Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
I agree, because of who we are playing it is far from meaningless. The keystone for a title challenge this season will be proving we are capable of going toe to toe with Mourinhos Chelsea. There is no doubt he will take this game seriously, and ten years ago he used the same fixture to give them momentum going into the season.
With the exception of the 6-0 fiasco, Mourinho has beaten us by having his side as the more clinical and you know how they can defend in numbers, so the likelihood is that if they score first the game will be over.
However if we score first I think as long as we don't switch off that we can repel them....personally I don't think Giroud is the right player for a game like this, we don't need someone to hold up the ball, we need someone to stretch them with pace.
Giroud is not the right player for us in any game. Whether we're playing Chelsea or Bourmouth, the last two games of last year with pace up top we scored 8 & should have had 8 more. Players like Ozil, Ramsey & Santi thrive when they have pace to feed - Giroud kills us when he's on the pitch.