Closed Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea

[didierforever 7,349]

Did you hear Ivan speak??? Did you hear Mourinho?? We think of it as a must-win if we want to win the league, You got it wrong say I was wrong and that's that

did u see us play??? did u see the tactics mou used,. did u see the sub he made at the end. this was NOT a must-win game. arsenal now have to play against whu (away) while city play pool which means very possible that 3 or 2 of the 3 teams above us will drop points. it was more important to keep arsenal in a results' reach rather than letting them go 5 points ahead..

and for the case. YOU GOT IT WRONG. THAT'S THAT.

[Azpinator 2,325]

It was somewhat cowardly of Jose to take out Hazard and not give Mata a shot, we were the better team.

[Weckerz 3,781]

good result. i dont know what all this pessimism is here, but this is a good point. we kept a clean sheet and got a draw at the home of a fellow title contender. brilliant defensive performance. JT was outstanding. azpi was great. mikel was phenomenol in the first half. but our front 3 bottled it bad. nonetheless 2 points of the top with 1st and 3rd playing in 2 days' time and either one or both of them going to drop points... its a brilliant situation to be in.

cech - good performance. great save off giroud in the end. dint have much else to do though. 7/10

iva - got caught a few times in possesion but was good defensively. 7/10

cahill - decent performance. but again he got bullied by giroud in air balls. a lot of times giroud just simply held him off to let ozil, walcott make runs behind him. 7/10

JT- MOTM. no doubt about it. just fabulous. his positioning is out-of-the-world. but i still dont know what happened on the last corner. it seemed he would get his head on the ball but suddenly let it go. 9/10

azpi - really good performance. intercepted the ball plenty of times and dint let walcott's pace be a harm for him. 8/10

mikel - was absolutely phenomenol in the first half hour /forst half. simply bossed the mid but went awol in the 2nd half. 8/10

lamps - good performance. did a nice job on ozil. was physical and showed ozil who is the boss. also got ahead very well. should have scored amd was very unlucky not to. 8/10

rambo - a few sloppy passes aside, he was brilliant. did the bull work to perfection. arteta got owned by him today. 8/10

willian - great workrate, but really poor decision making in the last 3rd again. he took the shot with rambo and torres free at the far post and too a weak shot, and his pass to hazard/rambo in the other 4 on 3 was a nothing pass. 6/10

hazard - pathetic. horrible. lost the ball almost every bloody time it touched him. a couple of times he tried to take 10 arsenal players on, rest of the times he invited sagna to make a tackle rather than take the initiative and simply run at him. he was supposed to be the game-changer today but instead he was the flop of the match for me. 4/10

torres - amazing workrate. wona lot of aerial duels to get others involved. full of running. well thats all their was to say about him. he dint get a sniff cos we dint create. 7/10

subs -

schurrle- could not impose himself. arsenal were really on top of us when he came in and we simply dint get any oppurtunities. but he SHOULD be starting games ahead of hazard as a LW.

oscar - forst 3 touches, all to the opposition. another rusty performance. after a brilliant start to the season, he has simply been poor to average since his injury and it is hurting us cos the team was made around his workrate.

luiz - i honestly thought he was goiung to score. but not to be.

Agree for the most part, but what is it with you and your overly harsh criticism for Hazard? The forum was stunned by his sub yet you think he was our worst player and flop of the day.

He was our only threat going forward and was excellent defensively. Somethings off mate

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Good point away from home, I didn't find the game boring, chances both ends. In fact it was quite pleasing to see that we can actually defend when Chelsea feels like it.

[Sheva. 5,373]

We have to beat Swansea on Thursday now, we could be ahead of Man city and/or Liverpool depending on their result.

The next few months really going to be interesting. Like Edetarod said, for a change we're actually still in the race around this time.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Where's the MOM poll?

Ooops! I knew I was forgetting something!

[wiefisoichiro 12]

Still complaining after sunderland defeat? I don' t think so, we could hold arsenal in emirates. Ozil who?

[zolayes 14,489]

Good point away from home, I didn't find the game boring, chances both ends. In fact it was quite pleasing to see that we can actually defend when Chelsea feels like it.

why can I only give that ONE rep ???

[haranr 485]

did u see us play??? did u see the tactics mou used,. did u see the sub he made at the end. this was NOT a must-win game. arsenal now have to play against whu (away) while city play pool which means very possible that 3 or 2 of the 3 teams above us will drop points. it was more important to keep arsenal in a results' reach rather than letting them go 5 points ahead..

and for the case. YOU GOT IT WRONG. THAT'S THAT.

NO!!!!!!!!!! IVAN SAID BEFORE THE GAME THAT THEY WANTED TO WIN THIS BAD. ALSO GARY CAHILL AND TERRY ADDED AFTER THE MATCH THAT IT WAS INTENTED TO BE A MUST-WIN. MOURINHO CHICKENED OUT AND HE WAS WRONG LIKE EVERYBODY THINKS!! YOU GOT IT WRONG. THAT'S THAT! (u gotta love the ending man,

[didierforever 7,349]

Agree for the most part, but what is it with you and your overly harsh criticism for Hazard? The forum was stunned by his sub yet you think he was our worst player and flop of the day.

He was our only threat going forward and was excellent defensively. Somethings off mate

as i wrote, i expected him to be the game changer. but he was poor today. even by normal standards. he dint get any purchase against sagna/gibbs. lost the ball ample amounts of time. not a performance that u would associate with a player who u would have pinned all your hopes on.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

I dunno. We have had quite a few managers and the most effective way we play is and has been for a while defensively.

So we are a whole club is just cursed then, to eternity playing defensive football. Carlo done it in 09-10, RDM done it for the first 2 months of last season, Rafa did for some games toward the end of last season. Some time I really wish we would have signed the likes of Pep, Martinez or Rodgers, only then we would know if our team can play attacking football or not

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Dont take it personally but some people have to understand that Jose \ any other manager for that matter is no magician.

IT TAKES TIME to build a team around certain tactics and mentallity, especially a team like us who doesnt have a system, changes managers all the time etc.

But time is a luxury thing here though, Martinez had Everton playing attacking football after like 5 matches, Pellegrini had City playing it straight away, so it is possible, especially with the players we have.

[darrus 422]

Why cant we be this focused and organised against the shitty teams? ...

Exactly my thoughts for the duration of the match. Solid defensively, and if Lamps had more luck in 1st half and had better shot in the 2nd this defence could have gotten us a win. As it is, it kept us 2 points off the top and very much in it.

Now watch us go and let in 3 or 4 against Swansea

[Weckerz 3,781]

as i wrote, i expected him to be the game changer. but he was poor today. even by normal standards. he dint get any purchase against sagna/gibbs. lost the ball ample amounts of time. not a performance that u would associate with a player who u would have pinned all your hopes on.

Except he wasn't poor at all but I'm not gonna argue further, protip: don't use the sunderland game as a benchmark.

[Chels 238]

So basically we are AFRAID of them?

Afraid is a bit strong.

But don't you think they have been playing better than us ? And bar the Man City result have hit their peak so more of the inform team ?

I mean Wenger's had god knows how many seasons to gel a team...

Jose's not stupid, he knows that to get a point at the Emirates we will still be in reaching distance and he will still have time to get it right.

His tactics were spot on imo.

[didierforever 7,349]

NO!!!!!!!!!! IVAN SAID BEFORE THE GAME THAT THEY WANTED TO WIN THIS BAD. ALSO GARY CAHILL AND TERRY ADDED AFTER THE MATCH THAT IT WAS INTENTED TO BE A MUST-WIN. MOURINHO CHICKENED OUT AND HE WAS WRONG LIKE EVERYBODY THINKS!! YOU GOT IT WRONG. THAT'S THAT! (u gotta love the ending man,

they HAVE TO SAY THAT. WHAT ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO SAY "we came here for a draw against our biggest rial and even lined up in a way that had a draw written over it",,, IS THAT WHAT U WANT THEM TO SAY. BELIVE WHAT U SEE. I SAW A TEAM WHO FROM THE START TO THE END CAME OUT TO PLAY A DRAW OR NICK THE MATCH WITH AN ODD-GOAL IN A COUNTER.

AND WHO THINKS HE WAS WRONG. ALL I HEAR IS MICHAEL OWEN AND ANDY TOWNSEND AND RAY WILKINS SAYING THAT JOSE GOT THE TACTICS RIGHT AND MUST BE THE HAPPIER MANAGER. people on here are happy with the draw. the worst thing is even after watching the bloody match u think we played it like a must-win. UNBELIEVABLE.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

It was somewhat cowardly of Jose to take out Hazard and not give Mata a shot, we were the better team.

Yeah but the draw was a better result for us and it started to show in the players attitude regardless of the sub, imo.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Can't believe some of the comments on here....but there from the people you expect so maybe I should've be surprised.

We looked defensively weak in recent weeks and were going away to a good team. We looked strong today and created the better chances on the break. What the fuck has anyone got to moan about. That's not even taking into account the conditions today.

We're two points off the top having gone away to Old Trafford, Goodison Park, White Hart Lane and the Emirates. We showed some real fight and spirit tonight and this sets us up well for the rest of the Christmas period.

People moaning about us adopting these tactics today can quite frankly fuck off in my opinion.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

First Chelsea game I watched this season. Very happy that I haven't watched any more. Have lost interest in football altogether. Summary of this game is lots of diving by both sides and negative tactics from Mourinho.

Glad to get rid of pretenders like you claiming to support us.

[Rmpr 8,977]

We have to beat Swansea on Thursday now, we could be ahead of Man city and/or Liverpool depending on their result.

The next few months really going to be interesting. Like Edetarod said, for a change we're actually still in the race around this time.

I have been saying this since August: whoever finishes January in first will win the league.