Teams News: Arsenal vs. Chelsea

We need to be a lot more direct. Well good luck, lads.

Good half. We showed some settling in problems owing to the changes made, initially but will only improve. The jury will be out on Kozzer for that goal as some would say the BFG wont allow Torres that challenge. However, situations can't be the same with personnel change. Then there was the Diaby injury which necessitated the unplanned change. 2nd half will be pivotal.

I think RDM's bold approach of trying to take the initiative from Arsenal at home has surprised our technical crew and we will need to regroup and put their midfield under more pressure. They are too comfy for my liking.

Koscielny own goal? How am I the only one to see how mediocre this guy is?

Because he's not mediocre, just having a bad day.

*shell*

Too easy for Chelsea.

The guy is a panic merchant! No composure in big games. Even last week yes he scored then he panicked and almost gifted Aguero the winner only 30 seconds later and Aguero should have scored. All of a sudden its same old Arsenal at the back coinciding with him back in the side. He's crap.

Good game. I think the major difference was in defence, today. Superior defending by Chelsea. I was quite impressed with Arsenal. Probably your most balanced team in recent years?

the first goal was the fault of the whole defense. why was no one marking luiz? kos was marking torres half heartedly, keeping an eye on the huge vacuum around luiz. on the second goal, koscielny only had a very slight deflection and it did not change the flight of the ball

I just worry about how much damage this may do to the much vaunted team spirit, epitomized today only by Arteta, Jenks and maybe Gibbs. If we can get over the depression and move on, it will do us more good. Easy to change the line-up now, with benefit of hindsight; if this selection had delivered, Wenger will be a genius and Per will probably lose his place. Let's move on.

Mannone was very much at fault for the second goal. But god knows why Ox was left to deal with Luis for the first. The performances from OAC this season have been pretty poor, I hope his new found fame and OxTV etc. aren't distracting him.

fuzzbag, LOL really? We dominated you on your own ground. Our defense was solid, yours was like Arsenal defense. You will fight for the 4th spot. Don't get deluded by the Man City draw. That was a fluke. We should have won this 1-3. I thought you Arsenal fans would have matured after 7 barren years. But not all have.

agree with you No 10, the freekick looked like it was going in regardless of koz's touch and manone has to expect those inswingers to be goal bound so he has to offer the final cover [if humanly possible]..we could have recovered had we got some marginal luck, the fight was there for me and we can move on with a sound belief we have what it takes..just rememer how long this tean has been together as it is..12:45 kickoff is a welcome time hear in OZ, shame about the result.

The best team won and bossed it more or less throughout...all the rubbish talked about the new Arsenal and its all bollox..the sad thing is you al believe you are still number 1 and thats long gone...a proper beating by the European Champs!!

The passing and movement wasn't good enough from us today, and Chelsea showed some really good purpose upfront with Hazard and Mata combining really well. Having said that, I cannot remember one save that Mannone had to make in the 2nd half so I don't think we were outplayed in the final 3rd as much as the chavs on here would love to believe. Off day from the Arsenal, let's move on to the next game and get all 3 pts.

Whatever makes you happy, springy. Not even the most ardent of Chelsea fans thought 3 points was possible at the Emirates; just go to the comments section of the articles leading to the game, on VC.

Hello Koscielny = Goodbye clean sheets! Hello hello. I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello.

At least Diaby will be like a new signing again, in about 3 months.

13 Leagues, 10 FA Cups. You're deluded if you think you've knocked us off our perch as the number one club in London.

But No CL.

Exactly Prits, we got some really idiotic comments here. Koscielny has progressed quite rapidly considering where he was playing 4 years ago. He will continue to improve and we can't write him off after the occasional bad performance. Same with Giroud and Gervinho, they will improve and the fans need to show some patience. It was a bad result but the performance wasn't that bad. If our finishing was better we could have easily won that game.

I will provide the honesty that many of my fellow gooners seem incapable of reaching for, we were beaten by the better team, there I've said it & just because it's painful to say it as they're a huge bunch of oil wh0re c***s doesn't mean to say it's not true. They will finish comfortably above us in the table this year and will come closer to silverware again than we can possibly dream of. Even now in his twilight years Cech is a better goalie than mannone will ever be, he does not have what it takes to be an Arsenal No 1, I appreciate he is all we have at the moment aside from fielding a complete league virgin but he will cost us points in bigger games and see us knocked out of cups. Our supposedly superior midfield which all gooners were trumpeting from the rooftops prior to the game was pretty easily nullified with Cazorla easily identified as the sole danger man and marked out accordingly, Diaby having given 5 and a bit games broke down (maybe we can get 8 games from him next season?) It's still all a bit the more things change the more they stay the same for Arsenal really. Still I think it's good for peoples' expectations to get a reality check as I think after the two 6 goal affairs a lot of folk in goonerdom had lost a lot of perspective.

naij mate, alot of Chelsea fans knew we would get a result and not VC fans....the fact your smug attitude suggests you were a better team and a win was a formality is laughable. Eboue=GOD...ancient history...now's the time

If ManU had kept Ronaldo they'd probably have more points too! If Cazorla was completely nullified how did Giroud get a sitter to miss? A tougher game for Carzorla but that's only to be expected but I thought he and Arteta matched up pretty well. Either way we lost and the result in such games ensures its beyond any proper football analysis to conclude anything other than that the best side won and they did play well - they have some good players but they scored because we messed up rather than anything they created.

Surely though subjectively you could say that about any goal or result though? they scored/won because we messed up? It's a defensive mechanism to deny the other team any praise or it's dues. Like Maradonna only scored because the entire England midfield and defence messed up and didn't put a tackle in?

I think there's an objective difference to messing up on a couple of set pieces and getting ripped apart by the better team even though the result is the same. I'm not saying Chelsea didn't warrant their win but it was more a case of us messing up than us getting outplayed which is the less rational conclusion that's being made.

Again Amos one mans 'a bit short' is another mans miles away. A fairly even 1st half yesterday but the 2nd half saw the chavs being comfortably the better side in possession and dominating, not just in mf but over the whole pitch.

Again whoooooah there, one person here has slated kos, one person, that is not a witch hunt and it's far from 'everyone here' step off the precious wagon there mate.

Amos we were a 'bit short' of parity, we were 'miles away' from the total dominance that an earlier post of yours suggested. That is what I said, please don't twist my words mate! ;)

My reference to 'total dominance' was meant to be tongue in cheek in the present taste for exaggerated claims but that doesn't come across too well I guess. Your point is well taken Niko! :)

Giroud had the sitter to miss thanks to Chamberlain wasn't it? Or am I seeing things, Cazorla's a top talent, but I think he didn't play that well yesterday, stats about completed passess are completely null unless they're put into some sort of context, did he create any clear chances? Being there knocking the ball about is not what he's about (from what I've seen). I agree the goals we conceded were entirely sloppy, needless in the build up to the free kicks as well which was annoying, but we definitely didn't deserve anything from that game. If we had sneaked a draw, i'd be thinking we were very lucky, even those Cech saves were Hollywoods, any keeper (apar from maybe Almunia) would've kept those out.

Definitely, fifhtcolumn, altho the more perceptive amongst us may have had concerns....

Agreed, they just didn't work yesterday - like I say, I think we lost to the better team, but there you are. I tend to agree with Giroud, I think he looks like a half decent player, just hopehe discovers where the back of the net is, and fast!

I understand that some of you are happy with Kos. But for those of us who want to have a GREAT defence again know that it wont happen with him around. We conceded almost 50 goals last season in the league apparently that makes a good season for a defender. I'd like to see us conceding under 30 in a season, then we might have a chance of winning something again. Until it is addressed, we will NOT win anything - even a cup.

Diaby coming off seemed to affect the balance of the team and he would arguably have been there to defend the first Chelsea goal. I'm tired of Wenger's gambling. He's finally admitted that Diaby is a liability we just can't afford, something most sane observers could have told him 2 or 3 seasons ago.