**Match Reaction Thread - Chelsea League Cup**

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Awful game, very little quality on display.

Jenkinson was slaughtered, doesn't seem like the fans have much faith in him right now.

Bendtner. :haha:
All we can do is pray Bif stays fit.

Disappointing performance considering we had quite a few big players on display. I hope confidence is not affected too much with the big games coming up. Games which I'm thinking we may balls up now.

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Flamini getting and staying fit is vital.

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Originally Posted by LDG

I think that's harsh on Giroud, who has been excellent.

We do lack other options though.

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He is good at what he does.

Unfortunately, banging in ~25-30 is not what he brings to the table. Which is what we had for many a year.

I'm not criticising Giroud, but we need someone that can partner him that will take advantage of his hold up play.

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Originally Posted by Munchies

I think the main problem in the game was Bendnter. We had decent enough build up play, but he wasn't making any runs what so ever, nothing at all. And when he had that great opportunity, of which most strikers would take a touch and shoot at the goal, he passed it back. :wacko: .

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Yep, exactly. If we'd started Giroud it's a different game altogether.

Fine lines.

Wenger still hasn't beaten mourinho. That was pretty poor. Never looked like scoring.

I was sceptical about flamini when we signed him but he gives us energy and tenacity and a better tempo. We need theo back to add variety and another goal scorer.

Liverpool next and a real test. Lose that and we could go into freefall and the arsenal crowd can get very moany very quickly.

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Originally Posted by Steve French

He is good at what he does.

Unfortunately, banging in ~25-30 is not what he brings to the table. Which is what we had for many a year.

I'm not criticising Giroud, but we need someone that can partner him that will take advantage of his hold up play.

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That's still pretty harsh.

Even with his build up play, which is genuinely world class, he's still scoring at a rate of 1 in 2.

Super, super quality player.

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Originally Posted by GayPete

Yep, exactly. If we'd started Giroud it's a different game altogether.

Fine lines.

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But we can't start with him all the time.

Hopefully we'll sort this out in January. You have to believe they will at least try seeing as it would be nuts to outlay all that money on Ozil and not follow that up. If we are still in contention in January, we have a chance.

I actually think we still would have lost with Giroud starting. He is not the sort of forward to get one chance all game and take it and our service today was really poor and Chelsea did score 2. They didn't really go hell for leather for a third because hey......why do that and give The Arsenal a chance on the counter. And they are managed by 'The special one'. He knows 2 goals is all he needs against an Arsenal team.

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Originally Posted by GayPete

That's still pretty harsh.

Even with his build up play, which is genuinely world class, he's still scoring at a rate of 1 in 2.

Super, super quality player.

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I'm not being harsh at all. I love what he does, but we need more up front to complement what he does.

We've all seen how vital a quality CDM is to our side, and we really need another one in.

Sven/Lars Bender in Jan... funny that the only CDM we have is the one who we didn't replace 5 years ago.

The football we play is still a problem. It is so easy to counter by the best teams. We do not shoot until the nth opportunity. Good players know when to take a shot, but it seems we actively coach this out of our players. If things don't change, then nothing will change. We will keep coming up short at crunch times. Chelsea had like 5 shots on our goal. We just keep passing around the box till we lose the ball and the counter is on. Same shit, different season