

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/elxwda

The kid is a gem.

That's the one. I really like this kid.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Positives, we scored and Monreal is back! Like him or think he's on the scrap heap, he took the ball by the scruff on the neck when Willian dithered. We scored at least. We could have had more goals, such bad misses.
There is playing a high line and there's suicide, for their second goal our defence was stuck on the half way line!!!

I was thinking on the second goal that that action could be replayed a million times and we'd be in trouble most of the time. Why do we have 3 young CB's if none of them are ever going to play. I wish we would integrate Mav in if we insist on playing high lines often....but then again I think we should be playing 3Cb's anyway....though it's not Emery's forte and it really needs to be coached properly.

[Static]

That's the one. I really like this kid.

Yeah I really like him too. It's refreshing to see someone who is not afraid to try things.

[I am invisible]

Considering Xhaka has been hauled off twice now, I don't think it will be long before Torreira is given a run of games. Pair him up with Guendouzi and that should offer up a fresh balance in the centre.
I think he might give the same players one more try - one bad performance could just be a bad day, and even two could be a rare fluke occurance. But three in a row? I think he’ll then be looking at some of these players and thinking there’s a problem there that won’t just go away with perseverance. (He’ll also have enough evidence on his side to justify dropping anyone he sees fit without losing the dressing room.)

[I am invisible]

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/elxwda

The kid is a gem.


Yeah I really like him too. It's refreshing to see someone who is not afraid to try things.


That's the one. I really like this kid.
He’s been the unexpected bonus of the summer so far - if Torreira turns out to be the same player he was for Sampdoria and Uruguay then we’ve got the foundations of a really good, young midfield there. Gutted we lost AMN so early - would love to see us build around those three in the middle.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I think as I expected....Guendouzi learnt from the first game and actually allowed it to improve what he did yesterday. Always a good sign.

[I am invisible]

I was thinking on the second goal that that action could be replayed a million times and we'd be in trouble most of the time. Why do we have 3 young CB's if none of them are ever going to play. I wish we would integrate Mav in if we insist on playing high lines often....but then again I think we should be playing 3Cb's anyway....though it's not Emery's forte and it really needs to be coached properly.
Yeah, me too - with Monreal and Lichtsteiner as options, we can easily bracket these young CBs with plenty of experience to guide them along.

I’m actually quite up for giving a fair few of these younger players a chance. I half suspect Emery will find them easier to work with anyway - less bad habits to coach out of them, and probably more blind faith acceptance of what he’s preaching.

[Chippy]

https://www.clippituser.tv/c/elxwda

The kid is a gem.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-vs-chelsea-watch-video-matteo-guendouzi-aubameyang-miss-premier-league-highlights-a8498051.html

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Love him more for that reaction!

Iwobi missed one too but I liked him on the day in general and it has been clear for sometime that he's really worked on his left foot.

[Power n Glory]

Blink - didn't you say during the preseason games that it was the young players that looked to be pressing and more receptive of Emery's defensive tactics? If so, Emery may have to gut this team to get the desired response on the pitch.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

It was in that one particular game but generally the press lacked the intensity you only get when something is really riding on a game and you're not scared of getting injured.

I was interested to hear Elliot on the Arsenal vision podcast talking with one of his stat guys about how our press last season was the third most effective after City and Liverpool.....unless I'm remembering that incorrectly.

I was hoping that one of the younger CB's would be phased in though, though it may still happen. I know Mustafi isn't old but I lost faith in him some time ago.

[Power n Glory]

It was in that one particular game but generally the press lacked the intensity you only get when something is really riding on a game and you're not scared of getting injured.

I was interested to hear Elliot on the Arsenal vision podcast talking with one of his stat guys about how our press last season was the third most effective after City and Liverpool.....unless I'm remembering that incorrectly.

I was hoping that one of the younger CB's would be phased in though, though it may still happen. I know Mustafi isn't old but I lost faith in him some time ago.

Having seen how Mustafi was done over by Morata, I'd say you're more than justified in feeling that way.

But, it's worth Googling Mustafi's recent comments about Wenger and Emery. He said it's good to have a coach that will give direction and it's something that wouldn't happen under Wenger so he'd constantly make mistakes and panic about making the next one. We'll see if Emery can teach an old dog some new tricks.

[selassie]

That's the one. I really like this kid.

Me too. He should be a mainstay in our team, his potential is huge IMO.

[Mac76]

[QUOTE=Penguin;4466653]
I don't listen to any of these podcasts, but how would Arseblog know how Leno (or any other player for that matter) was doing in training?

[QUOTE]

Well some of these guys get to know people around the club and hear stuff, so there could be something in it, tbf they're careful to emphasise it's just what they've heard though

[Mac76]

Mkhi: "We don't feel any pressure. We are not thinking that something is going wrong because we are moving in the right way even if we lost two games."

Seriously...? :unsure:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45286517

[GP]

Sounds reasonable to me.

[Globalgunner]

We were terrible against City, better against Chelsea, a game we could have won. So maybe he is right. West Ham are 3 bars below either of those teams. If we cant beat them then fans and players alike should have real cause for concern. Issue now is with Emery. Who does he select for the Wham game. If he goes with his starting team in either previous game then he is seriously deluded.
New team is needed. I would even put Mavro in for Mustafi.

[Chippy]

We were terrible against City, better against Chelsea, a game we could have won. So maybe he is right. West Ham are 3 bars below either of those teams. If we cant beat them then fans and players alike should have real cause for concern. Issue now is with Emery. Who does he select for the Wham game. If he goes with his starting team in either previous game then he is seriously deluded.
New team is needed. I would even put Mavro in for Mustafi.

I cannot believe that I am so nervous before a home game against a fairly poor West Ham side.

We are normally slow starters, I cannot remember when we won our first home game of the season (Defeats against Villa, Liverpool, West Ham and Man City (last week) in the last few seasons spring to mind).

However, there is a lot more riding on this game than just the three points. If we lose, doubts will start to creep in regarding the new Manager’s philosophy and that may have a Physiological effect going forward.

Make no doubt, this is a big game no matter how early in the season.

COYG!

[Gooner23]

It's a must win game.

I hope Emery is brave with his selection. I'd like to see Laca and Auba both start and Xhaka dropped for Torreira. I'd also drop Mustafi for Mav or Holding, although I think that's less likely.

[Bumble]

It's a must win game.

I hope Emery is brave with his selection. I'd like to see Laca and Auba both start and Xhaka dropped for Torreira. I'd also drop Mustafi for Mav or Holding, although I think that's less likely.

think he cant play both Xhaka and Mustafi, and it would be great to see both dropped to the bench for Terreira and Holding (bit more PL exp than Mav). Why don't we try two up front as well instead of playing a striker out of position when both Laca and Auba play.


maybe this is a game where miki and ozil can play together as I expect us to have a lot more ball and therefore need a bit of guile.