closed Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal

[manpe 10,861]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Bringing in Jorginho has been and will continue to be such a huge help. We'd be miles behind in our progress without him, we have literally nobody who can move the ball like he does or who would instruct other players on-field. Top top signing.

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, manpe said:

Bringing in Jorginho has been and will continue to be such a huge help. We'd be miles behind in our progress without him, we have literally nobody who can move the ball like he does or who would instruct other players on-field. Top top signing.

Am curious to see what will happen when Jorginho doesn't play. Who will take his role? How will we fare without him? 

[Vesper 28,831]

2 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

Surprisingly I thought the CB was last thing we needed with all the players around (Luiz, Rudi, Cahill, Christensen, Zouma), but it seems thats the main area where we are still weak. Much to learn I have

However I think young CBs we were linked with like Rugain wouldnt solve the issue. Our CB ball distribution is surprisingly good for now, its the defensive side thats problematic.

Well, Zouma is out on loan (and I feel will never be the player he was before he ripped apart his knee) and Cahill is like a hood ornament, just there for decoration at this point. The main reason I was so gun-ho on adding another CB is that I do NOT rate Luiz at all, and I wished we had sold him and replaced with Rugani (one of only 4 truly calls Italian CB's atm) or Thilo Kehrer (who PSG has now snapped up after our window shut).Both have Luiz passing skills and are far more mobile and aware defensively. The board, yet again, got taken for a Juve ride the whole window, which fucked up a lot of other business. As soon as they started playing games abour Rugani (it was a carbon copy of Alex Sandro the last 2 windows) we should have pounced on Kehrer. £33m took him to Paris for PSG. He is only 21 too, so massive upside and potential longevity.

We are just going to have to endure Luiz, Alonso (both on defensive end), and then Willian and Morata on the offensive side. Koulibaly will never play for us, I have given up on him, unless a miracle happens in January of next summer. After that he is too old for me to look at him as long term, so nope, done.

 

I have an update to my CB wish list, and its so depressing. One of my main ones has been Dayot Upamecano, 19yo beast from RB Leipzig. Well, you will not here about him from me again. 100m euro release clause on him now.He is great but not that great, lolol.

so

In order (for January or more likely summer 2019) (I think we should make the briefest of enquires about KK and Rugani, but I so doubt anything comes of it, unless Rugani collapses at Juve (I so cannot see this happening), in which case, fuck it for real)

many of even these are so shaky in terms of chances of us getting them, the market is SO tight atm, I put in bold the best shots we actually have

Only 5 truly good ones who are remotely available and who wouldn't be insane money (maybe 6, see Tah below)

 

Marquinhos (probably a pipe dream, but he is the best even remotely available CB in the world atm)

José Giménez same as Marquinhos, except he is number 2

Benjamin Pavard (can play RB too) I would be sooo happy to grab him away from Bayern

Matthijs de Ligt will be insanely expensive (for his age, 18yo atm) and I just dont trust Eredivisie to EPL jumps that much, thsi season will be a good judgement as to if he is truly worth the £60m or so I can see Ajax demanding next summer

Alessio Romagnoli  would be a superb signing, but AC Milanwill NOT want to sell unless we shovelded a silly amount of quid to them

Rúben Dias  20yo, great young Portuguese CB (by far the ONLY class Portuguese CB in the country, they are in deep shit on the national team), but Lyon on on verge of grabbing him, if he survives the window at Benfica, I am all in on him

Manuel Akanji Similar player to Kehrer, will be a bit more expensive as he si 2 years older and more established with Dortmund, would be a good signing

Malang Sarr superb young 19yo French CB with Nice, thsi coming year will be a good judgement time.

Presnel Kimpembe  If a no go on Marquinhos, MAYBE PSG might sell him to us, with Kehrer now in the door. proably no chance, he just signed a new contract

Panagiotis Retsos great young (just turned 20) CB with a big upside

 

5 wild cards, as I am not sure if they are what we are looking for for Sarriball

Jonathan Tah 22yo giant (dwarfs KK) justs o huge physically, NOT sure if he is Sarriball type of CB, IF heis, then he the 5th of the actually possible ones

Konstantinos Manolas  rock solid, Rudiger would be happy, lol, just dont know about his forward distrbution

Stefan Savic same as Manolas

Nico Elvedi,   21yo Swiss, not convince he is pure class, perhaps he is, not convinced 100%, but he could prove it this year

Nikola Milenkovic    Serbian version of Tah, just a huge specimen, again, no clue on his distribution skills

 

thats it atm

 

Bonus, keep eyes on these 4, as they could emerge

Emanuel Mammana   Zenit, 22yo Argentinan/Italian 

Duje Caleta-Car Olympique Marseille 21yo Croatian

Filip Benkovic   we were linked, 21yo Croatian, Leicester got him, another BIG player

Abdou Diallo   Dortmund 22yo  France

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

What an exciting game to watch! That's the sort of Derby game I want to witness when Chelsea and Arsenal meet up! Such a spectacle for the supporters and that was matched on the pitch today for the first time in a LONG time.

I thought we showed we are still a work in progress but the areas we need to improve in were also the areas we exploited Arsenal in. I thought we struggled to press effectively from the front and that the space between the defenders and midfielders was WAAAAAAY too big.

Kepa - 6 Probably should've done better on Henrik's goal and didn't really look for the soft spots in the press to exploit. Often lumped it up field and as a result it came right back to us. He really didn't have much to do in the 2d half.

Azpi - 6 Was lost for Iwobi's goal and didn't really look like a guy capable of locking down a flank. This is two games in a row now where I'm left less than impressed with his overall game. Played a great early ball to Morata for his goal but outside of that I think he's struggling to adjust to this system.

Rudiger - 6 He's just slow to react to dangerous situations. In the first half we were under siege and in certain situations you would expect him to snuff it out and deal with it... he doesn't....

Luiz - 6 Again great distribution but his ability to detect danger and put a stop to it is not great. I see his value when we're in possession but I not quite so sure he thinks the game well enough.

Alonso - 8 MOTM I know he had plenty of lapses defensively, I just think we're gonna have to live with this mainly because he offers big goals in big games. He also had a lot of clearances...

Jorginho - 6 We know what he provides for the team, he's also coming to grips with the pace of the prem. He needs to be more aware of what is around him, he was non-existent inside our 18 when Arsenal kept exploiting the cutbacks. That is an area on the pitch Kante dominated and I know in order for us to be more attacking we need Jorginho at the base but man, you can't help but think how we may be left exposed against better teams... (Liverpool, City, Spurs etc)

Barkley - 5 I think Barkley's personality on the pitch is eventually going to lead to his undoing. He just doesn't really assert himself and put himself about on the pitch! I think he had one decent turn in transition and that was about it... Overall he isn't doing much offensively to have lapses defensively and for this reason I he's got maybe one more game before he is effectively out of the preferred XI.

Kante - 7 He was decent going forward and is growing into the role nicely I just think his best attributes aren't on display in this set up. I don't like him so far forward, had he been in his natural starting position a lot of those cutbacks would've been snuffed out no problem. Still as a footballer he can make himself useful in any role.

Pedro - 8 was our best forward. ball retention was very good and always looked threatening. Sometimes needs to look pass and takes too many touches before he releases it but all in all this looks like a system he should flourish in. He needs to be better either tracking back or in the pressing game.

Willian - 5 Far too ponderous when in possession lacked the sense of urgency in the pressing game. I would be surprised if he starts next week did next to nothing at both ends of the pitch.

Morata - 7 Started well and then faded in the 2nd half I think the substitution came about 5 mins too late. To be fair for me job done once he scored, he took it well too. 

Hazard - 7 It really shouldn't be fair for Hazard to be allowed to come on and run at a tired defense... Should start next week

Kovacic - 7 What a debut! Looked like he's been playing in the side for years. So composed on the ball and excellent backtracking when out of possession. He is going to be an absolute GEM... Starting to think its gonna be hard for RLC and Barkley to play in this midfield barring injuries. Kovacic is just another level, if he can add goals??? My lord.

 

[manpe 10,861]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

Am curious to see what will happen when Jorginho doesn't play. Who will take his role? How will we fare without him? 

Think we'd have to alter our system/formation in that case. Obvious answer would be Fabregas, but imo that would be a bit of a disaster against strong opponents because of his immobility and lack of composure under pressure. If it was me Kante or Kovacic would take the spot depending on the opponent and it wouldn't be too bad imo.

[Vesper 28,831]

1 hour ago, Unionjack said:

I was upset that CJO never even made the bench after his last N London game. I wonder why?

I dont know either 

[Unionjack 7,531]

8 hours ago, Jason said:

Am curious to see what will happen when Jorginho doesn't play. Who will take his role? How will we fare without him? 

 

7 hours ago, manpe said:

Think we'd have to alter our system/formation in that case. Obvious answer would be Fabregas, but imo that would be a bit of a disaster against strong opponents because of his immobility and lack of composure under pressure. If it was me Kante or Kovacic would take the spot depending on the opponent and it wouldn't be too bad imo.

I would be happy to put Kavacic there. His passing looks spot on and he looks like hes very calm with a proper footballer head.

And Barkley I'm really happy to say is playing well - just a shame that Kovacic is so good really. But no problem in Barks taking Kovas spot if that happened.

Its going to suprize allot of us to see just what a diff Kova is going to make to us. Hes like a mixture of Eden and Jorgi with Daves defense bits added on!

I love him

[kellzfresh 7,229]

The spaces we gave arsenal to score was the fault of all of the attack, midfield and defense. There was so much space because when the midfielders go up to press, the defenders are supposed to push up too, cover the space between the defense - midfield and keep a high line to put runners offside. But the Defenders pushed back instead of pressing forward and allowed acres of space for arsenal to find between Jorginho and the defense. 

The midfielders too didn't recover back in time when arsenal got to the flanks and when the midfielders got to the box, they left the edge of the box free for cutbacks to work.

The attackers also didn't press as one. Sometimes only Morata went to press, sometimes only pedro, but the worst was willian who didn't press well or track back. So willian's wing was the easy avenue for arsenal to pass out of the back and locate bellerin to attack the slower Alonso. 

Hopefully Sarri fixes this in time before other English clubs look for how to exploit this. The important thing is the team must be compact and not be more than 15-20m from the striker to the defenders.

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

11 minutes ago, kellzfresh said:

but the worst was willian who didn't press well or track back. So willian's wing was the easy avenue for arsenal to pass out of the back and locate bellerin to attack the slower Alonso. 

I'm afraid Willian is going to be a problem I think.

He started out OK but as soon as Pedro scored you could see his demeanour change.. You could almost hear him thinking "Oh fuck. He has made the RW his own and I will be on the bench as soon as Eden is fit = now wheres those emojis"

But I would play CHO as much as I could get away with if I was Sarrii,

[kellzfresh 7,229]

29 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

I'm afraid Willian is going to be a problem I think.

He started out OK but as soon as Pedro scored you could see his demeanour change.. You could almost hear him thinking "Oh fuck. He has made the RW his own and I will be on the bench as soon as Eden is fit = now wheres those emojis"

But I would play CHO as much as I could get away with if I was Sarrii,

If Willian is jealous then  Well he was never a good goalscorer, so a coach that values a finisher will always prefer pedro to willian. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

4 minutes ago, kellzfresh said:

If Willian is jealous then  Well he was never a good goalscorer, so a coach that values a finisher will always prefer pedro to willian. 

But with us APARENTLY going to give him an extra 2 year contract AND a payrise WTF???

They got a good kid in Guendouzi .

His stats

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

Good to read an unbiased report from a north london site

Arsenal: Jorginho exposes counterparts

https://paininthearsenal.com/2018/08/19/arsenal-jorginho-exposes-counterparts/

[Unionjack 7,531]

hahaha FFS!!!

Chelsea vs Arsenal ends bizarrely after Lee Dixon says THIS on live TV - then apologises

ARSENAL legend Lee Dixon had to issue an apology after a bizarre incident during the Chelsea clash.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1005528/Chelsea-vs-Arsenal-Lee-Dixon-TV-fag-apology-Maurizio-Sarri-smoking

[Johnnyeye 7,441]

1 hour ago, Unionjack said:

But with us APARENTLY going to give him an extra 2 year contract AND a payrise WTF???

They got a good kid in Guendouzi .

His stats

 

Guendouzi looks like a very good talent, reminded me of Luiz and Ampadu because of the hair lol, looks very composed on the ball, matured and a very good passer too, he will be a very good player if properly developed and he's at the right club for it, Arsenal have produced and developed many good players along the years, but the lack of trophies is Arsenal's downfall as many of these players latter ended up moving to other top clubs to win titles (Cesc, Van Persie, Ashley Cole, Adebayor, etc). I have high hopes for Ampadu, CHO and Mount, only time wil tell how far they will go here

[bluephoenix 1,126]

On 8/18/2018 at 11:29 AM, MrExcalibur100 said:

I only watched the 2nd half and missed the 1st. Hazard and Kovacic were amazing. The former is standard but the latter was fantastic. All of a sudden positive about the season than I've ever been. We still need to do something about Luiz for Christensen. I just dont see Luiz surviving as a starter throughout the season. Alonso will get a pass from me for now. 

 

Amazing match and football. I can't believe we're playing this sort of football now. That was better than anything we played last season entertainment wise. 

The key is to see if the manager can get this kind of performance week after week and season after season!