closed Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

[zekinjo 449]

We have to realize that what Antonio did with this squad is beyond expectations. I keep reading how Matic is terrible and we need to upgrade his position. Yes we have to do that but look at our defense first. Beside Azpi we don't have (top) quality and reliable defender. 

[Pizy 18,918]

After having time to relax and think about that game now there are a few things that left a bad taste in my mouth after such a fantastic season.

Firstly the midfield. It's kind of scary how against several of the big sides this season Kante has been made to look very average. Against Spuds, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool he performed far below what we expect of him. Doesn't really bode well if we go against actual elite sides, does it? Games where you have to be very good technically.

Then there's the defense. Cahill is obviously being groomed as the JT captain replacement which makes me wonder if the club will even be in the market for a new, world class CB. Will Conte and the board just bench him after he captained us and started just about every game in a title winning season? Knowing us, they probably think we're all set in the CB position with Ake and Zouma. Then we get to the wingback positions where I feel Alonso & Moses are perfectly fine against about 80% of the PL but against the top sides and in the CL I think both have huge weaknesses. Alonso is so slow that opponents can easily blow right by him. Moses is just naive and positionally rash. We NEED doe th and quality there.

I guess I'm just very concerned and nervous about whether the club see what we see. After the last two summers where the manager didn't get what he wanted and what we needed, I have to see change to believe it. Until I see a couple signings I'll remain cautious.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

What to say after that? Gutted.

We were very, very poor in the first half. We certainly made Arsenal look good, though credit has to be given - they were truly excellent. They were the best team on the day and I can therefore have few complaints.

The nature of their first goal is very frustrating, of course, but we cannot use that as an excuse. They could - and should - have scored about 6 or 7 yesterday. That's how bad we were. There was no tactical masterclass by Wenger - their players simply wanted it more. Plain and simple.

A lot of Chelsea players were very poor yesterday. The only one who can be excused is Courtois (one or two super saves to keep the score moderately respectable). Pedro gave absolutely everything, too. Every other player seemingly forgot how to defend or pass the football yesterday. People will look at Cahill's "epic" goal-line clearances and think he had a good game, but positionally he was absolutely annihilated by Arsenal's front three. We can't cope with pace at all!

Moses deserved his yellow for diving, and I hope that decision serves as a reminder to players to stay on their feet. His decision to take a tumble cost us the game, in my opinion. 

Got to say we played so damned well with 10 men, we can at least take some solace from that fact! Costa woke up after the sending off and looked unplayable, very unlucky not to equalise for a second time. We didn't play as horrifically bad as people made out, but we weren't anywhere near good enough to compete at Arsenal's level yesterday. Xhaka and Ramsey dominated the midfield, and Ozil and Alexis simply toyed with us defensively. I've never seen us look so incapable of defending this season as we did yesterday. But, like I say, Arsenal were simply terrific. Credit to them. We'll get them back in the Community Shield! This does nothing to undermine our achievements this season. In the summer, I said I'd be happy with a cup run and a top three finish. We reached a cup final, and broke all kinds of records en route to sauntering to the Premier League title. Absolutely delighted with us in Conte's first season, and we'll only get better. This defeat could work in our favour, because it'll indicate to the board that we do most certainly need heavy investment in the summer. They may have had decent seasons this time round, but Alonso, Cahill, Matic and Moses shouldn't be anywhere near the starting XI next season.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Kane, Rashford and yesterday Wellbeck put anyone with pace and good movement and our defence struggles. I'm not going to go into any detail because frankly I can't be bothered but if they had taken all there chances it could have been a cricket score.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

4 minutes ago, Iggy Doonican said:

Kane, Rashford and yesterday Wellbeck put anyone with pace and good movement and our defence struggles. I'm not going to go into any detail because frankly I can't be bothered but if they had taken all there chances it could have been a cricket score.

430-9d? Sorry, but as a cricketer, I just utterly hate that analogy! "Like a hockey score" might be more appropriate.

That doesn't mean I disagree with you. We were lucky it was only 2-1 yesterday. How many times did they hit the post, 67?

[cosmicway 1,333]

The two goals scored by Arsenal were straight out of the dark ages.
In the first everybody stops and wave their hands in the air like the Hare Krishna boys do. Sanchez nips in and he says thank you very much.
In the second there are three men (Luiz-Alonso-Kante) who let Ramsay come though and score with ease.
Arsenal made some better moves than those two.

In the early minutes of the match I 'm sure that our players did n't expect the gooners to press and show that much speed.
They believed they were playing against a better version of Sunderland.

Then I watched Moses dive in replay many times.
Not only did he have a good chance to shoot but it was amateur behaviour, the stuff you might expect in a South Pacific league.
Leicester's Vardy last year when sent off did at least make a better effort and Oscar way back in 2014 against Southampton.
 

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

42 minutes ago, BlueLion. said:

430-9d? Sorry, but as a cricketer, I just utterly hate that analogy! "Like a hockey score" might be more appropriate.

That doesn't mean I disagree with you. We were lucky it was only 2-1 yesterday. How many times did they hit the post, 67?

You stumped me.

[mccg 1,528]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

After having time to relax and think about that game now there are a few things that left a bad taste in my mouth after such a fantastic season.

Firstly the midfield. It's kind of scary how against several of the big sides this season Kante has been made to look very average. Against Spuds, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool he performed far below what we expect of him. Doesn't really bode well if we go against actual elite sides, does it? Games where you have to be very good technically.

Then there's the defense. Cahill is obviously being groomed as the JT captain replacement which makes me wonder if the club will even be in the market for a new, world class CB. Will Conte and the board just bench him after he captained us and started just about every game in a title winning season? Knowing us, they probably think we're all set in the CB position with Ake and Zouma. Then we get to the wingback positions where I feel Alonso & Moses are perfectly fine against about 80% of the PL but against the top sides and in the CL I think both have huge weaknesses. Alonso is so slow that opponents can easily blow right by him. Moses is just naive and positionally rash. We NEED doe th and quality there.

I guess I'm just very concerned and nervous about whether the club see what we see. After the last two summers where the manager didn't get what he wanted and what we needed, I have to see change to believe it. Until I see a couple signings I'll remain cautious.

Christensen coming back also will give Conte more options but agree ,world class cb who can play on the left side of 3man defence needed , 1 box to box wc cm midfielder , wc striker maybe another winger and 2wb's  ? hope to see 4/5 big Conte  signings

[Stats 7,145]

4 hours ago, Pizy said:

After having time to relax and think about that game now there are a few things that left a bad taste in my mouth after such a fantastic season.

Firstly the midfield. It's kind of scary how against several of the big sides this season Kante has been made to look very average. Against Spuds, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool he performed far below what we expect of him. Doesn't really bode well if we go against actual elite sides, does it? Games where you have to be very good technically.

That is my worry too. We get outplayed all over the pitch because their technical dominance is greater than ours and sometimes it is actually scary. City, when we lost 3-1 we were outplayed all over the pitch at times as well but luck went on our side. I get he has had great season but their are big games, especially away from home where he looks out of hid depth because the lack of technical qualities compared to other players. I am not underestimating what he brings to the pitch as winning the ball back but there are games where if we continue to be outplayed like this, we are going to really be put to the sword. We need a player who can shield the ball, pass, have vision of whole pitch. A player similar to Verratti or Nainngolan although both seem it will be difficult to obtain, especially Verratti. This has happened in way too many big games as well which does worry me.

[Pizy 18,918]

10 minutes ago, Stats said:

That is my worry too. We get outplayed all over the pitch because their technical dominance is greater than ours and sometimes it is actually scary. City, when we lost 3-1 we were outplayed all over the pitch at times as well but luck went on our side. I get he has had great season but their are big games, especially away from home where he looks out of hid depth because the lack of technical qualities compared to other players. I am not underestimating what he brings to the pitch as winning the ball back but there are games where if we continue to be outplayed like this, we are going to really be put to the sword. We need a player who can shield the ball, pass, have vision of whole pitch. A player similar to Verratti or Nainngolan although both seem it will be difficult to obtain, especially Verratti. This has happened in way too many big games as well which does worry me.

This is why I wish Roman would do what United & City are doing/have done recently where if the manager absolutely must have a particular player they just pay whatever it takes to sign them. Mou wanted Pogba, boom £90m. Pep wanted Stones, KDB, Sterling, boom £50m each. Bernardo Silva, boom another £50m.

Just go to PSG and offer £70-80m for Verratti and make them say no or at least test the player himself. He's Italian, we have an Italian manager who knows him well, and he's made statements recently that he may want to leave there at some point. This is the sort of business we need to be doing. Proven, world class quality and not potential. We have a ridiculous amount of money available supposedly.

We can't have multiple games next season where an opponent can neutralize our entire team by simply marking Hazard out of the game or make our entire team cease to function by controlling the midfield. 

[laura90 556]

 The defeat is blessing in a way, because if we had won the double, the board might feel complacent and not see the need to sign as many quality players as this defeat has shown. We need early signings and be ready for what i feel will be a very difficult next season...... 6 teams will be fighting again for 4 spots and there will be very strong teams in the Champions league. With this team as it is, we maybe wouldn't even go trough the group stage. And I'm being serious. Make no mistake, not playing in Europa played it's role in our winning title this year, but next year it can help Arsenal if they ditch Europa league, and the season after it can help to any club that finish sixth from top six clubs.

I can't explain it, but we were successful during period when average group of players won the League. It won't be possible for a long because Mou and Pep will buy good teams eventually. We need to strengthen really bad and if anything convinced this board, it was this loss. Arsenal changed our fate with defeating us already, they will do that again. 

 

[Styles 9,790]

1 hour ago, Stats said:

That is my worry too. We get outplayed all over the pitch because their technical dominance is greater than ours and sometimes it is actually scary. City, when we lost 3-1 we were outplayed all over the pitch at times as well but luck went on our side. I get he has had great season but their are big games, especially away from home where he looks out of hid depth because the lack of technical qualities compared to other players. I am not underestimating what he brings to the pitch as winning the ball back but there are games where if we continue to be outplayed like this, we are going to really be put to the sword. We need a player who can shield the ball, pass, have vision of whole pitch. A player similar to Verratti or Nainngolan although both seem it will be difficult to obtain, especially Verratti. This has happened in way too many big games as well which does worry me.

We've been outplayed so many times this season I've lost count. And that's just the Premier League level. Lord knows what will happen in Europe next season.

We have technically deficient players all over the pitch. It's mind-blowing how much money we spend to end up with the players we do.

I was disappointed we lost yesterday but it was exactly what we needed. So many players got exposed on the big stage.

[cosmicway 1,333]

We played against Arsenal when they found their form of the season.
Spurs too in the semi but we had luck on our side.
We just failed to turn it around after an appalling start and I wonder what people would be writing here if we had won.
Granted that to face the likes of Madrid, Juve and Barca next season we need some big jobs. Otherwise forget it. We may do a little better than Spurs who went down unceremoniously to the likes of Monaco and MU who sh*tted in their pants against Celta de Vigo.
Re. English opposition I have no reasons to worry.
 

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, cosmicway said:

Spurs too in the semi but we had luck on our side.

Inclined to disagree. Yes, Spurs bossed lots of the possession (what's new against the big sides) but we did what we had to do and we competed. The same can't be said about yesterday and Courtois even suggested after the match that the players got complacent.

[cosmicway 1,333]

6 minutes ago, Jason said:

Inclined to disagree. Yes, Spurs bossed lots of the possession (what's new against the big sides) but we did what we had to do and we competed. The same can't be said about yesterday and Courtois even suggested after the match that the players got complacent.

 

I don't mean "luck" like them missing two penalties.
But things panned out for us the way we wanted and they did play a good game.

 

 

[Pizy 18,918]

6 minutes ago, Jason said:

Inclined to disagree. Yes, Spurs bossed lots of the possession (what's new against the big sides) but we did what we had to do and we competed. The same can't be said about yesterday and Courtois even suggested after the match that the players got complacent.

I agree. I hope next season we have the personnel ourselves to boss possession and dominate even the bigger sides. It's kind of annoying how we allow sides like Arse/Spuds/City/Liverpool etc have possession and we counter attack.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

I agree. I hope next season we have the personnel ourselves to boss possession and dominate even the bigger sides. It's kind of annoying how we allow sides like Arse/Spuds/City/Liverpool etc have possession and we counter attack.

We have never been in a side that dominates possession against the big teams. We have always either be in between or play strictly on the counter. Gonna need to overhaul the squad if we want to start bossing possession.

[cosmicway 1,333]

13 minutes ago, Jason said:

We have never been in a side that dominates possession against the big teams. We have always either be in between or play strictly on the counter. Gonna need to overhaul the squad if we want to start bossing possession.

If we dominate all possession what sort of big teams can they be ?
Where it gets desperate it will be RM and co though.

[Special Juan 28,141]

We were truly shite yesterday. Hazard hid, Kante put in his worst of the season and the whole back line were shite.

What a time to play one of our worst games of the season.....Gutted.

[laura90 556]

On 5/26/2017 at 10:57 PM, laura90 said:

It's strange how almost everything goes in our favor : their available CB trio, their goalkeeper, bad atmosphere around the club after missing out on traditional and needed top four trophy, discontent with Wenger  . But it's what is somewhat scary: they are heavy underdogs and London derbies as well as cup finals often favor heavy underdogs. 

I still believe in this team, but they  have to come out with maximum of fight, concentration and hunger. 

They didn't. Somehow I knew they wont. But maybe even our stars knew we need to improve big time so they didn't want to make this team look better than they really are. In the end they all want to fight for Cl not FA cup next season.