🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Frank Lampard

[ZaynChelsea 423]

Stop it with Arteta. They can play it out at the back but that‘s it. There is nothing about Arsenal that scares me and Arteta is just too much hype. Brutally overrated.

[Tomo 21,751]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

You're not answering the question. 

Brought through & believed in a stream of young players which has (a) saved us millions in the long term (b) given others in the academy belief there is a pathway where there wasn't before (c) beefed up our squad depth considerably.

Like AVB has frozen plenty of players out, but unlike AVB has managed to get responses out of them, e.g. Giroud, Pulisic, Zouma, etc... goes in tandem with the fact there's no stories about any unrest in the camp.

Roman believes in him & so have high profile signings like Havertz, Werner, etc... it takes a lot of people to make deals like that happen. If players like Havertz, who'd of had the world at his feet in 12 months, comes to Chelsea in 2020 you can be sure Lampard had a positive hand in it.

The media like him. There's very few negative stories about us in general atm which helps the players stay on point (easy reason to dismiss, but more important than people think).

For all the defensive & set piece issues, some of the attacking play last season was fantastic, and despite not clicking into gear yet we've still score 13 goals in 5 matches. Come early next year we'll be wrecking teams once the fluidity's there.

I have my doubts on whether he can take us to the next level himself, but i have no doubt that worse case he's left a fantastic platform for someone who can (ala Ranieri to Mou).

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

50 minutes ago, Tomo said:

But wasn't that similar with Emery at the start? Everyone got kiddy because he wasn't Wenger.

Arteta has basically stripped any creativity in this Arsenal side to try and make them look more solid and as i said it hasn't really worked, they may not concede 10 plus chances a game like they did under Emery but they are still heavily reliant on last season Martinez and now Leno to pull them through.

Their defense still looks pretty poor when you consider what's been sacrafised the other way, the two times we abandoned attack structure to focus on defense last season (Liverpool and City at home) we looked more solid.

I think at the start he improved the structure of Arsenal again but then it fell away as we all seen. They were getting like 1 shot on target and drawing 0-0 or conceding stupid goals etc. 

Wouldn't say that he has stripped the side of all creativity but he has made them more rigid and they are more stubborn in terms of playing his way or not at all in the build up. They aren’t creating a lot of chances I will agree with you on that but think that again, Arsenals key creative players over the years have been guys like Mesut Ozil who wont be involved now, Ramsey and Sanchez who are gone. Pepe is more of a goalscorer. Willian as we know very inconsistent and produced only his best season statistically last season so I don’t necessarily think they were blessed with huge amounts of creativity before with Emery either.

They still have issues in defence but Rob Holding and David Luiz aren’t any use for a club wanting to be successful. Gabriel is good, still adapting obviously but he will improve and having watched Tierney since he was making his way at Celtic and playing for the NT, I think he is more than good enough but has probably not started this season as well as he finished last season. I don’t know if they will keep this 343 that seems to go to a 433 in possession. Arteta strikes me as a guy who will want to be like Guardiola or maybe a better comparison Louis Van Gaal, very much his way or no way, stubborn, he will be a 433 or 4231 guy more than likely eventually but probably realises he can't do it with that defence although they seem to go to that in possession.

He is overhyped I do think that but think the same could also be said of a lot of the managers in these bigger clubs like Frank, Ole and Arteta in particular. I just think the ideas of what he wants his team to do and the effect he has had is clearer to see. 

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Brought through & believed in a stream of young players which has (a) saved us millions in the long term (b) given others in the academy belief there is a pathway where there wasn't before (c) beefed up our squad depth considerably.

Like AVB has frozen plenty of players out, but unlike AVB has managed to get responses out of them, e.g. Giroud, Pulisic, Zouma, etc... goes in tandem with the fact there's no stories about any unrest in the camp.

Roman believes in him & so have high profile signings like Havertz, Werner, etc... it takes a lot of people to make deals like that happen. If players like Havertz, who'd of had the world at his feet in 12 months, comes to Chelsea in 2020 you can be sure Lampard had a positive hand in it.

The media like him. There's very few negative stories about us in general atm which helps the players stay on point (easy reason to dismiss, but more important than people think).

For all the defensive & set piece issues, some of the attacking play last season was fantastic, and despite not clicking into gear yet we've still score 13 goals in 5 matches. Come early next year we'll be wrecking teams once the fluidity's there.

I have my doubts on whether he can take us to the next level himself, but i have no doubt that worse case he's left a fantastic platform for someone who can (ala Ranieri to Mou).

Not gonna disagree but was talking about playing style, Tomo. What is our identity? What is our playing style? What are we trying to be on the pitch?

[Tomo 21,751]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Not gonna disagree but was talking about playing style, Tomo. What is our identity? What is our playing style? What are we trying to be on the pitch?

Trying to be direct possession based side something inbetween City and Liverpool (hence last season we didn't have less possession in a PL match until City at home), when it works it's really good (first half yesterday) but at the moment Lampard's a bit raw with his decision making re selections and subs which can halt our momentum. 

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

Trying to be direct possession based side something inbetween City and Liverpool (hence last season we didn't have less possession in a PL match until City at home), when it works it's really good (first half yesterday) but at the moment Lampard's a bit raw with his decision making re selections and subs which can halt our momentum. 

If only our problems were down to dodgy selections and subs.

[Puliiszola 519]

4 hours ago, Tomo said:

Maybe we were dominated by BHA but how many games last season did that happen in reverse? Apparently only the result mattered then.

The fact that Palace created all those chances at OT with 20% possession proves my point, why would they refuse to (counter) attack a side when they had so much success vs a side with a better defensive record that also finished above us a mere fortnight before?

Not for me, I have been a staunch supporter of FL, but tell me what is there to support now?

I would rather have the 4-0 performance in the defeat to United than this shit show that we are playing this season. We don't have a system, we don't have tactical awareness. Its just going bad to worse.

As for palace, of course, they won't change the way they played successfully. But that's what my point is. Any team that tries to take the initiative and take us on, wins the battle. I can see us struggling massively this season because except for Burnley, whu, Newcastle and palace, I don't know any team that would simply sit passively. 

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, ZaynChelsea said:

LOL @ the people here laughing at Mourinho being a dinosaur and past it. He seems to have sorted out Spurs for the time being and I rate them higher atm than ourselves.

Our greenhorn isn‘t past it - he never reached it. Mourinho still won the league with us being past it. Lamps only spends without any positive outcome.

This hasn't aged very well. 

[ZaynChelsea 423]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

This hasn't aged very well. 

If you see the similarities between Spurs and us, I‘m sorry.

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, ZaynChelsea said:

If you see the similarities between Spurs and us, I‘m sorry.

I don't but it still doesn't make that post any less funny.  

[ZaynChelsea 423]

18 minutes ago, Mana said:

unfortunately we seem to struggle to beat Arteta so far

We seem to struggle to beat anyone

[Tomo 21,751]

31 minutes ago, Mana said:

The thing is...unfortunately we seem to struggle to beat Arteta so far. Hopefully this changes this season but I doubt it if we continue to concede the way we have been doing.

Yes we won our first encounter, but that was Arteta's first home game in charge and even then it took a slice of luck to win it.

Do I think Arteta is going to finish above us? I don't know. That's the problem. I should say no he won't, but I'm not too sure now simply because of Lampard and this team keep disappointing me with these results.

On paper we should be above them, but just going on paper is never the case.

If you want to bring up the "slice of luck" with The Emirates what about the fact they picked up a point at SB due to Kante slipping and a speculative shot bubbling in during a match they were otherwise camped in their own 3rd?

[Jase 43,479]

Oh boy. Here we go again...

[NikkiCFC 8,319]

Not sure I can even take him seriously after all these crazy team selection mistakes he repeats all over again...

[NikkiCFC 8,319]

ROSS IN YOUR FACE CLOWN!

[Jase 43,479]

If we lose to Sevilla and Man United, things might start to get really "interesting"...

[Tomo 21,751]

A quick note re the defense.

Villa were the 2nd worst defense in the league last season and now with a new keeper addition are arguably the best with the same defenders, Liverpool (previously the world's best defensive unit) have declined to a parody since Alisson has been crocked even with VVD.  

I think people underestimate the difference Mendy will make if he's as much as competant. No it won't suddenly make us flawless before anyone says it but he will make a huge difference.

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

Think Roman and the board would be lining up replacements if that were to happen. 
 

Our spending this season is heavily reliant by finishing in the top 4 regularly. 

[Jase 43,479]

3 minutes ago, Tomo said:

A quick note re the defense.

Villa were the 2nd worst defense in the league last season and now with a new keeper addition are arguably the best with the same defenders, Liverpool (previously the world's best defensive unit) have declined to a parody since Alisson has been crocked even with VVD.  

I think people underestimate the difference Mendy will make if he's as much as competant. No it won't suddenly make us flawless before anyone says it but he will make a huge difference.

OR maybe, they are defending better. Villa have allowed only 30 shots inside the box, which is the 7th lowest so far this season, and their xG conceded is 4.07, which is the second lowest so far this season.

[Tomo 21,751]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

OR maybe, they are defending better. Villa have allowed only 30 shots inside the box, which is the 7th lowest so far this season, and their xG conceded is 4.07, which is the second lowest so far this season.

Yeah but what's the more likely conclusion, Martinez has made a difference or Dean Smith has suddenly become a good defensive coach? Martinez isn't even making that many saves compared to Arsenal at the back end of last season but you can hear him shouting and organizing. Hopefully Mendy has a similar effect and the early sample size (1 conceded in his 2 games and i think only 3 saves needed to be made outside of that) is promising. Mendy, like Martinez, could shave of a high number of goals just by the fact the defense trust him more.