Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Player Rating and Match Reaction

The Annoying thing is it’s not the hardest fixtures we’ve done badly in. If you told me at the beginning of the season that we’d get 8 points from away games at Villa, Spurs, City and Chelsea I’d be more than happy with that.

It’s Bournemouth, Liverpool and Newcastle that are the annoying games. I think the red card for Saliba (especially given it wasn’t given on the field) was ridiculously harsh. Newcastle we were Shane McGowan (largely toothless).


Liverpool it didn’t help we didn’t have Saliba and that we didn’t stick away the chances we made


We have been far from great. But what makes me positive is I think we are clearly capable of much better, especially when Arteta invariably relents and stops these stubborn silly galaxy brained tactics

We’ve had tough games but then I’d also look at the fact we lost to Bournemouth and made hard work of Leicester and Southampton too. Not winning at least one of the fixtures with City, Liverpool and Chelsea despite being in a winning position late on is also uncharacteristic of what we’ve come to expect in recent times. We definitely aren’t at the level we set for ourselves last season.

I do suspect Liverpool wouldn’t be where they are if they had our opening 11 fixtures but ultimately it’s all pie in the sky. I don’t know how often the title has been won by a team that found themselves 9 points off the pace, even at a relatively early stage like this.

We’ll see if we can string together some wins and now with Odegaard back hopefully things become less messy and more polished.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

We’ve had tough games but then I’d also look at the fact we lost to Bournemouth and made hard work of Leicester and Southampton too. Not winning at least one of the fixtures with City, Liverpool and Chelsea despite being in a winning position late on is also uncharacteristic of what we’ve come to expect in recent times. We definitely aren’t at the level we set for ourselves last season.

I do suspect Liverpool wouldn’t be where they are if they had our opening 11 fixtures but ultimately it’s all pie in the sky. I don’t know how often the title has been won by a team that found themselves 9 points off the pace, even at a relatively early stage like this.

We’ll see if we can string together some wins and now with Odegaard back hopefully things become less messy and more polished.

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I think at this point of the season the points total is largely meaningless

City this season we did well to draw with away from home with ten men

Last season in first half, Liverpool we were leading at Anfield and drew, winning against Spurs and drew

Had to come from behind against Chelsea , we beat City because we scored late and they didn’t have time to get back into the game despite a harikari performance from Raya.

And yes we were ropey against teams we should have been beating, Burnley was a struggle at home, Wolves at home was a struggle at home, Forest at home was a struggle. Fulham we conspired to snatch a draw from victory. West Ham we lost 2-0 despite dominating chances and possession. We lost away 1-0 at Newcastle and Villa


We weren’t scoring freely with the exception of Sheffield United.


Am I disappointed that we haven’t been significantly better than the first half of the season? Yes. But we sure as hell are no worse

The optimistic view is that we looked significantly better going forwards with Odegard back. I was surprised he started and astonished that he lasted the whole game. even at 70% he made a real difference to what we have been seeing over the past few weeks. The red cards; key injuries and bang out of form players (Rice and Trossard I'm looking at you here), have made it a pretty dismal first third of the season for us. While I'd agree with HCZ that we were also not fluent during the first half of last season, we have dropped 14 points compared with 9 at this point in 2023, and adverse circumstances as well as tougher comparable fixtures can account for this deficit.

The more pessimistic/realistic view is that IMO last season's team would have taken 3 points from Chelsea in this game. We are not looking like champions, and while I think there will be better competition from other teams - and a lower overall points total to win the league - this applies to us as well as our competitors. I think it's unlikely that we will go on a monster winning streak. I think that Arteta is looking a bit desperate, and at this stage in his project we should be looking more assured and fluent. We understood that he was building a team in which players could fulfill different roles, and have a number of different game plans to suit the opposition but instead we are over-reliant on key players being at 100%, and the 'Plan B' for dealing with our captain's absence has come to define us so far - a stodgy, defensive minded team with sterile possession, vulnerable to counter attacks. Whisper it quietly, but our defence is looking less assured than it did, and without our forwards giving us a reliable and consistent threat we can be got at - as Chelsea did with their equaliser yesterday.

The elephant in the room is of course our lack of investment in a striker/forward. It does seem increasingly negligent that the manager has left us so clearly short in this department. For Arteta to have been so brutal in replacing Ramsdale; getting rid of Smith-Rowe and stockpiling defenders, but then seemingly to have placed his attacking trust in Saka (criminally overplayed; clearly shattered and marked out of games); Jesus (gone - a busted flush); and Trossard (never more than a useful squad player who has been clearly overwhelmed by the additional responsibility placed on him), as well as Martinelli - who has been left isolated and part of a LHS that has not functioned properly since Xhaka left - to me shows a massive blind spot that is increasingly convincing me that he may have taken us as far as he is going to.

Just like last season we are now relying un luck rather than expectation that we will overhaul the teams in front of us. Unlike last season we are already in this position in November - and I'm beginning to think that in terms of luck we used all of ours last time...but still failed to deliver the league.

Another thing to say about Liverpool, is that we’ve been struggling for goals and yet they’ve got three goals more than us

They’ve conceded fewer goals which is disappointing as we have a far superior defence personnel wise, but you can’t account for teams that have been extremely wasteful against them

This is why I think the nine point gap is undesirable but insignificant at this stage. It’s not to say we definitely will overhaul them, but I think it’s definitely too early to be so certain we won’t

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Originally Posted by IBK

The optimistic view is that we looked significantly better going forwards with Odegard back. I was surprised he started and astonished that he lasted the whole game. even at 70% he made a real difference to what we have been seeing over the past few weeks. The red cards; key injuries and bang out of form players (Rice and Trossard I'm looking at you here), have made it a pretty dismal first third of the season for us. While I'd agree with HCZ that we were also not fluent during the first half of last season, we have dropped 14 points compared with 9 at this point in 2023, and adverse circumstances as well as tougher comparable fixtures can account for this deficit.

The more pessimistic/realistic view is that IMO last season's team would have taken 3 points from Chelsea in this game. We are not looking like champions, and while I think there will be better competition from other teams - and a lower overall points total to win the league - this applies to us as well as our competitors. I think it's unlikely that we will go on a monster winning streak. I think that Arteta is looking a bit desperate, and at this stage in his project we should be looking more assured and fluent. We understood that he was building a team in which players could fulfill different roles, and have a number of different game plans to suit the opposition but instead we are over-reliant on key players being at 100%, and the 'Plan B' for dealing with our captain's absence has come to define us so far - a stodgy, defensive minded team with sterile possession, vulnerable to counter attacks. Whisper it quietly, but our defence is looking less assured than it did, and without our forwards giving us a reliable and consistent threat we can be got at - as Chelsea did with their equaliser yesterday.

The elephant in the room is of course our lack of investment in a striker/forward. It does seem increasingly negligent that the manager has left us so clearly short in this department. For Arteta to have been so brutal in replacing Ramsdale; getting rid of Smith-Rowe and stockpiling defenders, but then seemingly to have placed his attacking trust in Saka (criminally overplayed; clearly shattered and marked out of games); Jesus (gone - a busted flush); and Trossard (never more than a useful squad player who has been clearly overwhelmed by the additional responsibility placed on him), as well as Martinelli - who has been left isolated and part of a LHS that has not functioned properly since Xhaka left - to me shows a massive blind spot that is increasingly convincing me that he may have taken us as far as he is going to.

Just like last season we are now relying un luck rather than expectation that we will overhaul the teams in front of us. Unlike last season we are already in this position in November - and I'm beginning to think that in terms of luck we used all of ours last time...but still failed to deliver the league.

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Very balanced and analytical

Im not generally predisposed to be Optimistic. And I don’t think my current opinion comes from optimism. It’s how unimpressed I am with the other teams in the league

The lack of a striker was I agree negligent. I was scolded for being annoyed at spending so much on Calafiori when we needed a striker.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Another thing to say about Liverpool, is that we’ve been struggling for goals and yet they’ve got three goals more than us

They’ve conceded fewer goals which is disappointing as we have a far superior defence personnel wise, but you can’t account for teams that have been extremely wasteful against them

This is why I think the nine point gap is undesirable but insignificant at this stage. It’s not to say we definitely will overhaul them, but I think it’s definitely too early to be so certain we won’t

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Agreed in principle, and also that things should only get better with Odegard back. But the difference between us and both Liverpool and Citeh is that (particularly with the former), they have reliable goal scoring options and therefore pose a greater threat than we do. We also shackle our forwards - Havertz; Martinelli and Saka - with defensive duties that mean they can tire over time as well as being overplayed. Liverpool can freshen their attack with numerous options, and Haaland isnt expected to track back all the time. When we were sharing the goal out last season, this relied on 'one brain' football and fuidity that depends upon players being bang in form and confident - its easy to see how this approach can break down when these circumstances go missing - like when we are chasing a goal.

I think they massively rely on Salah.

Nunez, Gakpo, Diaz can all blow hot and cold

Salah has scored in ten of their seventeen games this season

For me it’s telling that we have horrendously neglected recruitment to our forward line for years and they are only marginally more dangerous in attack.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Really in terms of performances this season is not much different to the first half of last season. Disjointed, not great, galaxy brained tactics….only difference is far harder games have been played away from home

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That in itself is a huge problem for me as it indicates the total lack of progression.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Goals are a concern, but the potential remains to score a lot of goals with the players we have.

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These are players that were scoring goals and good at doing it too, now they seem to be at amateur level for some reason, where they don't really shoot, can't aim for toffee or don't attack the ball in the box.

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Originally Posted by KSE Comedy Club

That in itself is a huge problem for me as it indicates the total lack of progression.




These are players that were scoring goals and good at doing it too, now they seem to be at amateur level for some reason, where they don't really shoot, can't aim for toffee or don't attack the ball in the box.

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Oh there’s been very little actual progression but we didn’t strengthen in the key areas so what can you expect

The same issue was there with goalscoring around this time last season. It’s why playing without an actual striker is not a good idea