Gunners Fire Drawn As Chelsea Dig Deep
Apr 26th, 2015 by 'holic
This was the match that had everything – except goals. Chelsea departed the Grove carrying with them the point they had sought. The scenes at the final whistle as Terry led the astonishing celebrations told you they viewed avoiding defeat as effectively the title clincher. In truth I think they would have been crowned champions even had they lost, but it is to Arsenal’s credit that we were the last serious threat to them.
The first-half was as intense a half of football as we have witnessed this season. Chelsea, without a recognised centre-forward (although had Drogba started it would have affected their approach not one jot), set up to defend in numbers with the back four denying us the gaps our intricate interchanges seek to exploit. When those attacks broke down the visitors sprung quickly through Oscar, Hazard, and Willian.
As expected Arsenal had the lions share of the possession but chances were few and far between, and Chelsea did look menacing on the break. It was frenetic, and with the crowd generating a hostile atmosphere a sense of gladiatorial theatre was evoked. It was tense, and by his early leniency Michael Oliver encouraged a robust opening half an hour. Three times in the opening eight minutes Ivanovic clattered into Alexis, and the third drew him and his captain, Terry, just a warning.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic though, and Francis Coquelin, not surprisingly, also clocked up a similar number of fouls before finding his way into Oliver’s book for the lightest of tugs which Hazard made a meal of. A similar incident when Oscar went down surprisingly easily under challenge from Bellerin did not even warrant the penalty that Mourinho screamed for from the touchline.
However when the same player just pipped David Ospina to chip an effort on goal he found himself justifiably sparked out as the goalkeeper’s momentum carried him into a heavy collision. Penalty again, screamed Mourinho, and in all honesty we could not have complained had it been given. I would certainly have wanted it at the other end. Hector Bellerin executed a headed clearance a yard from his line.
Midway through the half and another tumble in the box brought the loudest cheer thus far when the returning Fabregas threw himself to the deck and saw the first yellow card of the contest as a result. It was his second of the season for simulation. His reception was not as hot as some had thought beforehand. When eventually he was withdrawn in the final minute of the match there were as many applauding as jeering.
Not all of the incidents were happening in the Arsenal box. The Gunners stormed forward and began to threaten more. After Olivier Giroud had shot high and wide Santi Cazorla saw his goal bound effort strike Cahill on his raised arm, but the Chelsea defender was at point-blank range. We’ve seen them given, but the benefit of the doubt went the way of the defender.
Giroud, Cazorla, Alexis, and Ozil all missed, or had efforts blocked as the end of the opening half turned into a pulsating contest of attack against defence. All of which made what followed at the start of the second-half something of a mystery.
During the break Oscar, who had played on for half an hour after his coming together with Ospina, was sent to hospital to be checked out for concussion. On in his place came an old foe, Drogba. The arrival of a centre-forward, rather than providing the visitors with another attacking option, coincided with them retreating even deeper into their defensive shield. With Arsenal less vigorous in their attacking intent than earlier the match became tedious to watch for a while. It was almost as if both teams had decided the draw was inevitable, and acceptable.
With little over twenty minutes remaining the clearest chance of the half so far fell to Per Mertesacker, of all people. He scuffed his effort wide, but all of a sudden Arsenal rediscovered some belief, and ambition. Cazorla’s left foot curled one just wide, and Aaron Ramsey saw an effort blocked. Arsene gambled, sending on Danny Welbeck for the defensive shield, Coquelin. Then surprisingly he withdrew Giroud for Theo Walcott.
In a frantic finale Ozil was just off target, and Welbeck snatched at a deflected opportunity with the goal yawning in front of him. Had either gone in we would have been spared those celebrations and the lauding of Chelsea’s performance as ‘professional’. Of course it was. Were we so in control of the top spot in the Premier League then I suspect we wouldn’t be too critical of us for doing what Chelsea feel they have to do.
They will not win any beauty contests, but they will be rightly crowned the champions. The team that amasses the largest number of points in a season are deserving Champions, and they should clinch that by beating Leicester and Palace in their next two outings. Having said that one cannot rule out that they will secure the points that they need one at a time over the remaining five matches without scoring or conceding a goal.
Arsenal, on the other hand will hopefully secure the runner-up berth, and that will be a platform from which to launch a more viable assault on the title next season. We are surely only a couple of quality signings away from the real deal?
129 Responses to “Gunners Fire Drawn As Chelsea Dig Deep”
BAM!!
Cheers H.
I thought it was a gripping game from start to finish, probably because unlike most tv viewers here I didn’t have the distraction of the Sky team talking crap throughout.
For the first time in years I feel we finally matched them, even in defence. Most pleasing was the series of cynical fouls that drew a few yellows towards the end of the game when they looked to catch us on the counter.
I think we may be learning.
Agreed about the ‘taking one for the team’ at the end H2H.
Hope all is well. 🙂
Good fair write up…
Had to come here for a dose of sanity after reading the match report and readers comments on the Guardian Football site…thought I might get some reasoned debate their of all places instead of a mindless slanging match.
The way ‘orrible Terry and other Chelski players celebrated a 0-0 draw suggests they know what a major threat we have become again.
Onwards and upwards
Loved those yellow cards at the end … Do unto others …
Next year Rodders….
TA6
😀
We are surely only a couple of quality signings away from the real deal?
I thought today’s studio analysis was spot on with regard to this point, but I don’t see us signing the type of player being talked about by Henry (who is a rotten pundit but sometimes talks sense).
It seems Chelsea have become our new Manure, the team we are scared to beat. So not surprisingly we never do. We seem to have got over the Manure hoodoo this season, pity we couldn’t have layed the chavs ghost as well.
If we’d played ALL of the second half like we played the last 20 minutes we must have won. But no, the same old caution prevailed after the interval regardless we had far the best of the first half. Let’s not go for the jugular, eh Arsene? Then let’s take off our top scorer, play our worst striker through the middle and give Theo five minutes to make runs no-one sees early enough.
If only Özil could speed the ball on its way instead of baulking and slowing down our attack at every turn.
If only Alexis could pass the ball more accurately.
If only Rambo (my motm) had been playing in the middle. He was on fire today but mostly wasted on the outer.
If only, if only, if only…
Chavs unlucky not to have got one pen out of three. Most refs would have given the Ospina one, and sent him off. I guess the high boot by Oscar probably swayed Oliver, so fair enough. Our pen might also have been given on another day, but after the chav’s appeals at the other end Oliver probably got generous with them, and again fair enough. A pen should never decide games like today’s.
Interesting to see Fibreglass getting applauded off by some Arsenal fans. And I refuse to name the useless player who missed a tap-in during stoppage time.
Öskar
That’s the match I saw, Guvna.
We are indeed only a couple of top signings away from mounting a credible challenge for the PL next season.
Like H2H, I am delighted that we have finally learnt that the occasional yellow card for halting a breakaway is less costly than letting the player run through on goal.
Was Hazard playing today? MIA most of the game. WD our defence.
Öskar
Is Danny Mills the new Stewart Robson? I could have sworn it was the latter until I heard a credit late in the game. An utter pillock anyway.
Öskar
Our defence and Coq were outstanding.
Danny Mills wouldn’t qualify for the title of halfwit.
Good stuff, Holic. Your TV view of the game generated a very similar judgement to my own from my seat in the stadium (unpleasantly close to a row of visiting fans to whom “Arsenal most certainly doesn’t sell tickets”. Wake up Club Level, you’re dreaming).
I thought we played well and had sufficient chances to deflate the bus parkers’ tyres. How was that cut-back by Monreal toward the end missed? I’m convinced that I would have scored.
I would have liked to see both Monreal and Bellerin make more determined efforts get to the by line more often. Low fast cut-backs were always likely to bring more danger than the high floaters despatched towards Giroud’s head.
Onward to second and the FA Cup.
Joe from previous drinks: I think we will then respectfully disagree about both of these observations.
Giroud, if he were playing for any other team in Europe now, would have been continuously presented as an example of the kind of strikers we need. To say he is just good with his back to the goal easily overlooks some of his very fine technical finishes — the goals against ManU or Liverpool, the first time right foot finish against Everton this season, the goal against WHU etc. etc. — and his central involvement to all of our best team goals over the last few seasons. What he doesn’t have is pace with ball on his feet, but even there he uses his movements very well in springing or setting up counter-attacks. Can we do better than him? Theoretically speaking we can always get ‘better ‘ players if they exist. But I find it hard to name someone who can contribute like Giroud to our style-of-play — which now relies on the CF as the pivote for the attack to form, and an area where Danny has to improve a lot to become a suitable alternative to Giroud — and scores and assists that much. Have you seen Cavani or Martinez play lately?
About Cesc … he actually hasn’t played that well against the better teams and/or more disciplined defense. It has primarily been Hazard who had helped Chelsea to unlock tighter opposition. Remember our away game at Chelsea? It was going pretty even until Hazard made that run and drew that penalty from Kos. The Cesc-Costa goal came towards the end when we were chasing an equalizer maniacally and had almost all of the defense in their half. If you look at his performances — I had posted a link to the same — in the second half of the season in the last couple of seasons he has been less than ordinary in the second half. Ozil had a relatively ordinary game compared to his very high standards in the recent weeks, and even then he has more runs into the box, more passes, more successful forward passes, more touches and more distances covered than any of Chelsea’s forward players today. (The numbers may even prove me wrong 🙂 ).
Anyway, I thought the relative cautiousness was well merited today. We didn’t want to concede first and that is a bloody good attitude to have in a PL match, and especially against one of our direct rivals. If the point gap was 3-6 I am sure we would have gambled more but as it stands we solidified our step towards a #2 which looked as unlikely as winning the PL when we had lost that away game at Southampton at the turn of the year.
BTW, I dislike Mourinho as much as the next human being who is not a member of Chelsea clan or British media … but his defensive record against other top teams in PL is quite mind-boggling. In 40 matches (across two stints ) now I believe against us, ManU, City and Liverpool he has lost only 3. In his 191 PL matches he lost only 18. In a league where no demands are met — he had similar stellar stats in Inter because the Inter fan base didn’t mind Eto’o playing as RB as long as they are winning stuff after years of poor performances from Nerazzurri — about the quality of the football and the media actually worship the very tight and negative defending he has figured out a way to be worshipped as a tactical genius by his cynicism.
(A non-football related post)
Please reach out to your favorite charity organization — some are listed here http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/25/world/nepal-earthquake-how-to-help/ — to assist the earthquake victims. If you are using new or less known organizations please use CharityNavigator.org to validate legitimacy.
All well observed, ‘Holic. It was critical for Chelsea to do no worse than share the points today and they achieved that goal. The last outside chance of a threat to their winning the title was effectively snuffed out. Rarely is the team that after 38 games has the most points not deserved champions.
That said, when you think that Herbert Chapman in his pre-Arsenal days was censured by the FA for having his teams play defensively to give them a better chance of winning, which the authorities considered ‘unsporting’, then you have to think how times have changed.
Job No 1 now is to stay focused on securing 2nd place, followed by bringing the FA Cup back home.
I wouldn’t want to be caught in a 7.8 quake. We had several in the mid-6s in 2013 which were bad enough, and here in NZ we’ve had a cluster going in recent days in the 4s, 5s and topped off with a 6.2. Most disconcerting.
Richter magnitudes are difficult to explain, but each number in the scale represent ten times the shaking value of the previous number. Explained in detail for mathematicians here … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale
Trust me, 7.8 is VIOLENT. And the Nepalese need our help.
Öskar
I hear what you say about caution and not losing, Dr F, but I still believe some of AW’s tactics are questionable. If he’s worried about conceding, why take off OG who adds height to our defensive wall (while still offering the threat of scoring) instead of Özil who adds zero to the defence, and today added zero in attack to boot? How come Özil gets 90 minutes in practically every game regardless how poorly he plays anyway?
Isn’t the point in playing Danny (supposed to be) his defensive abilities? Playing him in OG’s place basically weakens both attack and defence, imo.
The game was crying out for Rambo to be moved inside. He was easily our most dangerous player today, but that also came way too late.
Öskar
Depressing stat: We’ve had just one shot on target in two league games against Chelsea this season.
Oskar @ 19 — The only explanation would be you and Arsene differ in your respective evaluations of Oil’s contributions and potential to effect the outcome. 🙂
Sorry, couldn’t help.
I think Danny needs to really improve his CF play. He is rather fine as the pacy hard-working winger but loses all bearings when deployed centrally. Something for him to work in the pre-season.
Note that Giroud was not sub-ed for Danny, Coquelin was, and that was a very attacking move. Giroud was sub-ed for Theo and I suppose the only way he could have kept all of Giroud, Walcott and Danny on field would be to withdraw Ozil, and this is where the difference in opinion I alluded earlier comes into play. 🙂
I think the bigger decision for Arsene is now to choose between Santi & Rambo in the CM role, especially if we have Ox back sometimes soon. As you pointed out, Rambo driving in from the deep provides a fantastic attacking thrust especially in tandem with Giroud, and we are losing that out with him deployed on the right. But if he is moved centrally we are going to lose out on Santi’s peerless close control and passing at the middle. For all of Santi’s great performances this season his general strong point of shooting from the edge of the box has been terrible this season…something is wrong with his backlift in those shots.
NBN — has any other manager in the entire history of English football has a defensive “success” rate quite like Mourinho’s? 18 loses in 191 league matches…would be interesting to know who are the closest ….
22 Doctor Faustus
If every other EPL has a billion to spend like him , they all will create miracle . Some will have players walking on water .
MG @ 23 — I dislike Chelsea and everything about them, that kind of implausible defensive record is not obtained just by spending money but also through an extremely cynical and negative approach to winning games and leagues. Great counter-attacking teams in past like Aarigo Sacchi’s Milan had fantastic defenders and superb organization but their game plan was still built around making use of the ball when in possession and not just wait of a frustrated opposition’s mistake. Chelsea to be fair had started this season with some flair — Hazard was allowed some free-roaming — but once there were a few injuries and suspensions the special one fell back to his favorite ‘tactics’: frustrate the hell out of the opposition and wait for a mistake.
We will have to find a way around it next season to win the PL. With Cuadrado bedded in by then they will become more of an counter-attacking team. Someone like Ox would have come in handy today.
I’m well aware who subbed for whom, Dr F. The net was Rambo moved inside and Danny to the wing until Theo came on, then Danny went CF. All seemed a bit confused to me. Rambo for Coq (should have been for Santi, imo) was long overdue but playing Danny first on the wing and then up front soon after looked like confused thinking, and I hope he explained clearly to Danny what was going on. Why not send Danny and Theo on together? Why send anyone on at all so late in the game, unless you want to slow everything down as Moaninho did? I would have thought slowing our momentum was the last thing we needed at that point.
You know my views on Theo, but if he was looking for a central game changer AW could have done better sending Jack on for a cameo. At least he knows where the goal is.
As I understand it Ox is out for the rest of the season.
Öskar
The problem with Danny on the wing is he is a useless crosser, Dr F. But I’d still prefer him there than standing flat-footed on the six-yard line watching the ball go by in stoppage time!
And of course the obvious player to sub first was Özil. He was having no influence on anything today. But apparently it’s in his contract that he plays a full 90 minutes whenever ‘fit’. I can think of no other reason… 🙂
Öskar
Ozil was there for the entire duration of the game because he is just the kind of player who can unlock a tight defence with one moment of brilliance. The kind of brilliance that running around like a headless chicken with breakneck pace doesn’t really provide. Everybody will remember the air shot of Ozil on nacho’s cut back but the position he took – the timing of his run to the near post ahead of two or three Chelsea players just shows his understanding and positional sense.
i is so sad. anyway onwards and upwards.
the depth of despair tells you how far we have come to pushing the ‘big boys’.
the players need to develop that killer attitude and hate losing like these chavs. lets win as many points from the remaining games.
we will be even better next season provided we get some decent players. 2 or 3 will do.
c’mon wenger make us dream.
Some of us also remember that Özil has managed just 4 goals and 5 assists in the Prem this season, ‘desi’, and consider that’s a poor return for any key player, let alone one who cost what he cost. Compare that to 14 and 8 for Alexis, 14 and 3 for OG, 7 and 8 for Santi and 5 and 5 for Rambo, all ahead of him in ‘unlocking a tight defence’ apparently.
Öskar
You could also compare it to the chav Fabregas’s 3 goals and 16 assists, and I keep reading what a poor season he is having!
No more excuses please Mesut, it’s time to deliver.
Öskar
Until Wenger goes direct or more direct,he will play second fiddle to the special one.Arsenal play like MU who lost to Eveton.This possession football with passing in the final 3rd gives defences time to regroup.
@OTD,
TBH, i dont see why Ozil had a poor game, in fact he get into many good position, fluff a tap-in in which the commentary mention that there was a slight deflection before it went to ozil…
it’s just that the team, as a whole, is not adventurous enough, too cautious imo. Giroud had to play against 5 defenders at most part of the game… the couple of good plays come when we actually tried to put more numbers in front, but just missing the final product.
on the other hand, i too was confused when giroud is sub off… perhaps the instruction was to go with more pace? only wenger will know why he make those subs~
Anyway, it’s a decent performance by the lads, but to break down the chelsea defence, a brilliant performance is required… not too particularly worried about this game 😀 lets focus on the rest of the games!!! Onwards and Upwards!!!
#COYG
The speed was missing in the final third.Sanchex scared the daylights out of the big Blue defenders. We need another one to run at them.
As one analyst said the gunners complicate the passing.Go direct,please.
This is he type of game the gunners usually lost to Chelsea.The difference is this time the defence is much better.
Hopefully the end of the 8 winning streak will be the start of another winning run.
@OTD
Do rem that ozil played all the games in world cup, then got injured for a long period… please stop the hate for Ozil and welbeck… you are damaging your own credibility with all those…
@wolfgang
what i think was missing was the support for giroud in the box itself… too many times giroud have to take on the back line by himself… Its just too much to ask from any striker to take on 4 chelsea defenders T.T
Good write up, gaffer.
A few thoughts:
1. Ozil was the best player on the park in the first half, constantly popping up in useful positions and offering some very incisive passing. Chelsea made changes at the break to nullify him, and he then had a quieter and more restricted second period. The endless slagging of him by a tiny minority is deeply tiresome, to the point where you almost fear to mention his name in the bar for the spluttering, indignant nonsense it will inevitably produce.
2. We would be out of our minds to replace Giroud this summer. He is the established pivot of an attack that is currently working very well, and has a better scoring ratio than the likes of Costa this season. We don’t have another season to wait bedding in new players – by that time Kos, Per, Santi, etc will all start to need replacing too. What the first XI needs now is stability, maybe one more player in the midfield and better squad options around it.
3. I thought Bellerin was superb and fully pocketed the alleged “third best player in the world”.
4. In the first half, it was great to see Coquelin exacting revenge on Chav players. Kick Sanchez and escape a booking? Fair enough, but then the Coq will immediately iron out Oscar in response. That’s exactly how it should work.
5. We really missed the Ox. Chelsea played a very narrow back four and we needed a player to hit the by line and draw the full backs wide, particularly given that Alexis’ first instinct is to move inside.
6. This felt like a very different game to previous encounters against Chelsea. We played some truly lovely stuff at times, but there was also a cynicism about us when needed. The press will spin this as a win for Mourinho, but the truth is that next season a draw will be just as good a result for us as for them, and we can win the league with a superior record against the other sides.
7. Chelsea may be champions, and perhaps rightfully so, but they’re a drab side who fail to spark any real enthusiasm on a basic footballing level. Danny Blanchflower summed it up best for me.
A really good weekend, all told. The Utd defeat greatly increases the chances we’ll finish third or better, Liverpool and Spurs gave us even more to laugh at and we put in a performance of quality, grit and resilience and laid down a marker for next season’s long awaited title charge.
COYG
Great post N7.
Oskar, the man who, self admitedly, doesn’t like stats, unless of course he uses them to fuel his agenda.
Negating to state the fact that Ozil was out for a good three months.
Stats, eh?
I have been reading this blog for many years now and it never fails to be both passionate and erudite at the same time. Without wanting to sound too emotional about it may I say, and I’m sure I speak for many, many others, we are very fortunate to have you as one of our own. Thank you ‘Holic for making supporting our great Club even better.
The Bank of Friendship is usually my pub of choice on matchdays, but one of these days I may nip in to the Tolly to shake your hand and buy you a Guinness.
Holic, I think you are far too generous to Chelsea. They are fucking scum and they know it 😉
Well said@37, N7.
And the way Moaninho is yapping away about us and Arsene only shows he’s really scared of us for next season.
The community shield will be ideal match for Arsene to get one over Moaninho. It being a one off game will mean that Moaninho can’t have tactics of defend defend defend. Right at the start of the season, their defense will also be rusty – hopefully rustier than our forward line. Another added incentive will be a chance to celebrate with a trophy with the moaning one watching…
@N7
Agree with your point two, the man we should be replacing is Welbeck who just doesn’t score enough goals. A better finisher than Giroud who can also do what he does probably doesn’t exist, but what Henry was saying yesterday (I think) is that if you want to be winning titles, you need better than Giroud in your team and in that context I agree with him.
If you persist with Giroud and this system you need your attacking trio to be scoring goals. This is why Welbeck should not be playing and also why Ozil should never be playing wide. If only we had a wide player on both sides capable of scoring 15-20 goals a season. Each.
Which brings me to…
Point five – the man we really miss to open up the game is not Oxlade Chamberlain, it is He Who Must Never Start Until He Signs Da Ting. It was fucking crackers yesterday to a) take off Coquelin and b) replace him with Welbeck. Hatstand stuff IMO. It should have been Ramsey off and HWMNSUHSDT on.
Thank you for your kind words, Simon.
Hehe Lars, I think the time to lambast Chelsea is not when they have all but wrapped up the title with the draw they came for. Now next season when we beat them twice… 😉
Sorry, but not surprised, to hear of the chavs in Club, BtM. Thomas Cook tickets perhaps?
It stands to reason that the drinkers in this ‘Holic bar offer the same qualities and you too contribute to making this blog what it is. I tip my hat to you all.
Well, nearly all. Oskar the Dog. What is wrong with you? Your experience of watching Arsenal must be miserable as it appears to be with the sole intention of finding ways of proving your ridiculous misconceptions correct so you can bore us stupid in the drinks.
Your contributions are so out of kilter with ‘Holic and the rest that I’m sure you must have wandered into the wrong bar and now can’t find the exit.
You’re like the drunk in the corner – joyless, humourless and ranting at no-one in particular.
Why don’t you put your agendas to one side, stop boring the shite out of us and you may even enjoy the ride?
Oskar – here is a bit of something that might just clarify why Ozil gets picked every game and doesn’t get subbed.
Arsene has a philosophy where he believes the best players must be on the pitch(he has admitted so in at least a couple of interviews over the years). In the present squad those players are Ozil, Sanchez and Cazorla. To accommodate the three in the starting line up – he has sent Santi deeper and Ramsey wide. Ozil’s work is much more subtle and nuanced than just the stats you have produced here. It is also not a coincidence that our form has improved drastically since he has returned to the team after injury. Just because he cost a certain amount doesn’t mean he has to top all the statistics. He is doing the role that the team needs him to do. For example in earlier avatars of Arsene’s ‘youth project’ teams (cesc was the lynch-pin of those teams), it was a common feature to lose the ball in advance positions under pressure from even a solitary defender. Ozil rarely loses the ball in advanced positions even when surrounded by two or three players – something the stats of assists & goals won’t reflect.
Fine piece Guv’nor. I listened to the game on 5Live and it was impossible to tell what was going on in the game due to Chelski jizzfest in the commentary box.
Nice to have you aboard Simon, but please, everyone, lay off Oskar. We know what he thinks, he actually knows what we think, and what we think of what he thinks. There is no reason to encourage him to restate it. If he chooses to believe that the reason no-one argues with him any more is because he’s persuaded us, then we will have brought a little joy into someone’s life with, literally, no effort on our part.
Bring on Hull.
COYG
*pulls up a bar stool for Simon, orders him a pint and offers him some of my Salt and Vinegear Crisps*
What H2H did.
*Does it for Pangloss too*
The news today . John Terry utters something about ” tippy tappy football…” and yesterday , this stupid Mourinho…Everybody is talking Arsenal vs Chelsea . Nobody is talking about Man City and Man United ans Liverpool .
How the world has changed !It is not only an instant pride restored , there is a sense of Arsenal is really a very strong team .
If we can win all remaining game , including the one with Man Utd and FA cup , then everybody will talk about Arsenal and nobody will talk about Chrlsea and Mourinho .
The big loser yesterday is Mister Abramovich , he should expect much much more after a billion pound spent . Stupid .
A coach who mocks fans and a hundred thousand of fans is a stupid and stupid on many aspects . The first stupidity is your personal security , you never know with a fan can do with emotion .
Mourinho – The specially “stupid” one
Heh.
Why doesn’t the media ask Jose questions like…
“Jose will you ever manage a club with financial restrictions or a club going through a stadium move?” or
“Jose why does your tenure of management not last at any club beyond 3 years and usually 3 years of free spending?”
But of course what do you expect from the media that have made this cretin into some sort of a hero. The really sad part is that even Henry seems to have been infected by the stupid ‘pundits’ around him in the studios. He is supposedly doing his coaching badges. Why the hell does he need those badges when his only solution for winning a title seems to be buying new players?!
He would reply –
1. I won the Champions League and UEFA Cup with Porto, which was a club that was comparatively poor.
2. I won the league title twice with three of my clubs and the Champions League with two of them. I won the league with my other club, where I did three years. Which may not sound a lot, but they had nine managers in seven years before I got there.
Probably.
The most pertinent question should be, “Jose, why are you such a cunt?”
But he’d only say he’d rather be a winning cunt than a nice loser.
Dr F@22: Preliminary results say Mourinho ‘loss’ record is the best in the Premiership: 17 (not 18) losses in 191 games, or 8.9%. Next closest is Guus Hiddink, also at Chelsea, with 9.1%. Chelsea lost just once when he was in charge that was for only 11 league games.
For what it is worth, this is Mourinho’s record in the Premiership against the other big teams:
Away v
Arsenal P5 W1 D4 L0
Liverpool P6 W4 D1 L1
Man City P5 W3 D1 L1
Man Utd P5 W1 D3 L1
Home v
Arsenal P5 W3 D2 L0
Liverpool P6 W4 D1 L1
Man City P5 W3 D1 L1
Man Utd P5 W1 D3 L1
Total
P42 W20 D16 L6
Oops.
Home v Liverpool should be
P4 W4 D0 L0
and total is
P40 W20 D15 L5
Simon!!!
A very warm welcome for you! I have prawn cocktail crisps for you… much more exotic than H2H´s salt n vinegar fare….
OTD,
If Mesut is not good, then tell me who had the only shot on target yesterday. Your opinion on Theo, Danny and Mesut is well-known and I don’t think any performance will change your view.
So let’s settle here, : Theo is a genius, Danny and Mesut are garbage. This will suit you perhaps.
Cheers Holic. Top stuff.
Good drinks aplenty above me as well as some that I myself enjoyed less. N7 with a particularly excellent effort. Cheers all.
The problem against the top sides has been our lack of defensive qualities, not least concentration. Wenger has often been lambasted for sending out teams built far too much to attack but that do not defend well enough to win big matches. If we have lost something in attack but become much tighter at the back then that seems like a step forwards to me. Next season we will need to maintain a tight defence and be clinical in the final third to beat this lot but our looking unlikely to concede a goal is a great platform for our attacking talents to build on. A draw is okay this time around. We didn’t lose and are still on for for a strong finish to the season. All good.
I am bloody glad that I have not watched 191 matches of Mourinho’s Chelsea. Christ on a surfboard.
Very interesting numbers there @55, NBN.
Our results v the Reptile’s varmints don’t look out of kilter with everyone else listed there.We are indeed somewhat better at home than City and the Dippers but not as good as Manure at the bus stop.
The Press can simply add all the results to lambast Arsene because he has the longest history against the reptilian one and we couldn’t turn at least one of those draws into a win.
I think N7 called it first to my knowledge, keep up our current form against everyone else, draw home and away v the Chavs and we win the PL next season.
Onwards.
GSD – “I am bloody glad that I have not watched 191 matches of Mourinho’s Chelsea. Christ on a surfboard.”
Heh
Drink of your choice on the bar, and some Moaninho pork scratchings. 🙂
Wasnt going to post this yesterday but decided to after the layest drinks.
In my local during the match this dude, by the sound of him a londoner far from home here on the west coast of the usa. Didnt quite care for the way i was supporting (intermitently yelling at the TV (positive stuff, mind) and said that i thought lee dixon is A crap commentator).
Lets just say the experience with this fellow was less than positive.
To the point: this bar really is unique in that it most often includes respectful discussion. (In contrast to having some tattooed arsehole rudely pontificating about how youre doing it wrong). And so i am in agreement with Pangloss. Easy on Oskar please. I may not always agree with him but i read all his posts. And tho i may find his “doggedness” confounding, he is thoughtful. And polite. I wouldnt call him joyless. There is a big difference.
Cheers all.
Drinks on the bar for the new folks. Doubles for the OTD and Pan.
NBN, thanks for the clarification.
As N7 & others pointed out, and as the stats demonstrate, we are not going to win the league by beating Mourinho’s Chelsea home and away. Just 5 losses in 40 matches against other top sides amply demonstrates that the team would be set up in such a way to make that the least likely of the outcome. Chelsea would drop points by drawing too many away matches because of the deep-seatedness (intended) of their conservative approach. Our job would be to win the matches that we should win and minimize the chances of loss against Chelsea. Win other big matches at home and at least draw them away, and win as many of the matches that we should “theoretically” win.
If Hazard too had succumbed to an injury at some point of time in the campaign we would have seen a more defensive Chelsea.
When Oskar is not talking about Ozil or Theo his posts are very enjoyable for both charm and erudition, albeit in a curmudgeonly “you young people don’t know anything” old-man way, and even when he is indulging in his monomania I think it is a bit of play-acting to keep the conversations going.
I have two chess maniac uncles whose attitude to the game was shaped so much by the Fischer-Spassky battle to this very day whenever they meet (70 years old) they still first amuse, then bore, then amuse everyone else by their incessant to-and-fro about that long-forgotten marathon.
We all play to the role expected of us. 🙂
The dogs keep barking , the Arsenal caravane keep going on.
Let’s ignore the Mourinho barking , Arsenal has one way to go : Advance !
It is interesting how the collective narrative influences our individual perspectives about things. I see a lot of talks about how “you cannot win the title with Giroud”.
[Joe, I am not including you as you have been from the very beginning consistent and clear about your evaluation with Giroud’s suitability as the leading striker of the very best team, and I respect that even though I disagree. ]
Giroud was central to the surprising success of Montpellier in the 11-12 season as they won the Ligue 1 for the only time, and being only the fifth team in French top division’s history to win the league. He topped the scoring charts with 21 goals and had 9 assists. It was post-financially doped PSG (who finished second under Ancelotti), and they still had other strong teams in Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lille. It was an achievement similar to what would be if Benteke drives Aston Villas to a PL win.
It is not to say that he is the most technically accomplished player, or he is as mobile and slippery as Aguero etc. or as clinical as Benzema…but he has a very unique combination of strengths that work excellently well in the set-up we play and in addition to his (considerable) goal-scoring he contributes greatly to our build-up play — especially helping to avoid the midfield congestion and pressing that we are invariably put under — and defend-from-the-front ethos that are inspired by Alexis and now shared by Ox, Danny and others.
And how good was Bellerin yesterday! In addition to all the other positives — and hopefully a storming end to the season with second spot and FA Cup to show for — the career-solidifying performances of Coquelin and Bellerin should also be counted as real concrete success for Arsenal, and the way we approach team building and the game of football.
We will smash em next Year 😉 Wonder if some of those moaning after the fact are the same ones that moan when we get cut to ribbons on the counter, I’m glad to see we look like we are starting to learn lessons – Yes it wasn’t pretty but it never will be against any team managed by that absolute Cunt of a bloke.
Up The Arse,
Dr F and Chippy
Drinks for you both….
Very interesting back drinking. Much higher quality of posts than you get anywhere else . Excellent match report Holic. I was not there for once but the intensity of the first half was very evident.
I think it was a game where a point was much more valuable to us than we had imagined it to be because of the United result. Wenger gets criticised for going too Gung ho for victory- Dortmund at hone last season, the last minute against Monaco this- and the team played for a large part of the game with the handbrake on. I think Chelsea will struggle at Leicester but will get over the line eventually and their delight at the end spoke volumes. They are a club who can celebrate great defensive performances like other teams celebrate feasts of attacking football.
On particular players I thought N7 summed up Ozil’s performance very well. As so often recently, two of our best players were the two least experienced, Coquelin and Bellerin. If Bellerin had played at Wembley I’m sure we would have won more easily. How often do you think that about a right Back for goodness sake? And Pangloss made an excellent point about OTD’s regular comments. Don’t bother going back on them we won’t change him.
Last week Giroud changed a game within minutes of coming on but the other team were of a relatively low level. We are unbalanced with Ramsey out wide and I think the Ox would have made a big difference. Not sure Theo would have supplied Giroud any better but more of a goal threat than Ox.
Frankly at the moment Ramsey doesn’t make my best XI if everyone is fit. Again perhaps another sign of how far we have come.
Long time reader, first time, er, drinker?
It’s a firing squad out there; we’re taking an absolute hammering in the press. And it makes no sense. I mean, it’s not like we drew 0-0 with West Brom or lost 3-0 to Everton, and yet, somehow, everyone’s lining up to take a shot at Arsenal. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
Switchblade… you are not alone in your confusion!
On reflection, maybe they [the press] are just unhappy about not having any more title-race straws to clutch, and feel we’re to blame somehow. No “blame” for Manchester City, in the best position to challenge Chelsea for much of the season who then collapsed spectacularly, because it’s the Immediate Reaction Age; nobody’s looking long/long-ish term for trends anymore, we’ll just go after the team that didn’t win the most recent game.
Yep. And narratives. Don´t forget the narrratives.
Meedja idiots. And fans who slavishly repeat whatever they say…
If we need to beat them, we need to beat them by pace. Like it or not they have the best back four collectively and the league’s best GK. So all the intricacy aside, we needed pace and width and that is where i believe we missed a trick not starting with Welbeck. Ok before a lot say, oh come on he is not good enough, the fact is he brings in that one dimension most defenders dont have an answer for- pace. His defensive work rate would mean he will start ahead of theo always and yesterday as well i felt, he should have played instead of ramsey. Nothing against Aaron who i thought had a terrific game but him at right wing does not work.
All the ones who applauded that rat who left us makes me wonder how come??? I mean the same fans or most of them abuse our own players yet applaud the player who spat at us and went. Well to each their own but i am sorry club matters to me not the players.
The king in his tv stint said Ozil and Giroud not good enough, just one draw and he felt that? What is it with great players being terrible commentators/analysts??????
Cheers Catalan,
Hope all us well – Paying a visit to Barca in September so may need a heads up on Bars showing the Arsenal 😉
To be honest I’ve not seen a paper today so looking at the above I’m guessing they are praising the Cunt to the hilt whilst lauding his tactical brilliance all for spending the paltry sum of about 400 million – Blokes a miracle worker I tell ya :)))
Up The Arse,
@72
Welcome to the bar.
Back when we were having a rough time a couple of years back, I used to look at what seemed to be to be a fairly self evident anti arsenal media undercurrent and wonder what was real and what was in my mind. All fans imagine this stuff, right? The bias against their team? The media conspiracy.
Well, this season has demonstrated conclusively that it’s there and it’s real. Utd lose 1-0 to Chelsea. They’re praised for their performance and touted as challengers next season. We draw 0-0 a week later and it’s a grand indictment of all our many flaws. Chelsea are a superb team and we’re the same old Arsenal, yet a draw is a poor result for us.
Last night the BBC interviewed both managers after the game. The Mourinho interview began “That must feel absolutely incredible for you”. The Wenger equivalent? “How disappointed and frustrated are you with that? Could you have maybe made your subs earlier?”.
The Telegraph informed me this morning that Chelsea are going through an injury crisis and that the difference between them and us is that they deal with it and we don’t. Point of fact: Chelsea have had statistically the fewest injuries in the league this season. Only two sides have had more than us.
The only sane reaction to this nonsense? A raised middle digit to the media, a defiant point at the league table and a yellow ribbon on the lapel. If we’re not allowed to be happy, then – really – who the fuck is? Presumably just the Chavs with their dross football and racist captain – keep telling us you’re not boring lads, do it enough and some may even believe you eventually.
It will make it all the sweeter next season when the prophecy is fulfilled and we reclaim the title, having done it all the right way, with class, dignity and style, and playing the game as it was truly meant to be played. It’s coming, ladies and gents, you could feel it in the air during yesterday’s game, and it will be all the sweeter for the wailing and spluttering of the press.
COYG
Ps – Dr F: I’ve stood in the room in Reykjavik where Fischer played Spassky. Shivers down the spine. Raving anti semitism aside, Fischer was something of a childhood hero of mine. What an extraordinary mind, unable to bear its own weight.
Dr. F, to your point on “taking care of business” in those matches where the Arsenal should garner the maximum points, just looking back over this season, if:
– claimed 3 points instead of 1 at home v. Hull (how’d that happen?)
– claimed 3 points instead of 1 at home v. Spuds (outplayed them)
– claimed 3 points instead of 0 at home vs. ManUre (outplayed them)
would be only 3 points in arrears; squeaky bum time at the bus stop. (Apart from maybe the single points dropped at SFL and at the Orcs, I’d characterize all of the other draws and losses as being what you’d encounter in the course of a typical season.)
Bayonne
You picked three important games. We should have been better at home in the first half of the season. Against Hull we only equalised in the last minute. Against Spurs we were flat and conceded the first goal. United was the most unfair result of the season . Actually we played superbly in the first half and De Gea was brilliant . They got a lucky goal via a deflection and caught us on a counter attack at the end. We were much better on the day. We should have held on at Swansea and started much better against Stoke.
I found the discourse between Switchblade and N7 interesting. LVG despite treating a BBC reporter like a piece of shit on MOTD appears to have been embraced as a success. I think he’s been very lucky , he has wasted a lot of money, his team play rubbish football , long ball to Fellaini is their main outball , and he has no kind of defence. The reaction to their performance at Stamford Bridge amazed me. We would have been ridiculed as naive and unprepared to take on Mourinho. But they are champions in waiting.
But will he be able to get the best players and maximise them. Is their team style clear cut enough? At least with Chelsea you know what you get.
Next year an Arsenal team with three top additions – my call would be goalkeeper and DM and a really top striker but there is a lot of demand for another CB, has a great chance of a real tilt at the title
Do we know why Gabriel was not on the bench yesterday?
Vinay, with regard to Ozil he wasn’t basing his opinion on one draw, he said against the best teams he has whatever goals and whatever assists. I don’t remember the numbers but they were very low (I think no goals and two assists but wouldn’t bet a penny on my memory these days)
*stares into space*
Vinay, with regard to Ozil he wasn’t basing his opinion on one draw, he said against the best teams he has whatever goals and whatever assists. I don’t remember the numbers but they were very low (I think no goals and two assists but wouldn’t bet a penny on my memory these days)
😉
So, Bournemouth in the Premier League. Pretty crazy achievement considering where they were six years ago.
Top post @78, N7. Nutshell on the great British media.
Haven’t seen anything on Gabriel’s absence TTG. Surprising given the doubt about Per’s fitness unless he himself was crocked in training.
It is a sad day indeed when a Feelgood Foundation employee (one Dr C @ 70 above) cannot spot a bogus Dr F. Especially when the drinks are being put on the bar.
Wenger used to shoot them at 30 didn’t he?
*Looks for rifle*
Bayonne @ 80: Exactly my point!
N7 @ 78: The bias against Arsenal in English media is not a figment of supporters’ paranoia. From the other side of the pond it looks self-evident and obvious. Whatever be the reasons — historical as the first souther club to break the northern working class clubs’ hegemony or more recent due to Arsene’s unique and uniquely progressive take of the game — the bias is clear.
N7 @ 79: I envy you. Fischer (whatever might have happened to Fischer the man) the player is still a childhood hero to many. I grew up in the middle of the Karpov-Kasparov battle, and chose Kasparov’s side. Later in life I met Russian expatriates (most of the best Chess players in US still are from the old Soviet block ) who would contradict all the stereotypes about either Karpov’s game or personality that I had read while growing up. I know one ex-Ukraininan GM who insists that there was much more flight and creativity to Karpov’s game than what we had learned … those were less obvious and hidden. In other words even a game as ‘scientific’ as Chess is not immune to being perceived differently by different people.
Too many effin Dr Fs around Feelgood.
Have a chair.
Henceforth thou shalt be Professor F. 🙂
We shall simply regard your NYC report as your submission.
Congrats Professor. Moet on the bar.
Oskar – I feel I owe you a slight apology. I agree with Faustus’s remarks above that your contributions are always erudite and amusing, although I hope you will admit that they sometimes exhibit a certain monomania. Sorry.
Thanks for the drinks, Cent and Vinay. A half on the bar for Oskar, and put another behind the bar for him for next Monday. Have one yourself barman.
I was interested to read what others think of the way the meejah report on the Arsenal. I listened to the match on 5Live and noted how they had gone to the trouble of sending a reporter to Germany and finding some fans who believed that Özil was underperforming. You have to admire their dedication to their art. I guess the problem is partly because the press corps includes a _lot_ of former ManYoo and, in particular, Liverpool players who put the best possible gloss on the efforts of their old clubs. N7’s proposed response @78 above bears repetition: “A raised middle digit to the media, a defiant point at the league table and a yellow ribbon on the lapel“.
COYG
Agree word for word with N7 @78.
Want to finish as high as we can and look down on 18 clubs including the defending champions. Back to back FA Cups a frothy and delightful extra.
Spot on, Cynic #82, it’s the big game failures that annoy me most about Özil. And his goals and assists generally are well below what they should be in ALL games.
Those that read everything I write about His Hunliness (and clearly few do) will have noted the PRAISE I have been giving him in recent weeks. But against a quality side it was back to the dross again. As someone pointed out we were just too slow in attack, and much of that was down to Özil’s habit of baulking and slowing up all the time. You just cannot do that against a top defensive team.
Vinay … you say Danny’s defensive work rate will always have him starting ahead of Theo. What about his attack rate? Isn’t his primary function that of a striker? No goals and just one assist this year is good enough for you cos he’s wonderful in defence? What exactly does he do in defence anyway that makes up for the inability to score or even assist? Theo has started just twice this year, and scored in both games ffs. Wasn’t a goal what we wanted yesterday?
And thanks for the half, Pangloss, make it a half bottle of Highland Park 18. 😉
Öskar
Another curious ‘fact’ for those who love stats…
The indispensable Mesut Özil has played 3,569 EPL minutes since joining Arsenal, scoring 9 times with 14 assists.
The useless Theo Walcott, in his most recent 3,452 EPL minutes, has scored 21 goals with 15 assists.
It must be Özil’s superior defensive qualities, right?
Öskar
There is a simple formula for winning the league: beat the bottom ten home and away; beat the rest of the top nine at home and don’t get beaten by them away. P38 W29 D9 L0 Pts 96, which should be more than enough for the title. Pretty much the Mourinho way.
Oskar: “I would like an argument please.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y&index=2&list=RDzYV-qYeWPkk
NBN @ 92: Long time back — don’t know when — I had read a Tony Adams interview where he said pretty much the same thing: that if you can ensure 60 points against the bottom ten then winning the league becomes much easier by primarily winning against as many of the rest as you can at home. Kind of a tautological remark, but as a plan pretty sound.
Arsene’s teams tend to be less methodical (for mostly good and some bad) about their approach for each game but always go on in these inspiring confidence-fueled runs and win as many points as possible in those runs and in between those runs you have the inexplicable wobbles, so this formula would probably never exactly work for us. Nonetheless I think this team — compared to any other since we moved to Emirates — is capable of that maturity of taking one game at a time and get the dirty points even when not in those runs.
72S @witchblade Smiles .
The trouble makers are Arsenal fans .
Take , for example , the illustrious Liverpool FC , it went through many famine years , fans get restless , Club took actions , change owners , change coach after coach , players come , players go , the more it change , the more it is the same , fans get fed up and become stoical .
Arsenal fans get spoiled during the Invincibles period and ask for more . Chub cannot , Club need money to build a new stadium and asked Wenger to do more with less . Wenger obliged and has to tell lie to fans years after years .
Media enjoy the wedge ( contradiction ) between fans and Club and Wenger , stoke up the stories , the passions . And that is Media , without all this passions and stories , Media cannot exist .
Mourinho saw the weakness , jump in with his knife . To tell you guys , coach of big clubs must behave like stateman . This is the instant celebrity , in the long run , people just despise him
N7 on fire!!
Thierry has unfortunately caught the “ex-player awful punditry epidemic”. His latest efforts have been in contrast to his usual intelligence.
Last week, he was raving about Chicharito celebrating after scoring a winning goal against an arch rival to send his team through to the Champions’ League Semi-Finals. His comments seemed even more absurd when he said that Chicarito shouldn’t have celebrated as jubilantly as he did, rather, he should have given Ronaldo (the most egotistical, self absorbed, self important footballer ever) all the glory for creating the goal. Yes, the same Ronaldo who scored a late penalty to make the score 4-1 in the Champions League Finals and ripped off his shirt to flex his muscles for the world to see his ripped upper body in an effort to get all the glory and media attention for the victory. This comment and stance even made Jamie Carragher seemed like he has sense, and we know, that is a crime.
This week, we draw a game with Chelsea, and we now need 4 new players, Mesut isn’t good enough, and our main striker, who has been banging them in for fun cannot help us to win the title. Oh, I almost forgot, at one point this season, he claimed we needed Alex Song. Come on King, you can do better.
Then an argument you shall have, Dr F.
Where do you stand on the dispute at the end of this rare piece of footage … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E_8EjoxY7Q … in which Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside?
Or would you sum up the whole game as Ian Holloway once did after scraping a win against Chesterfield … “To put it in gentleman’s terms if you’ve been out for a night and you’re looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they’re good looking and some weeks they’re not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi. She wasn’t the best looking lady we ended up taking home but she was very pleasant and very nice, so thanks very much, let’s have a coffee.”
Please take as much time as you need…
Öskar
Most irrelevant game of the season last night as Chelsea won the Youth Cup against Citeh. Nobody on either side will ever play for their teams in the League but merely go on loan somewhere else like Bamford. Clubs like them will always buy their teams.
Bellerin would not have broken through there.
I’m delighted for Bournemouth. Clubs are so resilient
I watched desailly doing some commentary work for bein sports a month ago and he was not very complementary about giroud.
I was surprised at the time because giroud has come leaps and bounds from the time he joined us.
probably ex players like desailly and henry like a different type of player leading the line.
BANG!
Kant was probably well named incidentally.
Pick the bones out of that, philosophically.
@Oskar, i agree Danny has not set the house on fire which he has admitted as well and i have nothing against theo but then knowing the way things have been, the odds of danny getting picked over theo is always higher.
Ozil, his assists, his contributions etc, i am tired with that. What is he supposed to do? Go past 4 players, play an exquisite reverse pass or a no look one? Why do people not get the simple basics that he is not that kind of a player. He is someone who picks the right pass to bring other players on to the attack and will create space for them. I am not defending him because i want to prove a point, i rather say we should know his strengths and what he is not. He is the perfect player to have for a striker/winger and it is fairly apparent that he suits the ones we have. Not all his passes may come off but what he does is he brings in our best players space to play which is a great thing. Ozil is a perfect team player.
Arsenal need so and so is fine but most of the footballing world is reacting as if we were beaten black and blue and outplayed of our pitch. We played well but not well enough and it was a collective effort of the team in not doing so.
Dr Faustus:
Thanks for your elegant and considered response @ 14 and for your notation @ 67.
We agree to disagree on Giroud. For me he lacks mobility, pace and technique. I’ve always thought that. That said, he had been hugely important to us this season not just because his physical presence suits the PL, but also because he has improved his overall game and attitude. However, against the better teams, we require a little more finesse in my opinion. However, I do think that it is very wrong to blame him in any way for not competing to win the league. I would argue that if we had Gabriel for the entire season and Coquelin in DCM – we would find ourselves competing. The same two players many fans thought we needed over the past few years let alone at the outset of this season.
It is also important to note, that even while Giroud has been at the this club, Wenger has tried to purchase both Cavani and Suarez. So clearly he feels the need for players of this ilk.
As for Cesc, everyone knows my views on that front. They haven’t changed.
I am disappointed by Sundays result. I thought Chelsea were there for the taking. I would have played Sanchez at centre forward and put pace on the wings. I think we could have made life much more difficult for Terry and Co. Putting Rambo or Wilshere (as we did earlier in the season) on the Wings just to accommodate them effects the balance and attacking efficiency of the team because we loose pace, width and directness. We set up defensively and effectively played for a draw and hoped to get a lucky break. The “handbrake was pulled” long before the teams took to the field. And I say that as someone who utterly adores Wenger. I just don’t necessarily agree with everything he does if that makes sense.
It does make sense Joe.
No one is perfect, Wenger makes his fair share of mistakes and will get pulled up on them, by you, I, all and sundry.
It’s the manner of this criticism that defines those giving their opinions, you always do it with an air of respect, so I, and I’m sure most here, will always have time for your opinions, even if we don’t neccassarily agree with them.
Joe,
That would have been an interesting experiment.
Agree about Ramsey and Theo has a good record against Chelsea. Secretly I think Wenger was very happy with a point.
I thought we approached the game pretty much perfectly. I don’t agree at all with Joe about the handbrake being applied. The first half was played at a rather high pace. Chelsea tried a different approach in the early parts of the second half and we contained them and then started going on the attack more and more as the half went on. Sure, we didn’t create that much but let’s not forget that we were playing a team drilled in getting clean sheets first and foremost and then trust that individual brilliance and set pieces shall win them the game.
Good evening and welcome, Simon and Switchblade. Thanks for dropping by. It’s always great to see fresh blood.
We like to argue with as much respect as can be mustered. Those that are unable to do so fall by the wayside, althoughh to be fair only a handful have stepped beyond the mark in terms of personal abuse.
I don’t agree with everyone on here, but opposing viewpoints when argued without too much spite are welcome.
Do continue to contribute.
Thanks and regards.
Anybody bored enough to want to watch Hull, there’s a sweet stream here
http://sportzhd.tv
Poor old Liverpool the wheels …….and the back axle have come off. We have to win one more game or they need to drop three more points for us to qualify for at least fourth place. They go to Chelsea shortly.
I think that the media have not given enough respect to Wenger for tightening up our approach in big matches. It has been the big step forward from last year and now we are about to sign Iker Casillas …just like we have been for the last nine windows. But oddly there may be some truth this time around. De Gea to Real looks likely and he won’t play second fiddle.
I’ve been critical of Wenger for not learning in the past although he is pretty good at getting a team over the CL qualification line but he has done a lot of things well this season and second is a real possibility although as we can see Hull away won’t be easy.
I’m in Venice at present and Mrs TTG was delighted to be taken to the Arsenale earlier today….or actually not as she couldn’t believe I could manufacture a connection with the Gunners so far from home. How little she knows me;)
Nice place but a bit wet underfoot
Not so sure about being happy with a point, Ttg, I believe AW’s primary objective was not to lose and have to endure Moaninho preening in media interviews.
In that, and much else, I am in total agreement with Joe.
Öskar
Vinay (#102) … “the perfect player to have for a striker/winger” is one who rarely scores or assists and offers no cover to his FB? That’s a different definition to mine!
In my opinion he’s more suited to playing in the pocket where he can better use his passing accuracy (though no more so than several others in the squad). He’s also got a decent, accurate strike which he rarely gets close enough to use out wide.
Öskar
Even the best of them …
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32484226
Cannot win them all, of course. No treble for Pep this season and no historic and unique double-Treble for Bayern. After 2013 my Bavarian friends now kind of expect their second treble every season. 🙂
Oskar @ 110: AW is not had as vain you are giving him the credit for. As NBN and others demonstrated, a Mourinho team set to get a 0-0 scoreline away from home almost always does that. We started the game very positively, they defended superbly, we made positive substitutions but didn’t go to full throttle on them. If we had taken more risk we could have won but equally likely we could have been caught in counter-attack.
This was not a must-win game for us but a historically typical ‘naive’ defeat would have been much more demoralizing to our excellent run and would have raised more self-doubts in the closing stage of the season. Not to say many of you would have tore into Arsene and the players for not being street-wise enough. They acknowledged what Chelsea was trying to do, tried to play through the fortified defense, it didn’t quite work, and collectively they were a bit cautious not to concede. Nothing wrong with that.
Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea, 04-05: Arsenal v Chelsea: home 2-2, away 0-0.
Mourinho’s second season at Chelsea, 05-06: Arsenal v Chelsea: home 0-1, away 0-2.
Mourinho’s third season at Chelsea, 06-07: Arsenal v Chelsea: home 1-1, away 1-1.
These are all of course faults of Ozil, Giroud and Aresne’s new found conservatism in circa 2015.
“Memories of goldfish, some people have.” 🙂
@113 — “…half as vain …”
Too much multi-tasking …
More or less what I said, Dr F, he was (rightly) more concerned about not losing. And, with his choice of starting personnel, I believe he gave us less chance of winning than he might have done with little additional risk. Or do you believe winning was beyond the realms?
Positive substitutions? I think not, considering how late they were introduced. Hoping for a miracle substitutions more like.
And when have I criticised OG? He’s one of my favourite players ffs. In that I disagree with Joe, sorry if it seemed otherwise earlier.
Öskar
I’ve never thought of AW as vain, Dr F, just understandably irked by the jerk. As we all are.
Öskar
Multi-tasking? Try putting down the drink while typing… 😉
Öskar
Oskar @ 117 — Preparing presentation, writing (professional) article, taking care of the 3-year old while the better half finishes up the day, and some reading in between …
A relaxed drink in the middle of the week is a few decades away I suppose 🙂
Not complaining though.
About Moaninho: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
To which Richard Wagner once replied … Ich bin gern von ihnen, der minderwertige Wesen des Abgrunds, von denen, die voller Sehnsucht sind.
Öskar
Need any help with the article? My passport still has ‘writer’ as my profession, and way too much time on my hands in retirement (hence no call for multi-tasking here). Subject matter no problem, I can make it up! 😉
Öskar
Oskar @ 119: Speaking of German aphorisms, I find this remark by Adorno — even though not meant for anyone in particular — aptly describes both Wagner and Moaninho: Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im falschen. 🙂
Thanks for the offer to help. Much appreciated.
My take on Mourinho:
“Alles sollte seine Existenz vor dem Richterstuhl der Vernunft rechtfertigen oder auf die Existenz verzichten”
Actually, it might have been about the Mancs, because this guy did study the city for quite a while.
How fast time flies!
Already 250 games at Emirates. Theo with the maximum number of appearances for us, RVP with most number of goals (64) and in distant second is Giroud (35).
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150428/behind-the-numbers-250-at-emirates
Oskar – Just for clarification, in the context of your @119, who do you consider the “minderwertige Wesen des Abgrunds”?
Toby @ 122: http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me20/me20_016.htm
Pangloss @ 124: Not only that, but “die voller Sehnsucht sind” … 🙂
Longing indeed …
Interesting that we’ve never lost at home with Ozil in the team.
Shocking that the same applies with Flame. 😉
*In the PL.
A guest post from another of ours. Thanks Gunner 1948. >>>>>>>>>