Match Reaction - Chelsea vs Arsenal

[Boss]

Mertesacker was fucking garbage against Chelsea. Defense looked suspect until the SH when Santos manned up and Vermaelen came on.

You can say Santos shouldn't allow the cross for their first goal but a player that's 6 foot 6 shouldn't be so pathetic at blocking a basic cross into the box. For the second, you would have thought he was a 3 foot midget the way he was barged over by the Big Man.

He hasn't been good at all for the reason he was bought, which is to help us out at set-pieces. He's good along the ground but we already had Verm and Koscielny who are two of the best in the league at that. He's been poor in the air in a few games this season, notably Chelsea, Stoke and Blackburn. Vermaelen and Koscielny must be our first choice when available.

To be fair to him I still think he was a decent buy and I suppose if Wenger tells him to man up in the air he'll be a solid performer for us. Would like to see him play more in the cup games and such until he is fully adapted.

Also don't think Djourou played too poorly against Chelsea, he wasn't spectacular but dealt with his side of the field relatively comfortably and most of the problems (in the FH) were from Santos' side. Trust him a lot more than Jenkinson atm although the latter will obviously develop into a far better player.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Mertesacker was fucking garbage against Chelsea. Defense looked suspect until the SH when Santos manned up and Vermaelen came on.

You can say Santos shouldn't allow the cross for their first goal but a player that's 6 foot 6 shouldn't be so pathetic at blocking a basic cross into the box. For the second, you would have thought he was a 3 foot midget the way he was barged over by the Big Man.

He hasn't been good at all for the reason he was bought, which is to help us out at set-pieces. He's good along the ground but we already had Verm and Koscielny who are two of the best in the league at that. He's been poor in the air in a few games this season, notably Chelsea, Stoke and Blackburn. Vermaelen and Koscielny must be our first choice when available.

To be fair to him I still think he was a decent buy and I suppose if Wenger tells him to man up in the air he'll be a solid performer for us. Would like to see him play more in the cup games and such until he is fully adapted.

Also don't think Djourou played too poorly against Chelsea, he wasn't spectacular but dealt with his side of the field relatively comfortably and most of the problems (in the FH) were from Santos' side. Trust him a lot more than Jenkinson atm although the latter will obviously develop into a far better player.

Merts was wank against the chavs, but it was never going to be plain sailing for him, this was a diffrent test to what he has faced and neeeds to man up in the future tbh, i agree he should play in more games to get the exprience but can't see AW doing that.

I'd deffo think we should try and nab Cahill come Jan tbh at least then we'd have 4 good CB's tbh and you'd not worry about injury's tbh.

[LDG]

Mertesacker was fucking garbage against Chelsea. Defense looked suspect until the SH when Santos manned up and Vermaelen came on.

You can say Santos shouldn't allow the cross for their first goal but a player that's 6 foot 6 shouldn't be so pathetic at blocking a basic cross into the box. For the second, you would have thought he was a 3 foot midget the way he was barged over by the Big Man.

He hasn't been good at all for the reason he was bought, which is to help us out at set-pieces. He's good along the ground but we already had Verm and Koscielny who are two of the best in the league at that. He's been poor in the air in a few games this season, notably Chelsea, Stoke and Blackburn. Vermaelen and Koscielny must be our first choice when available.

To be fair to him I still think he was a decent buy and I suppose if Wenger tells him to man up in the air he'll be a solid performer for us. Would like to see him play more in the cup games and such until he is fully adapted.

Also don't think Djourou played too poorly against Chelsea, he wasn't spectacular but dealt with his side of the field relatively comfortably and most of the problems (in the FH) were from Santos' side. Trust him a lot more than Jenkinson atm although the latter will obviously develop into a far better player.

Nah, we played with far to high a line in the first half, which was dumb as fuck considering we had no recovery pace on the flanks.

Merts is used to playing in a flat back four, and, in all honesty, has doen remarkably well playing a different role. But that's because he's a clever bloke.

He got caught for the first, because we got exposed, and lost our shape. He went to cover the near post and lost Fat Boy. Djourou should have been covering accross, but was still half way up the pitch.

Second goal, he was shite, granted. But he also cut out some very dangerous situations that could have cost us further.

As soon as we dropped deeper second half, he, and everyone else was fine. And we looked pretty solid at the back, bar one mistake from a poor ball by Santos.

He is a good signing.

[Marc Overmars]

It's no fluke that he always seems to have a nack of making interceptions and breaking up play. His reading of the game is pretty good and his no nonsense style is what we've always cried out for. We've always had defenders who are comfortable playing along floor and it's a nice contrast to have the opposite now.

Our problems at the back are not down to individuals, it's down to a complete lack of any understanding as a unit. It doesn't matter what combo of players we have there, the same problems will come about.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Merts is still getting used to the PL, and I think Kos is doing an excellent job helping him adjust.
Saturday's win is going to do a lot for his confidence and hopefully a few clean sheets over the next few games could further enhance that.

Our high line is suicidal especially when as on Saturday we played with no pace wide. TBH I thought Johan was going to be in for a rough ride after the first few minutes but they seemed to swap their attention to our left and he settled down and coped well.

Merts made some decent interceptions but as with Terry's goal does get caught out and a 6'6 body being caught out and falling over itself to amend is never a pretty sight, not unless you are a slightly smaller John Terry faling over yourself then its just downright hilarious!

Merts will be a good buy and I agree with Charlie that we should still check the market, but we no longer have to held to ransom by Bolton's scoffable valuation of Cahill, 10 max or GTFO!

Vertognen please

[Flavs]

Our high line is suicidal especially when as on Saturday we played with no pace wide.

Second half we played a lot deeper and Song was told to sit back and pick up the surging midfielder, this is the way we should always play.

There is no need to buy Cahill and tbh he has been pretty shite this season.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Did I ever tell you about 5-3?
And the hilarity of John Terry?
He was brought down to his knees
By the sheer awesomeness of Van persie.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Second half we played a lot deeper and Song was told to sit back and pick up the surging midfielder, this is the way we should always play.

There is no need to buy Cahill and tbh he has been pretty shite this season.

Oh i was not saying we should because i thought Merts was shite, just that it give us an option if we got more injuries.

[Flavs]

Vertognen please

Is he related to Jan Vertonghen?


Yeah check out my new found spelling cockiness

[Özim]

Mertesacker was very poor on Saturday, basically he was to blame for both goals. Still remain unconvinced by him, does some good things but also does some very average things, is he the answer to our prayers most definitely not our defence is still as awful as it wa before he arrived.

Santos I like going forward but he's another that can't really defend, Wenger has a record of buying defenders who can attack and can't defend though, would prefer him on the wing, because in the 1st half Mertersacker and Santos were an embarrassment defensively.

Our attack was pretty awesome fortunately, but there's no sign of our defence getting any better.