Match Reaction vs Chelsea

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I'm delighted Vermaelen deputised well and looked really up for it. I thought Gibbs and Sagna were sensible and I actually thought Arteta and Rosicky were very good last night. I think that is particularly pertinent as there is a school of people that would absolutely insist that this was the sort of game Flamini should play rather than Arteta. Rambo obviously didn't have one of his best games and Ozil managed to have nice touches without actually really threatening.

I was a little perplexed when Ozil played that ball to Giroud rather than shoot, I must admit. He does that quite often and I think Wenger needs to encourage him to evolve his game from Real. It might have worked when he had Cronaldo, a player without a limitation, but he just doesn't have a player with that same skill set around him now. He needs to take more responsibility and frankly he is talented enough to do so, but he will work it out in time. Yaya Toure also took on whole lot more when he came from Barca to City and look at what a good player most people now realise he is.

Walcott was poor and should have been playing higher up with someone coming in field to cover for him, when it was obvious that he was getting double teamed frequently. Cazorla is really the guy you want with the ball if anyone is to be double/triple teamed.

I thought it was right he didn't start but it was strange Podolski didn't come on. He has been behind the scenes training for quite some time now which should have at least sharpened his instruments for a short cameo...... especially with his shooting power and technique and his tendency to go wide. Wenger is well known to make subs based on fitness/energy levels, which is why not making a single sub is almost unheard of from any manger let alone him. The performance was not that of a well rested sprightly team, bursting with creative ideas, so it would seem strange in the context of the game.

The ball was slipping about the place and the conditions were quick, yet we were really reluctant to try and catch the keeper off guard or just chance it from distance to then follow up a potential rebound. Chelsea did try their chances but fortunately Szczesny's handling is amazing which is a point he will get little credit for but really should.

I didn't think the game was quite the 'will we take the league or not' match it was billed as, and we can take a few positives from getting a point.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

There were a couple of occasions when Walcott and Ramsey played perfectly good balls in the final third but the wet surface meant the ball just skidded away out of touch. It might not have skewed the passing stats greatly, but these things can sometimes thwart the likelihood of an early goal until players start compensating a little better for the surface they're playing on.

[BOBN]

I was a little perplexed when Ozil played that ball to Giroud rather than shoot, I must admit. He does that quite often and I think Wenger needs to encourage him to evolve his game from Real. It might have worked when he had Cronaldo, a player without a limitation, but he just doesn't have a player with that same skill set around him now. He needs to take more responsibility and frankly he is talented enough to do so, but he will work it out in time. Yaya Toure also took on whole lot more when he came from Barca to City and look at what a good player most people now realise he is.

Great points and a great comparison. Things change when you become a £30m+ player. Yaya embraced that, Ozil needs to too, if he can.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I think Ozil was used to releasing people from a much deeper position at Real, who worked a lot on the counter attack. He's not going to get to do that too much here though, especially if there is a lack of runners beyond the lines early on.

In fairness though, Chelsea did sit back when they didn't have the ball and just organised themselves in a compact unit. Arteta had a surprising amount of space to manoeuvre in for a big game and I don't think he gave the ball away often if at all.

[Power n Glory]

I think Ozil was used to releasing people from a much deeper position at Real, who worked a lot on the counter attack. He's not going to get to do that too much here though, especially if there is a lack of runners beyond the lines early on.

In fairness though, Chelsea did sit back when they didn't have the ball and just organised themselves in a compact unit. Arteta had a surprising amount of space to manoeuvre in for a big game and I don't think he gave the ball away often if at all.

Arteta made the most passes. 92% 89/97. He did well.

[Alpha]

It is really hard to have a good opinion in this world of football full of hypocrites and emotional people . Had chelsea had a penalty turned down , we could have heard people saying : " Arsenal were lucky to escape another blunder " or : " Arsenal saved by referee blind eye " ..etc..

No matter how the game was played , Wenger was robbed of a famous victory over Mourinho . A penalty is a penalty . Which was very obvious even an amateur referee could have given it . Even though some excuses say Walcott tried to "exaggerate " .
A penalty is not given or turned down because a player has " exaggerated " A penalty is given when there is a foul in box . When there is a contact between a defending player and an attacking player , it is a penalty . If Walcott had clipped Willian , it could have been a free kick to Chelsea even if Willian had " exaggerated " So how come in reverse situation nothing is given ?
Arsenal players did not do themselves any favour by missing the few chances they created but the penalty was more than enough to win the game . Chelsea is a strong team. So they did not need any referee help to have a result but surprisingly , on this occasion , they needed it . what a shame .

[Özim]

It is really hard to have a good opinion in this world of football full of hypocrites and emotional people . Had chelsea had a penalty turned down , we could have heard people saying : " Arsenal were lucky to escape another blunder " or : " Arsenal saved by referee blind eye " ..etc..

No matter how the game was played , Wenger was robbed of a famous victory over Mourinho . A penalty is a penalty . Which was very obvious even an amateur referee could have given it . Even though some excuses say Walcott tried to "exaggerate " .
A penalty is not given or turned down because a player has " exaggerated " A penalty is given when there is a foul in box . When there is a contact between a defending player and an attacking player , it is a penalty . If Walcott had clipped Willian , it could have been a free kick to Chelsea even if Willian had " exaggerated " So how come in reverse situation nothing is given ?
Arsenal players did not do themselves any favour by missing the few chances they created but the penalty was more than enough to win the game . Chelsea is a strong team. So they did not need any referee help to have a result but surprisingly , on this occasion , they needed it . what a shame .

Well no not really, even if it had been given we could have still missed it or had it saved, so he wasn't robbed at all.

Flavour of the month Costa missed on last week.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Well no not really, even if it had been given we could have still missed it or had it saved, so he wasn't robbed at all.

Flavour of the month Costa missed on last week.

chelsea should have been down to 9 men and we should have had a penalty. there is no guarantee we would score the penalty but we should have played at least half an hour against 9 men, chances are we would have scored then. its a fair assessment to say mike dean robbed AW of his greatest chance to beat mourinho by being an incompetent cheating fuck

im not saying we played well either, we didn't, we were the better side just imo but both sides were awful but if the referee actually enforced the laws of the game, we probably would have won. and also, i know we failed to break down chelsea, but why did they not fail to break us down? mourinho has gone to 3 big games this season, spurs united and us and drawn all 3 because he played for a draw in all of them. for such a great manager, thats fucking awful

[Özim]

chelsea should have been down to 9 men and we should have had a penalty. there is no guarantee we would score the penalty but we should have played at least half an hour against 9 men, chances are we would have scored then. its a fair assessment to say mike dean robbed AW of his greatest chance to beat mourinho by being an incompetent cheating fuck

im not saying we played well either, we didn't, we were the better side just imo but both sides were awful but if the referee actually enforced the laws of the game, we probably would have won. and also, i know we failed to break down chelsea, but why did they not fail to break us down? mourinho has gone to 3 big games this season, spurs united and us and drawn all 3 because he played for a draw in all of them. for such a great manager, thats fucking awful

How often do you see teams down to 9 men? We see decisions like this every day of the week (the Mikel one wasn't a red IMO I agree with Neville, when you look at the other angle), I wish people would stop whining about it (we hear this almost every week on here now) and address the bigger issue, our inability to beat the big teams.

If we'd done our job properly decisions would be irrelevant, the fact is once again we couldn't do it, this has been going on for as long as I can remember.

Also this is Mourinho's first half season back (same with Pellegrino and Moyes btw), he hasn't been in charge of the club for over a decade so it does take time to create the team in your own image.

[Marc Overmars]

Theo didn't sell it very well tbh. It was one of those where contact was made but the player didn't decide quickly enough whether to go down or try and play on as he was in a decent-ish position. In the end it looked obvious that the reaction was forced but saying that, it would have been a freekick outside the box all day long.

Refs.