Closed Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea

[Magic Lamps 11,453]

Well at least this season we will get to see some youth players play since we haven't signed anyone.... Oh wait

lol. I think before we see a youth player fielded regularly we will see one of our 19(!) senior player collapsing from fatigue.

[Viper22 2,418]

Now if this happens, then my faith will grow massively. But as it stands, nope. No one here can convince me we are gonna win the double let alone winning the league comfortably.

We need new players. If the preseason's performances and results don't tell you anything, then I don't know what will. And don't give me that, "It's preseason! Of course we are supposed to play like shit!" I mean that's a very good indicator that we'll smash the league right?

Well even if we don't and we just sign Baba I still feel like we have the strength to retain the league. We don't need to win the league comfortably. We don't need to win the double. Retaining the league is and should always be our no.1 priority.

As for pre-season. The results seriously do mean nothing dude.

2004-05 we won 2 and lost 2. We won the league.

2005-06 we won 2 and drew 1. We won the league.

2008-09 we won 4 and drew 2. We finished 3rd in the league.

2009-10 we won 4 and drew 1. We won the league.

2010-11 we beat Palace 1-0 then lost to Ajax, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Man Utd in the CS. We finished 2nd in the league.

2011-12 we won 7/7 pre season games and won the Barclay's Asia trophy. We finished 6th in the league.

2012-13 we won 1, drew 1 and lost 3 pre season games. We finished 3rd in the league.

2013-14 we won 7 and lost 1. We finished 3rd in the league.

2014-15 we won 7, drew 1 and lost 2. We won the league.

2015-16 we have drawn 2 (technically won 2 if you count penalties) and lost 2.

There is no real pattern that I can see there. Our worst pre season was 10-11 when we finished 2nd and our best was 11-12 when we finished 6th.

[OneMoSalah 8,615]

Arsenal did to us what we've been doing to them for years. Soaking up pressure, not being particularly good and winning. We need a top LB to push Azpi and also another central midfielder, big fan of Ramires but think its time he goes or plays less frequently. Selling Filipe Luis, a Brazilian international and top left back and looking to sign some 20 year old Ghanian who had one decent season in the Bundesliga is so stupid its unbelievable. Azpi was poor today but if we had another guy like Luis, who is a top player, he could of replaced him. Cech had a good game but still not as worried about selling him as much as Luis. Verdicts still out on Falcao.

People can say it was a glorified friendly or not but at the end of the day its another trophy and I would of preferred we won it and not them. Simple as that.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Arsenal did to us what we've been doing to them for years. Soaking up pressure, not being particularly good and winning. We need a top LB to push Azpi and also another central midfielder, big fan of Ramires but think its time he goes or plays less frequently. Selling Filipe Luis, a Brazilian international and top left back and looking to sign some 20 year old Ghanian who had one decent season in the Bundesliga is so stupid its unbelievable. Azpi was poor today but if we had another guy like Luis, who is a top player, he could of replaced him. Cech had a good game but still not as worried about selling him as much as Luis. Verdicts still out on Falcao.

People can say it was a glorified friendly or not but at the end of the day its another trophy and I would of preferred we won it and not them. Simple as that.

Sure...

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Pedro + Decent CM and we have a chance... imo...

[Sheva. 5,373]

This game is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it was the same problems from last season with the same dumb XI (plus or minus Costa).

Few chances created, opposition GK rarely threatened, too narrow defensively and offensively..

[Viper22 2,418]

'If we sign Baba'...that defeats on what I'm saying here. I said if we don't sign anybody, we will struggle hard. But I still want Pedro as well, if we ever get him I promise you he will make a difference.

And apart from the 10-11 preseason, at least we won a preseason match. We are like one loss away from this preseason being the 2nd worst. But yes, you can say it means nothing...so we have to wait until the Swansea game next week before we officially know and become like Wenger and do last minute panic buys?

I swear down, I would have kept my mouth shut throughout this preseason (well probably not today because I loathe Arsenal and I hate losing to them) and probably be one of those guys that says "It's only preseason dude!"...if I didn't continuously see woeful performance after woeful performance ever since the Swansea game last season.

Today's game is nothing short of a disappointment across all boards. Because I know Chelsea can do better than that. And we have been waiting since Feb.

I'm not looking for tiki-taka football, but I'm looking for that Chelsea we had before in late 2014. You cannot tell me this Chelsea is the best Chelsea we had over these past months. If we lost today but saw a massive performance from every Chels player out there, then I wouldn't be this disappointed. It's the performance that drives me up the wall because again, I know Chelsea can perform much much better than this. We got to stop underperforming. That's all I ask.

Well yeah if we don't sign any defenders then i'll agree we're in trouble cos we'll have 5 players for 4 positions. Well yeah I want Witsel, Stones, Baba and Reus and they're all pretty attainable considering we have so much money atm. But we might just have to deal with just 1 more defender. (Btw I can't see us not signing another defender cos that would just be suicide.

You're mistaking what i've said. Preseason results mean nothing. The performances of certain players do as you can see how they're doing. And on the basis of that we do definitely need signings in pretty much every position but even if we only sign Baba I will be confident that we can retain the league and I am 99.99% sure we will sign Baba so therefore like I said - i'm confident we can win the league again. And as for the panic buy thing - The season starts on the 8th August. Even if we only then realise we need players we'll still have nearly a month to do so. Hardly last minute panic buying.

As for our style of play I guess I can just hope that we step it up once the season starts. Let's see how we do against Swansea next week, if we blow them away then I bet all of this will be forgotten. If we struggle and don't win then questions can start to be asked.

I agree regarding the underperforming btw, i'm not happy watching Mikel pass sideways every time he gets the ball, Ramires being incapable of passing a ball 6 yards in any direction and Ivanovic's twice weekly brain farts. I get that it's frustrating because it annoys me too. But it doesn't change the fact that we're still the best team in the league. Would you rather deal with Ivan starting and Mikel and Ramires on the bench or Mertesacker, Coquelin and Walcott/Giroud starting? Smalling, Jones and Young starting. Demichelis, Fernandinho and Navas starting. Other teams have far bigger problems than we do.

[boshman 1,073]

A truly woeful football match from both sides imo. Next to no goalmouth action. Passing was terrible, set pieces were terrible, dribbling was terrible.

Oh well.... Annoying result yes, but the serious stuff begins next week.

[yuvala 2,167]

This game is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it was the same problems from last season with the same dumb XI (plus or minus Costa).

Few chances created, opposition GK rarely threatened, too narrow defensively and offensively..

My thoughts exactly.

I dont care about this stupid game, just the fact that we seem to still have the same problems.

[Stingray 9,441]

'If we sign Baba'...that defeats on what I'm saying here. I said if we don't sign anybody, we will struggle hard. But I still want Pedro as well, if we ever get him I promise you he will make a difference. We can't rely on Costa (injury prone), Remy (injury prone/shocker of getting offsides today), Falcao (still not his oldself) and Hazard (goes missing again and again).

And apart from the 10-11 preseason, at least we won a preseason match each year. We are like one loss away from this preseason being the 2nd worst. With NO win which is a first in the past decade. But yes, you can say it means nothing...so we have to wait until the Swansea game next week before we officially know and become like Wenger and do last minute panic buys?

I swear down, I would have kept my mouth shut throughout this preseason (well probably not today because I loathe Arsenal and I hate losing to them) and probably be one of those guys that says "It's only preseason dude!"...if I didn't continuously see woeful performance after woeful performance ever since the Swansea game last season.

Today's game is nothing short of a disappointment across all boards. Because I know Chelsea can do better than that. And we have been waiting since Feb.

I'm not looking for tiki-taka football, but I'm looking for that Chelsea we had before in late 2014. You cannot tell me this Chelsea is the best Chelsea we had over these past months. If we lost today but saw a massive performance from every Chels player out there, then I wouldn't be this disappointed. It's the performance that drives me up the wall because again, I know Chelsea can perform much much better than this. We got to stop underperforming. That's all I ask.

I agree on your ending. We should be more dominating. But your opener: 'we can't rely on Costa, Remy shocker, falcao old dude, Hazard invisible' is harsh imo.

Of course, we can and will be better. Performance will be ok, just it will always remain a catch22 regarding being beautiful all the time and grinding a long term team....

[Unionjack 7,531]

I'm sorry if this upsets anyone but I thought we were bad. I would love to see the stats for shots on goal. I think our lads have forgotten the point is to score goals not defend at all costs and I dont think its all their fault.

I could have made a list of the excuses we would come up with - and would have been right. This micky mouse trophy isn't only about a bit of silver and bragging rights its about a mindset for winning.

All the players should have done more. And as for someone saying he thought Rami was ok!!

I'm pissed off and pretty worried about our whole season.

Anyone else worried yet?

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Gotta say though, these are the kind of matches Arsenal never used to win. Not only today but really this pragmatic change started last season and makes them huge contenders for the title.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Same Squad, Same old problems...

& the pitch was awful & the sun...

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Gotta say though, these are the kind of matches Arsenal never used to win. Not only today but really this pragmatic change started last season and makes them huge contenders for the title.

They started to play like chelsea...

if u can't beat them, play like them...

[termninja 5,290]

Just watched it, I'm disappointed.

It was obvious our squad needs new additions, and you could see how much Jose had faith in Cuadrado when it really mattered, while Zouma had to play a LB. Hazard was absent, Willian had a decent first half, Remy was drunk or something.

I feel it was a equal game, except Arsenal were really good defansively (guess Petr brought confidence) and we haven't used our chances (Ramires, Hazard and Oscar fk). Had we scored one, I feel we would've won it.

One positive for me is Falcao, he seems very sharp, ready and his movement is great. Sadly there was barely anything for him today, but I'm really optimistic about him, especially now with Costa's fitness problems.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Class From Jose:

https://video.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xpf1/v/t42.1790-2/11843911_772450286206074_1108912126_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjk3MywicmxhIjo1MTJ9&rl=973&vabr=541&oh=46ea4b07bb95d813d138b21b01b19111&oe=55BE94BE

[cosmicway 1,258]

Dei di chrimaton o andres Athinaioi.

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

It was clear we're still in a pre-season. Tired legs and all this, I looked on the match and felt that everything was in slow-motion, weather didn't help either. It was clear plan by Mourinho to start pre-season later and give as much break to the players as possible. Loosing 6th Supercup match in the row isn't good though. I'm not fuming by this streak is very annoying and my frustration is only growing. Last Super Cup match we won was back in 2009, then we lost 2010 Community Shield, 2012 Community Shield, 2012 UEFA Supercup, 2012 Club World Cup, 2013 UEFA Supercup and now 2015 Community Shield. Are we even planning to win some Supercup games at all ? They are glorified friendlies but they counts as trophies anyway and many clubs, therefore fans, counts them and name them. Hopefully we will have another opportunity to end this series soon.

The game was very even. Very even. It's only piece of brilliance by OX that separates the two sides, we may as well put those Ramires and Hazard chances in the net and be ahead. It wasn't meant to be though. But I'm worry because Arsenal start to play tactical football. They will beat those small sides and can actually win against big boys as well. They are serious contenders, very serious, if one dismisses them is too cocky.

About us and how we stand, I can't get around this, it's crystal clear, more than that, that we need a ball-playing centre-back and quality midfielder as well as right winger. 3 positions, 3 players. I hope we win this all but if we won't don't look beyond this summer transfer window as a reason. How the hell we still try something with Ramires and Mikel as a solution I really don't know. Ramires was good btw and it was Fabregas who was really bad especially in the first half when there was still decent tempo to the game but CM is too much of an issue to overlook. We work something on Stones so things are in motion in this department but nothing about midfielder and right winger. And look how much faith Jose has in Cuadrado, when Moses is a better option in his eyes.

It's weird to accuse Jose that he does not see an obvious problems but so far we don't do things to solve them. I will wait till the last day of the transfer window.