Chelsea vs Arsenal 2015/16 PL (Preview/Live Thread)

[urbaNRoots]

vs

Saturday 19 September 2015 | Stamford Bridge | Kick-off 13:45 CET

Chelsea vs Arsenal 2015/16 PL (Preview/Live Thread)


We don't want this happening again

Team news:
Arsenal: Wilshere, Welbeck and Rosicky remain out with long term injuries but Mertesacker involvement is still unsure according to Wenger.

Chelsea: Courtois, Willian are definitely out with injuries, while Oscar and Pedro are in doubt but I expect them to play. At the very least from the bench.

"...Records don't matter..."

...is what Mourinho said in his press conference and he is right in that. The fact that Arsenal beat Chelsea in their last confrontation has no impact in this one and neither does Mourinho's record against Wenger. As Wenger would say "The performance on the day is the only thing that matters".

Like us, Chelsea made quite a few changes for their CL game against Macabi Tel Aviv and young CM Loftus-Cheek had a MotM performance in midfield. With Fabregas being hugely out of form, atleast as a CM partner of Matic, Chelsea supporters will be hoping to see him start against Arsenal but Mourinho will most likely have different plans having more experienced midfielders in Ramires/Mikel to partner Matic who himself is probably not in his shape if not Fabregas himself. John Terry and Ivanovic are also expected to get back into the team for a game of such importance despite Azpilicueta being a better fit against Alexis Sanchez and Terry's slow feet a potential target for Theo Walcott.

With Willian out for sure and Pedro a doubt, Mourinho is going to have to be more creative on his selection for the right wing. In between Oscar, Ramires and Traore he will most likely (in my opinion) go with Ramires to give Ivanovic better protection against Sanchez, with Oscar as the AM who will press Coquelin when on possession and Fabregas back in his role as CM alongside Matic. It is proven against Arsenal and I don't think he is going to change much.

Quite the contrary for Arsene Wenger who won't have such selection dilemmas. The players who came in were largely disappointing which leaves us a bit predictable. Ramsey will come in for Oxlade-Chamberlain, Coquelin for Arteta, Theo for Giroud and the others. Hopefully this means the defeat against Dinamo Zagreb won't have an impact in this game because of these changes. Alexis-Özil-Ramsey will be key for this game, if they can put Walcott in one on one situations, taking advantage of Chelsea's slow defenders then I believe we will score a goal atleast and after that I'm confident on keeping it at 0 in defense as we have done several times before in big games. So a similar approach to our last game at Stamford Bridge (without the silly mistake) is what we should be looking to repeat if we plan on getting a result. Chelsea need the win more than we do, all we have to do is stay compact defensively, break with Theo/Alexis-Özil and after scoring, defend like we know we can.

A view from the other side:

We're going to get a draw tomorrow, aren't we?

If he brings in the likes of ramires or mikel and decides to stick with the tried, tested and failing formula, then i think we will get f**king humped; of particular concern to me is the inexplicable likelihood that brana will be back in, and I can see us getting our arses torn to shreds down that side

we will win this 3-0

I hate the thought of losing to Arsenal - probably about the same level as Jose hates the thought of losing to Wenger. I think if he played some of the players from the other night and we lost, then at least he tried something different. If he brings the likes of Ivan back in and goes back to playing Fabregas deep and we get beat, then he will face a lot of flack.

It's a massive game and we have to get it right.

I think what we need at this point to shut up shop, we are masters of defence and counter attack, why change a good thing because people call us boring, well now we are losing so their cheap mind games have worked..on Roman at least, I'm pretty sure Jose doesn't give a toss, so yea revert back to clean sheet football and build from there, we have plenty of talent that can score goals, costa, hazard, pedro, oscar, Remi, falcao, these are all goal scorers, with a solid base the players will feel more confident and in the end we will get our goals, I'd be very happy to go back to 1-0's I prefer defensive football, I may be the odd one out in that sense but I like the "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough approach" I dearly miss the impermeable blue wall

There's no doubt Jose will protect the fullbacks with extra midfield man, regardless either Ivanoic or Baba plays. If Ivanoic plays, Ramires will be on the right. Yes, most of us hate that, but that's how Jose will play. If Baba plays, maybe Ramires on the left ( really bad in my view), or a midfield 3 with the extra man protecting the left to middle area. Either way, given the injuries we got, there's no way Jose will go Gun Ho in this game, can't afford to lose another game this weekend. There's the Peter Cech factor, I hope he has a poor game for our sake. Given how useless our shooting have been, any GK would give us a hard time, let alone Cech. I'm trying to be optimistic, but if we concede first, our plan game would be completely thrown out and it will be a tough game to chase.

[Raptorgunner]

Very good work Urban.

Mourinho said: “Let me put it like this: one day I will leave Chelsea and when I do I will continue living in London.

“There are a number of other opportunities for a manager in London – Fulham, QPR, West Ham, Spurs, the England national team.
“And Arsenal.”

[El Gunner]

The first goal is going to be very important.

[Raptorgunner]

The first goal is going to be very important.

I agree, I remember Giroud missing great chances for us to take the lead and ended up losing by 6 goals.

As long as Theo takes his first chance we might have a small tiny chance at not losing big.

[VendettaRed07]

The first goal is going to be very important.

if there are any

[Raptorgunner]

The first goal is going to be very important.

if there are any

There will be if Wengers favorite son does not start.

[Amar]

Don't want to be a debbie downer, but I have almost zero hope going into this game. We play extremely poor at Stamford Bridge and it doesn't help our cause that we don't have a clinical striker to take the few chances we will get. The small inkle of hope I have is from Chelsea's recent form...

I understand Walcott isn't very effective when playing against deep lying defences, but frankly I'm one of those whose fed up with Giroud because like always in a big game: he will either disappear, play poor, miss a few sitters, or even get himself sent off ffs

[Gil]

You literally played us at the absolute worst possible time. A week earlier you were guaranteed a win but not we're a completely different opposition with Oscar in the side.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

It's funny that you think Mourinho won't bring back his shite for this game lol.

[urbaNRoots]

You literally played us at the absolute worst possible time. A week earlier you were guaranteed a win but not we're a completely different opposition with Oscar in the side.

Sure Oscar will save Chelsea from Terry, Begovic and Ivanovic

Not even Drogba could save this Chelsea team let alone Oscar.

[RealGunner]

Great work Urban


Not even slightly hopeful going into the match. Doesn't matter we have a better inform PL team. We are losing this by at least 2 goals.

Really hope we park the bus and play Coquelin-Flamini-Chambers midfield with Walcott-Sanchez-Bellerin upfront.


nah seriously, let's hope we try and salvage a point at least. Losing is going to break arsenal fans from inside.

[urbaNRoots]

Walcott starting, Alexis getting slowly back in form, Özil always ready for a perfect pass, defensively we've been solid, no consistency in Chelsea's defence, Hazard showing no signs of improvement.

We got dis.

(A draw would be OK)

[Gil]

You literally played us at the absolute worst possible time. A week earlier you were guaranteed a win but not we're a completely different opposition with Oscar in the side.

Sure Oscar will save Chelsea from Terry, Begovic and Ivanovic

Not even Drogba could save this Chelsea team let alone Oscar.

Yeah, we're gonna get relegated and finish outside the Top 4. Form is temporary. Tomorrow will ignite a run, just wait on it.

As long as Ivanovic is dropped our defense instantaneously improves. He's been at at fault for about 90% of our goals conceded this season. No exaggeration.

Oscar being back is like a godsend to Cesc, Hazard & Costa, just watch how improved they'll be tommorow. I'm not too worried about Hazard either, he's a chronic slow starter he only scored 1 goal 7 games in last year before he ran through your entire defense.

[RealGunner]

Thoughts on starting Ozil upfront as a false 9?


-------Cazorla------Coquelin------
----------------Ramsey-------
----------------Ozil-------------------
Theo--------------------------------Sanchez

[Twoism]

Thoughts on starting Ozil upfront as a false 9?


-------Cazorla------Coquelin------
----------------Ramsey-------
----------------Ozil-------------------
Theo--------------------------------Sanchez

For me Ozil can't be false anything. He needs space and you can't have that with Chelsea defense unit, they are getting back to their solid self. I think Mou will approach this game carefully and won't gun ho ( another loss for them would be disaster) which is too bad since I was counting on Ozil spray pass for Theo and Alexis.

If they don't gun ho and we don't then the game will be decided by moment of brilliance or who brain fart 1st.

[Raptorgunner]

Thoughts on starting Ozil upfront as a false 9?


-------Cazorla------Coquelin------
----------------Ramsey-------
----------------Ozil-------------------
Theo--------------------------------Sanchez

Remember the days when we had real strikers?

[VendettaRed07]

Thoughts on starting Ozil upfront as a false 9?


-------Cazorla------Coquelin------
----------------Ramsey-------
----------------Ozil-------------------
Theo--------------------------------Sanchez

He isn't enough of a goal scoring threat to play false 9

But I would like to see a 4-3-1-2 with Sanchez and Walcott up top

[El Gunner]

Thoughts on starting Ozil upfront as a false 9?


-------Cazorla------Coquelin------
----------------Ramsey-------
----------------Ozil-------------------
Theo--------------------------------Sanchez

The only good thing about this is that Ramsey and Cazorla will both play in the midfield. But unfortunately it doesn't make up for Ozil's shit finishing And who holds up our play?
Don't want Ozil taking up responsibilites which he can't do and we know will only give more reason for the fans and media to piss on him

[Jay29]

Team is as expected:

Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Cazorla; Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis; Walcott

Subs: Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Chambers, Arteta, Chamberlain, Giroud


Chelsea team:

Begovic; Ivanovic, Zouma, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas; Pedro, Oscar, Hazard; Costa

[urbaNRoots]

Lol knew Pedro would start.

Atleast he'll leave Ivanovic alone against Alexis. Cahil-Zouma is bang average, if we don't score we're a disgrace.

[El Gunner]

Alexis has been disappointing so far this season, due to what doesn't matter now, we need him to step up today.

[Sina]

Oscar last year in this fixture was performing like they had extra man in midfield! would hate if he has similar performance again
Big task for Gabriel in this match

COYG

[EL Patron]

We have lost our away, allowing Chelsea way too much possession now

[EL Patron]

Allowing Cesc too much space in midfield now, how can you give him so much time and space ffs

[EL Patron]

Mike Dean

How is Costa still on the pitch

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