Team News: Chelsea v. Arsenal

wot no blue names?

Can't believe we continue to shun Rosicky for a start

It's up there now Merlin!

I'm nervous about this one. You guys have the quality to hurt us. I hope our defence is up for the task!

Hope its a cracking game with lots of goals, just more in Arsenal's favour obviously! :-)

Very bright start.......

Agree with Rob. Would start Rosicky but I'm not surprised by the decision of using Diaby door his physical presence. But we really need him to make his physique count in this game. Nervy nervy game. Good start so far!

All I wanted to see was this Arsenal side keep a clean sheet. They are simply incapable of this and have been for a long time and that's why we won't win anything.

Deltaforce - Man City managed it. Man Utd have managed in the past, as have Liverpool.

Sure G_V but Citeh got a 1-0 at home. surely home advantage counts. I see your point but what i found appalling is conceding 3 at home to west brom. Conceding one at chelsea away is not unusual for ANY team.

Yeah TGB that was a bad miss by Koscielny. We played fairly well in the first half but conceded on the break again. Nasri and Wilshere stood out for me. That was a tough goal to score in minimal space but drogba has this spell against us.

The sad thing is that we haven't really done anything wrong and we're still losing.

Malouda's contact on Sagna was minimal. And Essien won the ball so cleanly that you couldn't see a better tackle. If you are carded for these, then the EPL would become the La Liga. Also, hardly any fouls were given to Chelsea when Flo Mo and Drogba were repeatedly fouled in the first half an hour.

There has been a player left with a broken leg every other weekend in this league. Maybe we need a switch to a La Liga style.

Essien's was a fine tackle, sure he got him on the ankle, but Diaby's ankle is made of glass and if you take tackles like that out just cos they happen against you you may aswell be playing netball. I don't like to use that argument cos it's the type of thing people say about Shawcross/Taylor tackles but in this case it's true.

Our main threat seems to be Chamakh and his heading ability in this match. Just have to create more crosses and chances for him and pretty confident he will get one on target.

Losing again. Absolutely crap season this is.

Julie what's your magic line again? Say it! :)

Oh well, that's that then. Tippy tappy not working again against the top sides.

Chelsea's defence is too strong for our football to work against them. That is the harsh truth im afraid. Only problem is that we dont have a plan B either.

The margin is so small. Gutted but the performance was good and we should take a lot of positives from it.

We have had our chances in the game but no one was clinical. Cech had one great save from Arshavin which a lesser goalkeeper may have let in. Chamakh had a few free headers which he could have done better with and Kos should have scored with an open goal in front of him. Nasri left his shooting boots at home today.

One rival we wont have to worry about is villa P.Avfc.

P.Avfc true we lost at the Bridge today, but better losing 2-0 then getting thumped 7-1 hey?

Surprised that Alex's free kick didnt rip the net or something. Just raw, brute power.

On the positive note our keeper situation looks a bit more comforting :) You can't deny that Chelsea are very good at what they're good at - and they had their matchwinner on the pitch. I thought we did well and though not well enough the depth of our squad looks pretty solid to be able to put up a good performance without our matchwinners on the pitch. Some think that should be Arshavin but it isn't really. Good though he is he isn't the real deal when it comes down to it. We've played worse and won and Chelsea will play better and lose. There's still plenty of the season left.

Still, if we beat West Brom last week, at home, and we can 'afford' to lose this game. Chelsea will win this league because they have a great defence. We won't because we don't.

Wilshire brilliant again. Song a clumsy oaf by comparison. Waiting for the same old excuses from Wenger.

I don't think our defense was bad today - though not as good as Chelseas. I suppose we let Cole get away too easily but there wasn't anything we could have done about Drog's goal. It was a great finish but could just as easily have hit the post and come out. Maybe the wall could have stood stronger for the free kick but it was a great hit.

BOOOM and arsenal roll over again...Same old story, Run now fabregas run!!!

Wenger says we were 'rushed' in the final attack. What does he expect? We're playing in England, not on the continent where players have hours to dwell on the ball. Receiving players caught by Chelsea midfield and defence too many times to mention. Does Wenger learn? Nope. Does he watch what Man Ciy did to Chelsea? Nope.

BOOOM and Villa will finish outside the top 10 this season.

Nice to be trolled by Villa fan for a change eh?

Come on Grone - You can't criticise Fabianski for that, he had the wall in place, he can't affect how it holds together, he actually did well to get anywhere near it. He played fairly well again today.

P.Avfc, do you mean just like Milner and O'Neill ran?

DF, that's right. Shrug your shoulders and sing 'c'est la vie'. Bragging rights for the best team in London obviously mean nothing to you.

The difference between us and chelsea today was essien vs song, cole and ivanovic vs sagna from my opinion. Essien HOLDS chelsea together at the back, Song...I don't recognize his position anymore, if he's not playing CDM, why he should even play?? He was very good last season because he played CDM. Sigh.. I think Kos and Squillaci handled Drogba well today.

Correction: "Cole vs Clichy" and....overall a good performance from Fabianski..keep it up!!

You are right Wyn Mills, bragging rights are not the reason I support Arsenal. Thanks for making me realise my mistake.

I was just about to respond to TRH as I skimmed through the comments thinking it was written by Rocky not Tony Rocky. Its amazing what little credibility you have on here THR. If you were wrote a comment about what a great club Arsenal were. I would begin to doubt it out of instinct.

We will see when we play you...Your in the spuds shadow now! haha, I'll admit you are better than us though, but its funny how you think you can win the league when your *****e, least i can admit villa are crap, we have no high standards! BOOOOOM...We run o'neil out the club btw haha...Run fabregas runn!!!!!!!!!

From what I saw, based on that last 10 minutes in the first half, we could've raised the tempo and moved a few gears any time we wanted to. So much for "giving them no choice".

"The difference between us and Chelsea is really very small." Sorry Amos, but I don't agree with that. You have great players, but their strengths aren't great enough to compensate their weaknesses. You need a new goalkeeper, a stronger defensive midfielder. The difference between Chelsea and Arsenal is big. Technically not so much, physically, a lot. Mentally, immense.

Agree with you on that, Amos. It's just 7 games played. No league is decided on 7 games, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

No Wyn Mills I am sad today but I am not the type who dreads getting grilled in front of his football watching friends after today's result. Maybe supporting the club mean two different things for both of us and I concede you are the greater fan.

JT_d they are just venting really, I'd probably do the same really.

TRH is a spuds supporter. Enuff said! And Amos- To each his own, I guess.. Our good record against you in the past few matches speaks for itself, though.

DF, I work with other Gooners so I have no 'dread' of getting grilled. Bragging rights means something different to me than to you obviously. Thing is, I say it the way I see it. Whether that makes me a better fan than you means diddly squat to me. This isn't a contest about who can be the better fan. I just believe as a fan one must be prepared to face weaknesses and talk about them.

Win some, lose some. Absolutely right. But when you lose at least look at the WHYs and not the just the BUTs. That's Wenger's favourite trick these days.

Don't you think it should have increased a bit more already? Chelsea didn't get great all of the sudden. The other teams got worse as well. Including Arsenal. And I believe it is mostly down to determination and ambition. Ruthlessness and a more aggressive attitude. In my opinion, Arsenal should change manager. I hope you don't. But Gus Hiddink is available.

"Chelsea didn't get great all of a sudden." Congrats on the win today k.chelski but maybe a short history lesson wont go amiss.

Of course I'm talking about this era, Deltaforce, no need for asteism , Chelsea has been around for 105 years, we've had worse moments than with scolari.

Why can't you just be content with the fact that we are happy with our manager. We don't want him sacked, we appreciate him and give him our fullest support, why does that grind your gears so much?

That's what we though too, Amos, Hiddink and Ancelotti changed tactics but not the team. A quality manager works with what he has. But it seems you guys don't want to have this discussion, and I respect that, it's your team, not mine. I'm off, later guys. All the best.

k.chelski there is still a long way to go this season. Wenger is the best man for this job. with a bit of luck the result could have been different today. however the team played really well and though yu are still the team to beat, come May we will be there or thereabouts for sure..

No, in your bitterness, you misunderstood me again. I was referring to your conversation with K.Chelski. Didn't want to have a discussion with you when you are in such a hostile and bitter mood. Your not usually like this, so I won't get pulled into a mindless argument with you.

you are digging a little too deep there KC. Drogba doesnt play against us you lose, its quite simple because he is fundamental to how you play against us. If we ever get to play you at full strength we can revisit this conversation, no doubt your squad is better though and you deserved the win today based on your solidity.

Your kidding me right? Tactics haven't changed? We scored 103 freaking goal last season, we scored around 60 in the title winning seasons under Mourinho. Whoa Amos, what the hell? And Carlo is building his own team here, Ramires, Josh, PvA, Bruma are the building blocks of it. Hiddink installed the Dutch "Total football" philosophy in the team. If change in tactics only mean long ball to short passing or vice versa to you, then your probably right. But it's not that way!

It's not the same tactics Amos, it's not the same team.With Mourinho we had four centre-backs, our full-backs rarely went forward. Avram Grant changed that, and that was it, hoof the ball remained. Gus Hiddink Tightened the team up, we played completely compact with anelka floating around as playermaker/right winger.(You can see the difference by watching the footage of Chelsea 1 x Barcelona 1, when we were eliminated.) Scolari changed tactics several times, none of them work. Ancelotti's chelsea is also different, with the trident of malouda anelka and drogba. Before, Drogba and Anelka rarely played together. Chelsea has released several of our big names( and big checks). Did you see our bench? Academy players. We bought ramires for 20m. A player for the future. If you think you'll succeed in the long run, go for it. But in my opinion, a club of Arsenal's stature shouldn't

Iceman, I would love to see Chelsea play at full strength versus Arsenal at full strength. Do you have a Football Manager Editor?

k.chelski your opinion is very flawed. Yoy completely ignore the fact that the playing field hasn't been even since the Russian injected steroids into CFC. We will never sack Wenger, wish you could say the same for Ancelotti dontcha?

DF, you're getting it all wrong. There used to be a time when we could be ocnfident of beating any time. All Wyn Mills and I are tyring to say is that the expectations and standards have fallen and we have come to terms with reality that we are nothing more than 3rd place team.

Sajit, I never said or appaeared to be happy or content being beaten by Chelsea. That is something purely borne out of your vivid imagination. I believe that we need need a more direct playing style in the final third and more strength in defending as an entire unit. The difference between you and me is not that I expect any less from my team but that I tend to look at the positives while your spontaneous reactions on many posts and threads are stuff of legend. To each his own.

"we have come to terms with reality [7 games into the season] that we are nothing more than 3rd place team." yeah - not like the good old days eh?

Tbh, WBA is gonna hurt us more than this one.

You are the life of the party Sajit. Cheers.

Exactly LD. Ancelotti wins the title with Chelsea and all of a sudden he is a better manager then Wenger. Complete and utter *********. Other fans like to pretend they hate Wenger but there is no other man they would rather have managing their club.

And if you really want to emphasise how much of a difference a bottomless pit of cash makes, Chelsea's half time guest of honour today was 1995 Player of the Year Erland Johnsen. Gave us a bit of a chuckle in the Shed today, the two chants that stood out being, "He was here when you were *****!" and "You've never seen him before." The 2nd one was the best because the complete lack of reaction from the Chelsea fans said that we were pretty much on the nose.

Arsenal enjoy the lion's share of the play, play lots of nice passes in nice triangles, and then they get blown away by Chelsea, who once again show far superior power, play and control. And Didier Drogba scores. Honestly, you couldn't have predicted that, could you?

How can you be sure Hiddink would need different players? He managed Korea. Russia, lol. Sure, chelsea is changing, but we're welcoming this change, stability, and a fruitful academy. You want five years, fair enough. If, and that's a big if, in the next five years, the wenger project fails. What happens? Another cycle or change of manager?

It was a close game & you play some great stuff at times but be honest, they were always going to win today! Cech had hardly anything to do all game except watch some triangles been played infront of him, and watching Essien brush aside Alex Song.

Also i know every team has cheats & divers over the years (we've had some shockers in our time) but Chamakh looks something else

Still hearing IFs and BUTs from Wenger apologists. If only we'd had Fabregas. If only Abramovich hadn't spent so much money on Chelsea. BUT Chelsea are only efficient while we are damn pretty to watch. BUT we'll be great in the future while Chelsea and City will implode under the weight of their bank balances. Thing is, none of us know what will happen in the future and that's why its a good idea to live in the present. I prefer to comment on what I saw on the pitch this afternoon. Good committed grafting from someone like Wilshere , lazy careless ineptitude from Song and Clichy.

Don't worry Amos. I'm far from suicidal. Nor am I some malcontent calling for Wenger's head. I would however like him to address some of the more obvious weaknesses - like a lack of cutting edge where it matters, an inability of many of our highly vaunted players to swing in a decent corner, and the feebleness of our defending of wide attacking teams. There is an inate lack of robustness about our lot that is growing more tangible season by season. I could put it down to the lack of British players but that would be far too simplistic. Yes, there are other seasons to follow...but if nothing is learned it'll be more of the same.

Chamakh is not the answer for your worries up front. His reaction time is abyssmal and is terrible if the ball is not in the air. Sell RVP at the first opportunity - he will never play anywhere near a full season in this league. A A large talent but will never be healthy. Who likes an Anelka for Nasri swap, straight up? Anyone?

Not me, Drogstark. No thanks. No way. And while you've been open about your lack of serious allegiance to Chelsea, I never would've pegged you as someone who doesn't appreciate what Anelka does--if not for the team, at least for Drogba. Anelka's creativity frequently complicates Drogba's genius at being direct and powerful.

It isn't because you're 'relative newcomers'. Atleast for me it isn't. It's because you were handed a pile of cash out of the blue, whilst a club like United had to earn their pile of cash. Barcelona and Real Madrid aren't any better than your lot though.

I'd just love to play Chelsea, ManU, or Man City with Cesc & RVP on the pitch ...just fkn ONCE.

springy, if you could read, you'd see I said "the best part of a billion pounds", which, in terms you might understand, means anything over £500m. I don't think bringing up the Erland Johnsen thing shows any bitterness, it was just funny, most of your lot clearly had no clue who he was. No bitterness here, you won because you took your chances much better than we did, which was what I suspected would happen. You'll probably win the league and deserve tyo like you did last year, but I will always look at your club with the same fondness as an athlete that is allowed to take steroids.

Haha keep moaning

littledutch..."but I will always look on your club with the fondness as an athlete that is allowed to take steroids"....and your NOT bitter?? if Arsene had the best part of a billion ??? and your not bitter??..In my book the best part of a billion would be £900 mill. £500 mill is £500mill short of a billion, no where near the best part of a billion. A very exaggerated view you have! And if you view of my club is what you feel than fine..I'm more than happy with the fact that you are apparently are bitter and we are still p***ing you off.. Oh we hav'nt been frugal in the transfer market but if you take off who we have sold your "best part of a billion" quote is even sadder!! Stop sucking lemons mate!!!Carefree

littledutch.. your ungracious rants matches your managers. No one likes to lose but spouting age old prejudices? We are not spending like we used to. Man utd have been spending large for years..when not many others could because of their fan base, attendances etc You had to relocate to do exactly this. And if an when you lose your debt and have loads of money you will spend. Lets not make out all your 60,000 fans at the emirates remember past arsenal players, what so every gooner knows the history of 20/30 years ago?? a lot of your fanbase comes from your "recent" sucess. You know it and I know it..older glory hunters definately..

"If Wenger has the best part of a billion pounds to spend on his team since 2003, who wins today?" - same team, Chelsea. AW wouldn't spend a billion pounds or a hundred million. He won't. I'm very tired of using the "we don't have as much money as you" excuse. Yeah, Chelsea owe their recent success ENTIRELY to Abramovich's billions, so what? The issue is AW's inability to build a post-Invincibles team with the edge, the power, the efficiency to score goals and defend properly -- end of. Five years since our last trophy, several players arrived and gone. And in all that time we've seen some great football, great players, a consistent place in the top 4 with few resources and the financial burden of a new stadium -- well done. But in that time on the football pitch all we've seen every single season is the inability to overcome consistent weaknesses in defense and attack, and a consistent pattern of collapse. And a consistent pattern of injuries that seriously damage our hunt for trophies. Fact is we have only a handful of genuine winners on our team--RVP, Cesc, Vermaelen. When they're out injured, the team has no winning mentality. I expected to lose today, all I asked was that we put in a good performance (which we did) and that we don't lose by more than a 2-0 scoreline. So I'm not hysterical or suicidal. But that's all I can ask for now, I can't expect anything more when we play v. Chelsea. Everton, Spurs, City can beat Chelsea, we can't ever seem to (unless Drogba's not playing & they have a crap manager). It doesn't matter how much money AW has to spend, he wouldn't spend it anyway, and even if he did, he's lost the ability to build a team that's ruthless, physical, strong, disciplined and clinical. And that's not prone to constant injuries. And I don't see that changing--it hasn't changed in 5 yrs. Every season we see the same thing, it never ever changes. It's like clockwork. Everyone can predict it. We supposedly "improved" last season - conceding more goals than the previous season. Congrats to Chelsea, well-earned, well-deserved. Yes, their billions helped them get where they are, but their managers and players (apart from Felipao) have what our players and manager don't -- bottle & a winning mentality.

Most of this talk of lack of bottle, winning mentality or 'not enough British players' as one poster claimed in trying to make the same point, is absolute hogwash. I didn't see any lack of spirit, bottle or endeavour yesterday - I haven't seen it that often at all over recent seasons. As for the financial argument it is a bit foolish to claim finance has nothing to do with Wenger not being able to build a team able to attack and defend properly when the only other teams able to do so better than us over recent seasons are Chelsea and ManU who have had far more financial muscle with which to do so. It's no coincidence. Is it really so hard for anyone to see the relationship between those factors? Wenger has managed Arsenal in the only sensible way he could to take the club from where they were to where they needed to go. Give him another club with other needs and other resources and he would go about the job in a different way. It's plain wrong to say that he's simply pursuing an ideological obsession and is incapable of adapting to different needs and different cirucmstances. Give him a billion pounds with another set of objectives and if the best thing to do with it is to spend it then he'll spend it.

Very interesting views on the forum Yesterday/today; just the thing to vent, after the defeat. Unlike the sound of most posters way above, I reasonably expected Arsenal to win this game. Why? For the exact same reasons DF has posted above: the changing focus of AW's transfers in recent times, going for slightly older heads, like he did until sometime around 2004. I couldn't watch the game as I was on a flight back home, at the time, but from what i hear/read, quite honestly, the only thing we missed in that game was to have the creativity of Cesc and the mentality of RvP and this will have ended differently; and that is not overlooking the efforts of the team we put out. Any doubts about that, given the team's territorial dominance?

I, however, share the views of some of our gooner fans who feel enraged at this apparent failure to deal with the known threats of the big sides and end the hoodoo, once and for all. For me, if we could have made a job of preventing Drogba from finding the net, his frustrations will affect the whole team and they will be there for the taking. I feel we MUST ensure victory when next the sides meet -and this is possible with calm heads, given our usual dominance-otherwise, this will become a source of further frustration for everyone, including AW.

Far too defensive springy. Others might wonder why you're so sensitive to such observations. It's not as though they are unique - or wrong either.

not really amos.we have the old critiscism of Chelsea, the money. johnny come latelys and stuff, when we beat you these come out. just answering the critics. Now I'm not up on Asenal's shareholders Littledutch, but is'nt there some big hitters owning a few...wonder if they are whiter than white, maybe as you know so much about Abramovich's money you'll fill me in on how they got theirs..is there a russian billionaire in there somewhere.?..please tell and in a truthful manner..I honestly dont follow who owns what only that my mates missus owns 2

springy, to summarise - shareholders need not put money into the club IF the business of the club is profitable. We are profitable so the shareholders are in fact due a DIVIDEND from the club but they have not been paid one - ever. Hope thats clear. You on the other hand have a benefactor owner who has funded your club to the tune of 700 million pounds. He has invested in buying the club from Bates - 140 m, paying the debts, spending 300 million on players, investing on a worldwide scouting network, massive wages over 7 years, firing managers and their severance pay - 35 million, Adrian mutu disaster - 14 million and whole lot of other small bills like player bonuses over and above their wages. Chelsea is without a doubt the strongest team in the country today. Having said that, it is because of massive massive financial doping.

springy, with respect you either dont seem to have a working knowledge of finance or you are ignoring anything you see but dont like. It doesn't matter if RA converted his investment into shares. What matters is that he has in effect WRITTEN OFF a massive cash injection into Chelsea. Hope its crystal clear now though I suspect that however much one summarises the issue, you will pretend to not understand.

deltaforce yes I know all that. In my book he has'nt written it off that massive cash injection is now what he's paid for the club, His massive cash injection were non interest loans to Chelsea Football. These loans have been converted to shares in which he is the sole shareholder. If he were to sell he would sell at a loss granted but all very tidy the club has no debt at the moment.Its how you percieve it.I look at it my way you look at it yours!!