Barbara

Oscar is destroying Arsenal's chance ahead of the box.

well, that foul was hard to ignore.... seemingly they have to break Oscar in two for them to call it.

Cesc has been immense. He's been everywhere, doing everything, annoying every cunt from the ugly shirt. And Hazard's talent and balls got this for us. He's been amazing in his genius little moment... and then the class taking the penalty.

is there a new rule Oscar can be fouled? Second time he was clearly fouled and nothing was called.

so much class to take a penalty... I can't even!!!!!!

HAZARD!!!!

Useless Schurrle... useless

I have a bad feeling about this match for a while. UGH, just hope we win this

fuckers, game delayed because the fuckers can't handle it.

Actually we have a secret Mourinho cult. Don't let anyone know about it. I'll let you in. shhhh

lol

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9502541/premier-league-jose-mourinho-insists-cesc-fabregas-made-the-right-decision-joining-chelsea edit: more complete version on Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/03/jose-mourinho-cesc-fabregas-perfect-addition-chelsea-arsenal Mourinho twisting the knife on their guts. love our boss

It doesn't really matter much. He wasn't obliged to come to Chelsea. He made a decision. We have among our own, fans saying Lamps could have said 'no' to another English team if he wanted. Cesc could have said 'no' to us... He didn't. Many Arsenal fans don't care if Arsenal wanted/needed/ could have had him or not, the problem for them is Cesc wearing royal blue. Actually that's the problem most of the fans I came across have. They don't give a shit if he tried to go to Arsenal before or not. They're disgusted and gutted to see him here. I think you're putting a lot of weight on how professional athletes deal with club loyalty. This isn't that much common anymore, they're professionals, they make their decisions based on what's good or better for them, they don't give an actual fuck about what fans from other teams will say. So even if he felt like he would look like a disloyal cunt towards Arsenal, it won't influence his decisions because although it's nice to have the respect he has from Arse fans, it's too abstract, too linked to fantasy world. He wants to play in a team where he's valued, he wants to really compete for titles, he wants what's best for his family. That's Chelsea, not Arsenal. He knows that better than anyone. He's been praising Chelsea and Mourinho since he's here. He said all kind of amazing words about Mourinho just last week. Actually ever since his first interview as a Chelsea player he's been clear that what made his decision easy was talking to Mourinho. If he was interested in looking good for fans that really don't make a difference for him anymore (in a practical and pragmatic way) he wouldn't have praised Mourinho's approach. If that was really important he wouldn't have joined us... Maybe he's trying to avoid extra judgment from Chelsea fans. You know there a lot of fans that haven't come around to seeing him here. Some let their residual dislike of him as a consequence of him being Arse's captain and symbol for so long. He'd always represented everything Arsenal, he'd made many things to enrage Chelsea fans in the past. He knew there would be some part of the fans that would take a long time to warm up to him. Maybe that's reason enough for him to lie or tell half truths that could be up to interpretation, but he's said with all words that Arsenal will always be special to him, that everything he is as a football player he owes it to Arsenal. That's not the easiest to make fans who spent so many years hating him to suddenly warm up. He could have done a much better job at pleasing both his old fans and his current fans, he seems diplomatic most time, which makes me believe he's mostly telling the truth. He could be worried about pleasing one side or the other, or not trying to upset too much any of the two sides, but he's said things to enrage both sides and to please both sides. At the end of the day, as you said, it doesn't matter when, how or why the decision was made. He's here, Arsene could have stopped it from happening and that's the difference between the Voyeur and Mourinho. If Mourinho was at Arsenal and even if looked to his squad and saw that he didn't necessarily need Cesc, he still would have never allowed him to join a title contender, a rival. If he has the power to stop a rival from being stronger, he'll just do it, fuck the consequences or he'd deal with the consequences later. He would have brought Cesc there and would have found a way to make him work with both Ozil and Ramsey in the team. It's not like Ramsey doesn't miss tons of matches every season because of injuries... Mourinho doesn't think only about strengthening his teams, he also thinks about strengthening a team that could lead his rivals to drop points, but not his side (through loans) and also about now allowing his players to strengthen other teams (remember how he didn't want to keep Ba, but kept him because the only team really interested was Arsenal and he wouldn't strengthen them? And that's Ba who we're talking about here... not even marginally, comparable to Cesc's boots, let alone his value and quality as a player). Cesc was all but an Arsenal player because of the buy-back clause. Mourinho would have never allowed him to join a rival in those circumstances, even if he didn't have many plans for Cesc or if he had to sacrifice Ozil and Ramsey a little bit to make room for Cesc.

never said anything related to any of this. Just that people forgot the last two goals he's scored... which is true. His fault at City's goal has nothing to do with the goal he's scored. We aren't discussing his work-rate and ability to defend. We're discussing how people have short memory. He was awful last season, then a hero after the WC, then a hero starting the season, then now he's absolutely useless, a squad player that should be behind Willian in the pecking order. That's fickle. I don't get it either. Mourinho criticized Hazard, Oscar, Ramires, Etoo, Schurrle and probably others I can't remember to the media this year... That's something he normally didn't do and I don't know why he's been doing it lately. I don't like it.

Mourinho and Costa had no qualms admitting they negotiated and had a verbal agreement as early as january... Cesc admitted he only decided about leaving Barça at April. Maybe Barça decided it earlier, but the player made the decision only in April. If Mourinho had no problem admitting he negotiated a player with a team he faced later in UCL, if Costa had no problem admitting it was weird to score against his future club, what could possible be reason enough for Mourinho AND Cesc come up with a total different story? I'm not saying Mourinho doesn't lie, he's lied many times before. It's just that this is such a non-issue that makes no sense to lie about it. The only one interested to make things look different from the truth is Arsene as his team is clearly struggling in midfield... His interview is contradictory. He says Cesc wanted to go back to Arsenal, he says Cesc decided to go to Chelsea before he even spoke to Arsenal. Both quotes from the same interview. Am I the only one to think one contradicts the other? How come he wanted to come back to Arsenal if he's made a decision about Chelsea before he contacted Arsenal? As I said, he's the one who has to save face and therefore have reasons to lie. Mourinho did nothing wrong by contacting Barça, Cesc did nothing wrong by deciding to go to Chelsea. Time will tell if Arsenal didn't make a mistake by letting Fabregas go (right now they'd need him, they know they have a bunch of players prone to injuries...). Clubs negotiate with players' agents while they're still under contract all the time. Actually that's what happens most of the time, it's rare for a (long) contract to run out and then the player move on a free transfer, like Lewa to Bayern. So of course conversations start during the season... Also, I don't think Barcelona, Cesc and anyone else involved see Chelsea as the enemy. Maybe the bitter fans yes, but not to the extend they'd be offended by Cesc coming here. You said it yourself many, many times that neither Barcelona nor the fans were happy with Fabregas there. Why would any of them care if he came here? I think they wouldn't even care much if he transferred to another team in Spain, let alone in England. After one of the many Cesc interviews I pointed out that he's never said he contacted Arsenal because he wanted to go there. It was always something along the lines 'they had a decision to make', 'I had to go through them first'. He never said he looked the club to come back there, but just that he went to them to get the authorization he needed to transfer somewhere else. As they had the buy-back clause regardless where he wanted to go, he had to know if Arsenal would make use of the clause or not... It's been very clear to me he didn't want to come back, that he wanted to go somewhere more competitive. Maybe that's why Arsene is convinced he wanted to go to Chelsea. Everyone knows winning titles at Arsenal is once in a blue moon...

Everybody already forgot his amazing run to score the goal against City, even though that was only 10 days ago...

Fabregas told a Spanish journo that he sent texts for Arsene's birthdays and for his 1000th match ahead of Arsenal and that he's never received any from Arsene. The only conclusion I can come from that is that Arsene isn't very close to his ex-players. He says he believes the deal was done a long time ago. That makes no sense. José didn't hide from anyone he had a striker in mind in January. Diego Costa had the stirring interview where he was taken out of context but he did say he felt somewhat bad for scoring against us in the UCL SF when he knew he was coming here in a couple of months. Why would Cesc and Mourinho lie about when they talked? Mourinho wouldn't have a problem, it's been widely known that Barcelona didn't want to keep Cesc and Cesc admitted he made the decision to leave Barcelona earlier in the year (is in the same Spanish interview he said he sent texts to Arsene and never received any). I think Arsene is making assumptions - he's even using words that support conjecturing instead of facts and I particularly wouldn't trust him. I think bottom line is that Cesc wanted to go back to Arsenal, they rejected him and now Arsene is trying to save face saying this decision has been taken by Cesc a long time ago, as if when he approached Arsenal it was more about getting them to release him from the buy back clause rather than check if they were interested or not. Whatever his reasons are, he's conjecturing, the chosen words support this as what he thinks happened. For us, it may even be one more thing to rile gooners up if we assume Cesc has always wanted us. But I don't feel that's what happened, and like Arsene, I'm conjecturing too, except he has much more information than I do. edit: Also the Guardian interview (I assume both articles were made based on quotes from the same press conference), implies exactly the opposite, although they also use the same 'early in 2014 decision' part: Arsène Wenger: Cesc Fàbregas wanted to rejoin Arsenal before Chelsea move

I've read complaints and compliments, nothing new... but he's adapting, so I think it's part of the package... many of my friends who watch Bundesliga aren't that impressed with him though.

seems so little money if we think that's our main sponsor...

I think we could win this match, but I don't expect it to be as easy as it was last season, regardless of how many injured/suspended players they might have. They're confident and motivated after spanking Galatasaray yesterday and I think Arsene won't be as stupid and stubborn as he's been the past few years. There's so much raping from Mourinho one can endure before trying something else. I think the spanking at his 1000th match as an arsenal player maybe was a wake up call to him. I expect him to be more cautious. can still see us winning though. yeah, they're trying to cut their losses and as Per said they'll try to improve from last year. Instead of losing by 6 they'll lose only by three this time, Diego hat-trick with Cesc assists hat-trick. It's written in the stars

many players are so static... they get in position to make a run or receive an assist, but they don't keep moving. they stay rooted at their spot waiting, waiting, waiting and then the defenders just take a couple of passes ahead and boom, offside. Costa is always moving. He never stops. If he doesn't receive the ball he doesn't spend the rest of the afternoon rooted waiting to receive. He'll move elsewhere, he'll go deep to take the ball (many times he's caught in the flank, far from the box because he sees when his team is having problems breaking through opposition lines. And when he doesn't receive the pass - waiting in a good position - he'll lecture his teammates (which I love). there's no quiet moment with him in the pitch, he's either moving smartly, or helping the team to try a way to break the defense or he's lecturing everyone and their mother. It's such a leadership and an awareness and commitment to his role in the team, that it just brings us to a new level. He doesn't influence games only when he scores or assists. He influence games also bringing life and fight to the team, something we've missed A LOT against the lesser sides last year. He's invaluable, absolutely, invaluable to our team. I'm so happy we were lucky enough to have a guy like him. It must be good karma for being nice and enduring Torres for so long as we did...

How much was Samsung paying for us and how much is Turkish rumored to pay now?

so hat-trick coming against Arsenal? That's how he seems to react to the awards :ph34r2:

but that's his style. Oscar isn't a flair kind of player, he doesn't do mesmerizing dribbles. He's a very smart player with glimpses of good vision and creativity that are currently under development. If he carries on developing well, he'll be a player with very good vision as well as creative, but in a different way to Hazard for example. If you look in two of those chances created - the pass to Costa and Schurrle sitters, he pretended he was going to pass the ball, didn't pass yet, the markers moved and then he passed. That's the kind of thing he does, it's very similar to the kind of thing Cesc does. They can be creative, show great vision and creativity with simple passes... I disagree about the tighter games statement, the pass for Schurrle, he was pressed by two or three players (can't remember) and another one it was the same (the pass to Costa at 4:45). The problem with Oscar is consistency and turning glimpses of vision and creative into a normal occurrence. I don't think he has a problem to pass in tighter games. I think he has a problem carrying on form. He has one great match, then a quiet one, then he goes a couple of months playing really well, then a few months playing badly. He needs consistency and confidence to keep rinsing and repeating performances such as against Sporting. While he's no ace holding possession and passing in tight spaces, I don't see him incapable of doing it. He can protect the ball really well and he can pass under pressure. He just doesn't do it consistently.

No, Mata doesn't fit an English team unless the team is set up around him, it has nothing to do with Mourinho. Why he's on verge of being sold by United and barely made a difference at their side since he's there? He's suitable for another style, English league isn't the one for him. Even with all the amazing things he brings to the team, he also brings incredible liabilities. We've been through this discussion many times, and tbh, I'm not interested in having it again. We can agree to disagree.