TorontoChelsea

Welcome!

He was their best player. Unlucky not to score. Would really have done us a favour there too. Still, great result for West Ham and for us.

Blaming the goal on Sturridge is extremely unfair to him. Hernandez is not really Sturridge's man. Sturridge is marking Hernandez when Hernandez starts to move to the centre, Hazard meets him and makes a very poor challenge which Hernandez easily slips. Then, Ramires picks him up. At this point, there are 5 Swansea players and 9 Chelsea players in the area and the ball still outside of the box and to the side. The play still should have been contained easily. Cole and Cahill are marking their men and Bertrand is roaming on the left side. Mikel ,Azpilicueta and Ivanovic all converge around one Swansea player who then kicks it back out to Hernandez who is unmarked while Ramires sort of just stands there..At this point, Hernandez is his man, and he let him get into a wide open area without tracking him. There were a bunch of small mistakes, and a big one by Ramires. (Besides, the two options you name are Marin and Hazard who are both poor defensive players as well.)

Moses was taken off because he hasn't played much this season and he played 120+ minutes a few days ago. Remember all the discussions people had about playing starters in the league cup game? This is the price we paid for playing so many starters heavy minutes against United. Was it worth it? Maybe. Maybe not. Give us a full squad and we almost certainly win today. Oscar was having a bad game and although I've never liked Bertrand in the midfield, RDM had very limited options with such a weak bench.

Fair result. Hoping we would have been able to hang on. Same problems we've been having all season really. Can't create enough opportunities and we rely on set pieces or a stroke of Mata or Hazard genius to score. It's not a good sign when our most dangerous offensive player is Gary Cahill. Our midfield was poor. Mikel was asked to play too forward in the first half and he's not good at that. Romeu just doesn't seem like he should be playing at this level right now. I thought Ramires coming on would change things, but Ramires was fairly lackluster himself and was even caught standing around on the goal. Our central midfield should be moving the ball, but it's so slow once it gets it and the attack just stops. Moses was very good, looked dangerous but seemed to play fairly centrally which I find confusing. Hazard had a mixed game. Was very dangerous but didn't defend at other times and gave up the ball a little too easily. Oscar had a couple of nice passes, but it was a day to forget for him. I think Swansea just took the ball off him 4 times and a lot of his passes were very poor. Torres was OK, created a couple of good chances. He'll get most of the blame, but he definitely does not deserve it today. Simply no service, no ball movement, static offense. Hopefully, Mata will be well rested for Shakhtar and we'll get to winning again.

To be fair, an equalizer was deserved. Let's nick a late one here.

Crap

Hail? It's almost biblical. "When Moses departed, hail fell from the heavens" or something like that.

Set piece goal...Moses!

It was the right substitution. Well done RDM!

Over the course of a year and a half, I agree with you, but over the course of half a game? He's been fine. It was the same with Lampard earlier or Kalou or Malouda last year. Whatever the actual problems, they get blamed. Our midfield is way too stagnant and Hazard and even moreso Oscar have not been precise enough.

Not sure why anyone is blaming Torres for this half. The problems are clearly in the midfield. Torres had a couple of good chances and his movement has been good. You can't create goals out of thin air.

I'd keep the same lineup for about 10-15 more minutes. If we don't score, I'd put Ramires in for Romeu. It's difficult to have no offensive players in the pivot. The link-up play is just so slow right now.

Weird game so far. Lots and lots of passing. Both sides have had good chances but both sides also look tentative. Swansea seem to want to pass the ball into the net. We're really missing an offensive player in the pivot. Oscar has to come too deep to collect the ball. And when Mikel does get forward, he stops and looks around before making a decision which causes our attack to become static. Would love to see Oscar put on a few pounds. He's knocked off the ball too easily. Torres is playing well so far. We have the quality where we should still win this but without Mata, it's a lot tougher.

We had Essien, Meireles, Benayoun, De Bruyne, and McEchran still on our squad when we brought in Marin.

That was some strike. 2-1 really really flatters Arsenal.

Especially since Sturridge played 120 minutes a few days ago and Torres didn't play at all. Makes sense to start Torres today. We really have a thin squad right now.

I'll be looking for Oscar and Hazard to take over the Mata role today and run the offense. Hazard did it fantastically before Mata was back to himself, so maybe we'll see another dominant Hazard performance.

Well, and then off goes Wilshire.

Chin up. Arsenal did come back against Reading!

That's it.

Why did Walcott take the free kick? They have Arteta and Cazorla. And what a horrible free kick it was.

One thing you can usually say about Arsenal is that they play attractive football...ok, two things. They play attractive football and don't win anything. Looks like only one of those things is happening this year.

That is fitting for this game. It's like a bunch of lazy people playing at the park. Just sloppy from everyone.

This game is terrible right now. I think it's the lunch-time game syndrome. Someone should do a study, but I think the quality of play in the early games is often worse.