closed Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal

[Vesper 27,315]

25 minutes ago, Robguima said:

agreed. While Kovacic is obviously a level above him, Ross did very well especially in the second half. He finally looked like doing something with the football.

This is a team with far more quality as in technique all around. Good to watch!

A shame he didn't score on that shot! I thought he played very well, with a few hiccups defensively, but that error sequence seemed more structural/holistic team positioning thing. I wish to hell he could play RW!!! sigh

[Cosmin 2,484]

11 minutes ago, BlueStorm1003 said:

Just found out about the result

Great to know we won

How did the lads do?

Great and awful. You missed a roller coaster. At the end of the day, it was a great football game and a good result for us, but considering what happened during the last 20 minutes of the first half, your heart should be thankful for missing out on that one.

[Vesper 27,315]

2 minutes ago, Cosmin said:

Great and awful. You missed a roller coaster. At the end of the day, it was a great football game and a good result for us, but considering what happened during the last 20 minutes of the first half, your heart should be thankful for missing out on that one.

It was very entertaining footie!! Far moreso than a Jose 1 nil park the bus, 17th minute OG snoozer of a win.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Gung ho football in the 1st half but I am sure defence is going to get better when all the players click together and Sarri puts his print on the team. And for me personally it is going to happen in a few months, maybe by mid November when we are going to see the so called Sarri-ball. 

I remember Napoli during the last two months of last season's Serie A - they were fighting for the title and played away to Inter, AC Milan and Juventus during March and April and limited Inter to one shot on goal, Milan to two shots on goal and Juventus had no shot on goal in their own stadium and Napoli totally dominated them. So the problem does not lie to Sarri's defensive drills, but rather to team cohesion at the moment. He's more Guardiola than Mourinho/Conte/Simeone, defends by having the ball and pressing up the pitch, rather than meticulous defensive organisation. 

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

I was awoken at 3am this morning 3 pricks in Arsenal shirts playing football with a poor cat the wankers.

I was just about to ring the police and the RSPCA when the cat went one nil up.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

My few cents about the game

1.) Some of most exciting football at SB in long long time. Those quick passes were amazing. Lot of improvement in such a short time, cant wait to see us in two months and next season.

2.) Defence was super shit whole first half. But players will get used to play smarter. At 2:0, next time, we will step on ball and not exploit ourselves at back so much. This second half was already better, but Arsenal realy didnt test us. They could have gone all out and we would probably have trouble again, but thankfuly they stayed back. You also have to know that Arsenal is still one of best drilled attacking sites in PL, I see only City to be more fluid in attack (taking chances in another thing, but in creativity and chance creation Arsenal always did quite well)

3.) No youngsters again. I hope Sarri wont keep this as his standard. CHO wasnt there, RLC neither. No Christensen either so far. I hope, if Alonso, Luiz, Willian keep underperforming, Sarri will have the balls to actualy play some younger players instead of same old player power.

4.) Morata finish was sweet. He was also quite agressive in some duels, finaly. If he can keep this for next 10 games, that will be improvement though, but for now I wont jump to any conclusions.

[Stats 6,980]

What a nerve-wracking, brilliant game of football. From start to finish, was a brilliant game of football. A lot of neutrals for sure will be tuning into our matches this season. Defence for both teams were poor. We kept getting cut open time after time but fortunately poor finishing cost them. We were the better team for majority of the match but when they attacked, they looked really threatening. Iwobi caused Azpi all sorts of problems and Azpi looked really vulnerable and weak. Looks like he needs to hit the weights because Iwobi had the better of him throughout the game on so many occasions and generally looked a lot stronger. Jorginho was very good and my MOTM. Alonso gets his critics but man what he contributes for us cannot be underrated. Even at LB instead of LWB, he still manages to contribute goals and assists. That is 2 games this season and 2 assists and 1 goal.

Barkley impressed me as well. When he is running with the ball, he is really threatening and intimidating for the opposition. He forced a really good save out of Cech. The sense of relief I and the stadium had for Morata when he scored was pure gold. So glad for him. What a goal it was . He has kept persisting and has been awarded. We obviously have things to improve on which is natural but 2 games, 2 wind and 6 goals scored. Hopefully we make that 3 out of 3 against Newcastle. Think the team will be the same but maybe Hazard in for Willian if Sarri feels he is ready to start.

[Fulham Broadway 16,392]

Morata goal a big positive for him and us.

Barkley did well, but kovavic looked very promising.

Kante didn't stop running and was everywhere. Pedro tried hard and is looking better under Sarri.

We looked so much better with hazard on, controlled the game better.

2 at Wembley, now a winner against the goons

-negatives woeful ball watching at times (luiz) and midfielders not picking up the runners

But.... top of the league, top of the league, we're top of the league....

[BlueStorm1003 539]

1 hour ago, Cosmin said:

Great and awful. You missed a roller coaster. At the end of the day, it was a great football game and a good result for us, but considering what happened during the last 20 minutes of the first half, your heart should be thankful for missing out on that one.

Cheers mate. I'll have to see if I can find a replay of the match somewhere.

EDIT: By the way, how did Morata and Alonso play? I was particularly interested in seeing if Morata could regain confidence (I saw he scored so I imagine he must have) and I was worried they were going to target Alonso 

[blues.bridge 340]

vlc-record-2018-08-18-23h42m48s-Chelsea_vs_Arsenal_-_Highlights_&_Full_Match.mp4-.mp4

[kellzfresh 7,226]

The moment Arsenal knew they've lost the match

[Jase 43,479]

Here's something interesting/uninteresting...

[Pizy 17,860]

So, looking forward at least in the short term, Pedro has pulled ahead of Willian for a place in the first XI surely. He's our best finisher and unlike Willian he actually seems eager to press all the time. Willian did it sometimes but got pretty lazy as the game went on. He was also partially at fault for one of their goals.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

There seems to be a narrative in the match analysis that Arsenal need to give Emery time and it's a work in progress, which I totally agree with.  But, with no mention that we're in the same boat?  We played really well for most of the match but we're still really far away from being the finished article.

[communicate 2,703]

5 hours ago, Vesper said:

What is your solution, as this seems UTTERLY key to the entire scheme?

Could not we drop Kante back further to give support to Jorginho (who gets no slag off from me, as you are 100% correct on the alone-on-an-island analysis)

It just seems an utter waste of Kante to not use him as the destroyer of midfields that he is, surely Kovacic is more than capable of going further forward (instead of Kante, or am I wrong,and BOTH need to go forward in Sarri's scheme?), as he is a a near WC (in potential) all-rounder in talent and skill.

It is simple, press better then Jorginho will be exposed less. 

[communicate 2,703]

6 hours ago, Jason said:

Love how you only mentioned his offensive positioning.  

His defensive positioning is not bad he is just too slight and slow. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

About to watch the whole game again. I initially missed the 1st half and watched only the 2nd half live. My impressions of the 1st half. We totally battered and destroyed them for 40 minutes. The 1st goal they scored was literally a fluke from nothing after Willian waited to recieve the ball and got dispossed. Iwobi tries to cut it back and it takes a massive deflection and falls kindly to the Armenian guy. Their 2nd goal was a good team goal and its hard to find were we could have improved. Maybe someone could have done a better job picking up Iwobi. Steve Mcmanaman's constant moaning about defending made it seem much worse than it was. If anything, I was a bit more concerned by the initial chances from cut-backs Arsenal missed.

 

The superiority we showed over them in terms of just pure football reminded me of the 5-0 game against Everton. It was the best football I've seen vs a big 6 team since..............I can't really remember. Usually our wins in big games, virtually all of them in the last 6 years have come from counter-attacking efforts. This was a purely possession based footballing effort. The final possession stats was 63% CFC vs 37% Arsenal. We completed 719 passes to their 424. When was the last time that happened in a big game?! I don't even wanna know.

Anyway, the 2-2 was totally against the run of play. I was listening to some Arsenal fans on youtube and just commentary on the game in general before I watched the 1st half and it sounded like we were dominant for 30 mins then Arsenal dominated for 15 but that sounds revisionist. We were all over them. Anyway, about to rewatch the 2nd half and post my thoughts. 

Also: Steve Mcmanaman is absolutely fucking unbearable to listen to on commentary. I really despise co-commentators that moan about everything in a game. It makes the game just uncomfortable to watch. Fucking bitch. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Mcmanaman is at it again second half. He never gives credit to the attacking player. Everything positive in attack that happens for either us or Arsenal has to be the fault of a defender. It's just absurd. I've noticed that he loves to over-criticize Arsenal and hardlt ever gives Chelsea credit. He also does the same with City as well. He's a lot more sensible when he co-comments games for his beloved Liverpool though. For some odd reason he's pretty fair with United. Tired of these scouse wankers in media. Only one I like that is actually fair to us and is not biased at all is Carragher. And he actually knows a lot about the game unlike Mcmanaman.