Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea: Horrible performance and deserved defeat

Its even worse when u set your self to wake up early just to watch the game and the boys dont turn up. Whats worse, the god damn stream kept lagging/stopping quite a lot towards the end... I guess in a way it sort of de sensetised me to the final score.

Sickening performance. Absolutely shit. Can't remember us playing this shit at home for a long long time.

Most of the players didn't turn up. Benching mertesacker was an awful decision. Ramsey on the wings Doesn't always work. Diaby going off was the key.

How did we concede such shitty goals ? It's just very unlike arsenal. At least the new arsenal.

Don't want to go on individuals as it will take all day.

Ox,Gibbs,Arteta and Jenkinson can walk with their heads high

i dont think starting Walcott would have had an effect.. it could have made things worse.. Ramsey worked hard and even with the extra midfielder we could not boss the midfield.. so if we had played Walcott who offers nothing more than headless pace and some good finishing it would have been a disaster..
and with the result i am sure Wenger is gonna get killed for not starting Metskr.. But it was a 50-50.. except for the set piece defending we kept their attacking players at bay...
and who else for Gervinho.. we didnt have proper options except to try Walcott or Giroud.. Podolski upfront doesnt work...

Am I the only one who thought the Ox was really bad today? He was decent out wide, but we were dominated the moment we put him central, as he didn't really help defensively and misplaced a lot of passes offensively. It wasn't easy in there of course, but I was pretty disappointed with him.

As for not playing Per, I agree that he didn't deserve to be dropped, but tbf a lot of people wanted Koscielny-Vermaelen given we were facing so many technical players. Had Koscielny been his usual Boss self and performed to expectations, we wouldn't be having that discussion. Can we really blame Wenger for someone having an off-day?

I don't even rate Chamberlain that highly, in general. But that's a discussion for another time.

He did set-up the goal today, but really had little effect on the game.

Eman wrote:Am I the only one who thought the Ox was really bad today? He was decent out wide, but we were dominated the moment we put him central, as he didn't really help defensively and misplaced a lot of passes offensively. It wasn't easy in there of course, but I was pretty disappointed with him.

As for not playing Per, I agree that he didn't deserve to be dropped, but tbf a lot of people wanted Koscielny-Vermaelen given we were facing so many technical players. Had Koscielny been his usual Boss self and performed to expectations, we wouldn't be having that discussion. Can we really blame Wenger for someone having an off-day?

exactly.. too hard to blame the team selection..
i believe we had a decent performance against a team who played football.. it was poor setpiece defending which lost us all 3 points...

Plus..Cech just had to had his ON days against us.

He saved like 2 goal bound shots, especially that deflected one which looked like it would get us a point.

Too bad we didn't have a guy who stepped up his game and rallied the others to fight until the end.

Will write up feelings after MOTD tonight. Need another look at the highlights and to calm down before writing.

Meanwhile, Wenger reaction to Giroud miss

Arsenal's next 5 games: Olympiacos (h) West Ham (a) Norwich (a) Schalke (h) QPR (h)

Actually thought Arteta played incredibly well, given the lackluster performance of many of our other players today. He won the ball back many, many times, only to have Ramsey throw it away again and again. He had hustle and made a ton of clean tackles that Vermaelen could stand to learn from.

Also thought Giroud played well -- despite not playing all that long -- and that he would have created more good chances and converted something, had he started. Wouldn't have subbed off Podolski, either.

Kos and Vermaelen were pretty dreadful -- same poor defending we saw last season. Put either one of them alongside the BFG and we'll look much better. Would be utterly shocked to see Per left out of our starting XI again anytime soon.

We need Giroud to start every game no point playing with out a striker. This game was so sick to watch, how we gave up 2 goals is just embarrassing.

Gervinho today was so shit, he cant *bleep* pass the ball, Ramsey is back to his old self trying to be Messi.

Jenk and Gibbs were amazing today. We can blame the defender but when you dont have a striker whats the point.

Agreed that Giroud should be starting. He's barely been given a chance, but looks dangerous up there. Want to see him and Podolski playing together.

You guys sure are a fickle bunch the team didn't play that badly today except maybe Kozz, they're simply outclassed and out smarted tactically by Chelsea.

Wenger made couple of wrong call today like started Ramsey on the wing and switched him back to CM, switched OX to CM while Coq was on the bench, sub out Podolski instead of Gervinho while Podolski made 2 very dangerous run and it looked like him, Gibbs & Cazorla finally found rhythm.

About individual performance

Buffone again shown his nervousness, he was caught off guard twice like he expected the ball to be cleared by defenders.

I don't blame Kozz, it was bad day for him and I disagree about the foul incident lead to the the free kick resulted in goal, he had to intercept Torress and he did make a really good recovery run. It was similar to Pool game last season, everything went wrong for him.

Jenkinson was solid and assuring, this guy slowly become my favorite. while Gibbs was good going forward but again out of position several times, everytime Mata or Torres got the ball on the right flank, I shat my pant with Gibbs.

Our midfield trio were alright until Ox moved to CM. I disagree that Ramsey had bad game, he over dribbled and to lesser extend both Cazorla & Arteta did too due to Mikel & Ramires absolutely disciplined performance. When Cazorla is man marked out of the game like this Podolski is needed and he shown it with two clever runs in 2nd half, too bad AW took him out.

Gervinho & Giroud, I don't know what to say. They are exactly the kind of strikers I don't want in the team, inconsistent and unpredictable. Giroud did everything right with his movement, dribbling and somehow managed to shoot out wide. I noticed his feet angle in those 3 one on one, it's very weird, like he didn't twist his feet enough to get in the right angle.

All in all, disappointed but not angry. I believe the team now have seen how tough the competition is and it's not all rosy 6-1 down the road.

Wenger's bromance with Gervinho is too much. He should only play as a striker or false 9 or whatever that role is. Never on the wing.

Mertesacker should be a starter and Vermaelen/Koscielny have to rotate... no knee-jerk or such thing. I've been saying this since we signed him.

Oxlade at CM.... why is Wenger playing him there? Just to let Gervinho play? He's clearly not a CM, doesn't know the role yet.... it's horrible to watch.

Cazorla was really bad today, missed chances he should've scored.

Podolski was invisible.

Actually only Vermaelen, Gibbs and Jenkinson have played well today.

Wenger flop of the match.

Wenger's reaction when Giroud missed

Huge overreaction again.

It wasn't a terrible performance, it was a game where we were on the back foot from the start. Mertesacker is Arsenal's best defender, this isn't FIFA where football intelligence counts for nothing.

I was having this debate with the lads I go up with about our best defender. The 4-0 against Milan springs to mind Vermaelen and Koscielny played that day and they were left sore. Mertesacker may not be as quick as those two but he far smarter and that makes him 1st choice.

The 2nd goal should not have occurred, Vermaelen went on a glory run tried to get back and conceded the free kick. Then no serious defensive organisation and we concede again. Koscielny has an unorthodox stance when marking set pieces, re-wind to the 3-1 win against Chelsea and the similar thing happens.

Mannone is a poor keeper, again no command or condfidence in the area cannot make a decision to save his life, always rooted to the chalk. Torres offside shot even went in what a wasteman.

We created enough to win the game, but as usual we weren't clinical. We did not even need to score 2 Chelsea didn't employ Mannone into a meaningful save and that's what angers me the most. I can tolerate a 30 yarder from Hazard or a piece of magic but two cheap goals is a joke.

Finally the importance of Mertesacker was highlighted by the lack of threat Arsenal commanded at their own set piece attacks.

It's how we respond that counts the lads have got to work harder on their defending. The performance was nowhere near as good as City away, but horrible and terrible is an exaggeration.

I wouldn't be that worried, you conceded two sloppy set-piece goals, won't happen every match. Although your attack did need some surprise, Chelsea had very little problems dealing with it.

Anyway, this match 50-50 to begin with, so onwards to new challenges.

We go through this every year, missing one big piece. If we had signed a top striker we would not have this problem now.

Benry wrote:Huge overreaction again.

It wasn't a terrible performance, it was a game where we were on the back foot from the start. Mertesacker is Arsenal's best defender, this isn't FIFA where football intelligence counts for nothing.

I was having this debate with the lads I go up with about our best defender. The 4-0 against Milan springs to mind Vermaelen and Koscielny played that day and they were left sore. Mertesacker may not be as quick as those two but he far smarter and that makes him 1st choice.

The 2nd goal should not have occurred, Vermaelen went on a glory run tried to get back and conceded the free kick. Then no serious defensive organisation and we concede again. Koscielny has an unorthodox stance when marking set pieces, re-wind to the 3-1 win against Chelsea and the similar thing happens.

Mannone is a poor keeper, again no command or condfidence in the area cannot make a decision to save his life, always rooted to the chalk. Torres offside shot even went in what a wasteman.

We created enough to win the game, but as usual we weren't clinical. We did not even need to score 2 Chelsea didn't employ Mannone into a meaningful save and that's what angers me the most. I can tolerate a 30 yarder from Hazard or a piece of magic but two cheap goals is a joke.

Finally the importance of Mertesacker was highlighted by the lack of threat Arsenal commanded at their own set piece attacks.

It's how we respond that counts the lads have got to work harder on their defending. The performance was nowhere near as good as City away, but horrible and terrible is an exaggeration.

Brilliant post. Agree with everything

You can say what you want about Mert and Kos, all I know next game Kos will bring his A game.

What a flop ! Chelsea weren't that good n we did just nothing ...that's a shame 2b honest....I guess that we'r lacking in discipline very badly...our player had to work very hard on that..seems like they was in training sessions !....they even didn't show a sign on how important the game was ..are they Ok ? dammit we should'v win ...we played @home at least !4your sake ...Each player MUST work rapidly on imrovement ! what a ridiculous mistakes we makes ever....unreasonable n definitely unforgivable.

Let's look back wt Wenger said before the match

"
Wenger - There are no defensive midfielders

Arsène Wenger says the age of the specialist defensive midfielder is over.

The 'Makelele role' - named after the former France international, Claude - has become a staple of tactical talk and describes players who tend to eschew attacking play in favour of protecting their defence.

When Wenger sold Alex Song in the summer he was tipped by some to replace the Cameroon star with a traditional 'holding' player, but instead Mikel Arteta has excelled since dropping into a deeper role.

"There are no defensive midfield players at the moment," explained Wenger.

"We try to find the defensive balance collectively. We have fewer players who are purely defenders but some are physically strong in defending like Diaby, some are tactically strong like Arteta.

"At the moment we have the balance because everybody participates, but we have fewer specialists, purely defenders. We are more versatile going forward because everyone has the potential to go forward."

Wenger knows that his team's balance will have to be just right if Arsenal are to prevail against Chelsea on Saturday.

"If you have a defensive balance, yes, that is what is at stake against Chelsea," he said. "Will you be strong enough defensively, in midfield as well, to deal with them? That's where one of the tests will be."
"

now u know the answer.....Professor


PLZ, Ox is not talent of a DMC, and we do really need a DMC.
Not putting Coquelin / Frimpong on the sub list is one of the reasons that makes our mid-field got "scrambled" at the second half as Diaby is injured!!

- And I dun think it is appropriate to put Per Mertesacker on the bench, who had a stunning performance last match v.s. ManCity, perfectly defensed against classy attackers like Silva, Aguero...


- In addition, we conceded AGAIN in set pieces which has been a weakness in these few seasons!!!

- At last, again, what's Ramsey doing at the second half......three consecutive passing failure in the mid field....terrible.......


I dun think Arsenal's performance is that bad, but we really can say we are title challenger this season with the fundamental problems like above...........

RealGunner wrote:Wenger's reaction when Giroud missed

This makes me want to cry. FFS I want to lift silverware this year for Wenger more than I want it for us the waiting fans, the players to give them more incentive to stay, to silence the critics. No, I want to see this brilliant man celebrate the success that's eluded him over the past 7 years. He's done miracles for us, to see him smile, at ease with a trophy (any forking trophy will do) in his hands would make me happier than winning the treble with any other manager.

3 away games in next four matches
soton aside we have been better away so far
big test for our away form
kinda games we should really win
10-12 points anything less unacceptable

RealGunner wrote:Wenger's reaction when Giroud missed

Should have bought another striker.

maybe Girouds Arsenal career gonna be the exact opposite way of Chamakh
poor start but then fruitful
you never know
one can hope
YES!
IN Giroud i still believe!