Closed Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea

[sodasys 40]

Since when does a shot on goal equal a goal though? Teams who score 4 goals in a game usually get at 8, 9 shots on goal. Nobody's that clinical.

except Atletico Madrid thanks for having that FALCAO

[Funkyflashman 187]

Massive win. And nice to see Robbie being a bit more adventurous with his team selection, our band of number 10's will soon be all-conquering!

Onwards and upwards!

[Thor 2,122]

Mata may have got a goal and an assist in the game, but do people here really think he was better than Torres and Hazard on the day? Hazard was the one completely controlling the middle of the ground for us, with help of course. Not a slight on Mata, since I really couldn't care less who the best was for us on the day, as long as we win, but I thought it was quite apparent that Hazard was the key in the middle and really dictating the play with his runs.

[ymalleb 14]

me personally think Oscar did a great job for being very hardworking. He chase every single ball which lead to Arsenal defense mess up few times and losing the ball to our player. In the game against Atletico this is where we didn't do and deservedly punish in style by Falcao & co. Pressure must be start from the high line, like what they did in Barca team. Oscar have a very good stamina ala Ramires, if he can put on some muscle to strengthen his body strength i presume he'll become one of the greatest AMF in EPL.

I concur the fact Hazard is the one who really dictating the game against Arsenal but seems running out of gas in later stage of the game.

[Drogzola 283]

I also felt Oscar worked extremely hard, tracking back and getting in the way all the time. I voted Rami as he was really good except for his very first pass . I see good things in the future for Chelsea and lets hope this team can build into a real force not only in England but in Europe ( Consistently). Otherwise it was a great team effort.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

I thought Rambo was pretty immense myself. I feel some of us are still underrating him.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Oscar did the dirty job that we couldn't do against athletico madrid. Marking the playmakers so he helped just like with pirlo. His passing accuracy was still among the best in the match.

Arteta averaged 95 touches per game before chelsea and oscar reduced it to 64. That's how chelsea could keep possesion and reduce arsenal chances.

The only thing left is

1. more cohesion between oscar-mata-hazard,

2. better runs from the counter attacks, and

3. more positive holding of the ball from torres without losing it everytime

and we will have a playing system finally.

[Tricky 301]

Nice post from 'Arsenal Maniacs':

IMO CFC were set out tactically to nullify our 3 role CMs to stop us playing through the middle to attack the front of the 'D', & allow/encourage us to play from the flanks in the final 3rd.

Unless we play Giroud then our CF role is all about movement ahead of the ball through the middle to create space for the likes of Podolski & Cazorla to exploit. However when we are forced wide then the movement is negated & we lack a genuine presence in the area until we bring on Giroud.

As such CFC achieved exactly that & did so playing with the ball on the ground. Their 3 behind Torres were far better at holding the ball & controlling possession in the attacking 3rd than we were.

We were forced to make 20 crosses in the 1st half alone (which is a handful less than for the entire game v Saints), but less than a handful actually got beyond the first defender.

As for JT being excellent - about the same measure IMO as the 2 soft goals we gifted them = he was only any good because we didn't put him under any pressure as we were unable to get at their CBs down the middle or to attack the channels.

Likewise our transition in attack was so pedestrian that CFC were able to set along the edge of the area & in general were not required t turn & chase anything - unlike our defence that was caught high a few times - hence the FKs that led to the goals.

That said CFC did not come here to do anything other than to stop us playing, and anything beyond a point was a bonus for them. The didn't come to kill the game, but they were more concerned with stopping us as opposed to playing their 'normal' game.

Some would say that they didn't look to impose their game upon us, and yet tactically that's exactly what they did"

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

It was a good performance. I like how RDM has adjusted his tactics, in our first few games he tried to achieve defensive balance by using a defensisive winger and sitting deeper, but now(including Stoke and Wolves game) we are pressing with much more intensity and higher up the pitch. I like the new appraoch, our team pressing will get better as the season go on.

I thought we were sloppy on the ball at times, but nothing to worry about.

Most concerning thing for me was how disjointed midfield and defense were in our buildup. Would like to see Ramires, Mikel, and even Oscar to drop deeper to recieve and collect the ball from CB. I don't like how seperated the two sets are, it creates a lack of passing options when were are trying build attacks. With the exception of our poor buildups at times in the game can't see too much negative.

Also really liked the blue socks, it looked great with this season kits.

The problem with that is that our attackers and midfielders press but our back line plays deep so there is always a gap between the lines, we'll have to play a much higher line if we wish to actually improve our pressing, which means less and less JT.