Closed Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
POST-MATCH DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS



2015/16 Community Shield
2nd August, Sunday, 2015
Wembley Stadium
15:00 Kick Off (UK time)

[Laylabelle 9,536]

Had to happen some point and can't say shocked at all.least it wasn't by a stupid scoreline..onto next week.

[Viper22 2,418]

So we lost. Not the greatest performance (Remy, Ivan and Azpi were all notably poor) and the finishing from Ramires and Hazard was shocking.

Not too much to worry about, we've lost now and for the season ahead it means nothing, we're still the best team in the league and no glorified friendly is going to change that.

Arsenal were as average as us tbh, created no clear cut chances at all, we fluffed both of ours and their goal came from a little bit of magic, both teams were poor.

Cech had a great game, hope Roman knows that anything good Cech does for them is on him, not Mourinho.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

we almost always lose the community shield and i fucking don't get why we can't get our shit together early on even if it is against a great rival. I fucking hate losing to arseanl and i hate even more that it was so clear from the very beginning we would lose this match and there was never anything we could do about this.

[Eidur the Spider 4,515]

Holy fuck is this thread gonna be dramatic. Time to bounce....but before I do...

KURT FUCKING ZOUMA AT LEFT BACK. Jack of all trades. :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

Laters

[nono 791]

Oscar and Zouma should have started. Ramires should be nowhere near our starting XI. Matic has to be faster in attack or should be replaced. Falcao is as good as playing with 10 men and Azpi is probably on his way to being dropped.

[empire of emotions 247]

good defeat. now we 'have' to bring in some players.

[Mechromancer 262]

Our reality, pretty much. And we don't improve, sad.

[laeth 527]

Out come the flappers.

[Kieran. 6,317]

Meh. Sucks, but on to the next one. Wenger still hasn't beaten Mourinho in a game that matters.

[Leif 6,006]

WE DONT WANT YOUR MICKEY MOUSE TROPHY, WE AREN'T DISNEY

[CMS 382]

Roman needs to stay out of football matters.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Well Wenger still can't beat Jose in PL

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

In addition to some other stuff, I posted this in the match thread at half-time. I was true then, it is true now and it's been true for months now, even years, depending on how you choose to look at it. That's why I simply can't be upset by this game or the way we played.

What have we seen so far that we DIDN'T see in the 2nd half of the season? Or for majority of the 2013/14 season? Against big sides, specifically in the CL?

* Is it hopeful lobs to no one in particular? Or wingers playing as fullbacks, spending more time in the opposition half?

* Or 3-4 passes in our "built attacks" then a player hoofing it to no one in particular? Or passing it to Ivanovic to cross the ball to no one in particular? Or ZERO shots on target for over 70 minutes?

* Or Ramires being an automatic, unjustified starter? Or Hazard receiving the ball in bad positions, before being crowded out?

I can go on. Gone are the days we actually play well in both halves. When we do well in one half, the team becomes defensive in the other or vice versa.

This was all predictable to anyone who knows quite a bit about football and the history of Jose Mourinho, the manager. No signs of practicing organised attacks, instead a brief period of dominance then an overreliance on individual brilliance of 1 player. Whether it's Drogba, Milito, Ronaldo, now Hazard. When the team became "defense + Hazard" for the 2nd season in a row, I knew we were headed in the wrong direction.

We all wanted to blame it on "fatigue", but that was only part of the problem. The bulk of our problems lies at the feet of the manager. The technical quality of most of our players has gone down the drain. We now rely on instictive talents of our attackers to win us games instead of anything coached on the training ground. That might work against smaller, weaker teams, but against stronger sides, it won't.

I know many people in this thread will start blaming individuals again, I won't because I know better. Our players are MUCH better than they have shown today. I know what they are all capable of and I know why they've played the way they did today. I refuse to blame any of them.

I'm not that surprised Roman has failed to back Mourinho in the transfer market. Signings will have been a temporary solution to a permanent problem. We will be lucky to scape 3rd place this season. CL? forget about it. At the first sight of a big team, we will park the bus and be humiliated again like against PSG and Atletico. We might win the FA cup, but that's about it. Time to wake up. This team is already on the decline under this manager.

[mediator 2,026]

Matic, Willian were really good

[dmode 113]

This was actually one of the better performances in a big game for a while. We should have scored a couple of times. My biggest concerns are our forwards. They look in dire shape. And Azpi looks out of form. Two games in a row he has conceded

[MefiX19 1,092]

For all of those who calling this just friendly, it's not, it's Arsenal they are our city rivals, every game against Arsenal is not friendly, even if we played in emirates cup.

[xPetrCechx 13,573]

Thanks to jose and the lads for this birthday present.

[Azul 1,615]

Jose shouldn't have talked trash before the game lol. I'm not even mad though it just wasn't our day.

It was very weird that we didn't give a shit until the 80th min.

[Pizy 18,952]

Didn't play poorly at all. Quite the opposite, really. We outplayed them for the most part.

Just couldn't finish some easy chances.

Positives: Matic was a beast, Courtois was a wall, CB pairing weren't troubled too much, Willian started well, Cesc grew into the match.

Negatives: Ramires, Ivanovic, our backup strikers, and our general lack of creativity in the final third.

WE NEED A COUPLE OF SIGNINGS STILL! But I doubt we'll make any attacking signings at all so we better get used to this if Hazard and Cesc are struggling.