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

[Jay29]

I think the initial assessment is that it's a "minor knee injury". Of course, a minor injury for us tends to snowball into a two year lay-off so yeah.

Santi's problem, for me, is that he lacks the athleticism to play CM in a double pivot. He can't cover the ground as well as Coquelin or Ramsey or even Wilshere. So if you mark him out the game or cut off his passing channels he becomes a passenger.

It's not a simple case of taking him out the team, though, because our other CM's don't have his discipline. As pointed out, Ramsey goes forward too much and at wrong times, and I'm not sure we can trust Wilshere or Ox with that role.

[mani88]

Even .com are obsessed with the thoughts of costa

[El Gunner]

Putting the red cards and refereeing aside.
We played fairly well before the sending off. Yes, Chelsea dominated somewhat, and we didn't retain possession well enough to mount any pressure on them, which was a bit frustrating, but considering the opposition and ground which we always suffer at, it was fair play from our part. The draw was on and maybe, who knows what we could've done 11 v 11 in the second half, but doesn't matter now. Heading on from this result I have to say I'm worried.

Cazorla is no doubt a better option in midfield than Ramsey imo, but he is too up and down sometimes. Like Patron mentioned, much of our game depends on his game. And now that he is out I would like for Ramsey to stake his claim, but it's two yellows so Cazorla is only going to be out for one game, so on that point in doesn't help much. Gabriel has been solid and impressive, but I'm afraid Per will come back and take his place. Coquelin injured is the most scary part. I don't think I have to mention how crucial he is to this team, and Arteta just isn't is a quarter as effective as he is. We're going to struggle in the next month, maybe two, or so I think. We sometimes always do. I couldn't care less about the League Cup, but it's a game against Spurs so I hope, whichever team starts, I hope we can put a bit of positivity back in and around the club.

[Jay29]

On reflection, I was disappointed that nobody in the Arsenal team saw fit to try and calm Gabriel down. Cazorla was captain today, so why didn't he just have a word with him? Why didn't the other players pull him and tell him to refocus?

See, it's these sorts of things that we're called naive for.

[Twoism]

The worst part is when Mike Dean asked Oscar to talk to Gabriel for him ( same languae I suppose) I mean wtf, captain talk to ref, sort your player out.

[El Gunner]

Agree. Cazorla, Ramsey, Walcott, Koscielny are all seniors in our team now. Gather around him! Calm him down! But no. *sigh*

[RealGunner]

Never understood why the most senior player gets given the armband. Cazorla is never going to take authority. He isn't that sort of player

Should have given the armband to Ramsey instead

[Jay29]

It doesn't even matter who wears the armband. Somebody just needed to step up and defuse the situation, not just stand around and watch it unfold.

[VendettaRed07]

I ****ing hate Diego Costa, his relatives, and anyone who willfully chooses to breathe the same air as him. I hate mike dean and how he looks like an Ultrasound. I hate Mourinho for how much he loves throwing out disgraceful POS like Costa on the pitch. And I hate how Wenger does nothing and allows us to get humiliated and taken advantage of every single big game. ****ing DO SOMETHING WENGER. West Brom and Swansea get better results against the top 6 teams in this league.

We have no heart, no leadership, cannot handle adversity WHATSOEVER...and we have no one in charge who knows how to address issues that any arm chair fantasy league player could have spotted out.

[Jay29]

Arsenal's record with Mike Dean as ref. It's grim reading:

http://news.arseblog.com/2015/09/mike-dean-2-0-arsenal-by-the-numbers/

[Gil]

You were outplayed. Stop making excuses and start blaming Wenger. Hazard was denied a blatant penalty yet no one talks about it.

We've had 2 red cards and 2 penalties given against us this season yet no sympathy. Gabriel only has himself to blame, literally every defender has sussed Costa out & plays his tricks against him yet he takes the bait like a fool when he wasn't even involved.

[RealGunner]

Get out of here. Outplayed

[Gil]

Get out of here. Outplayed

We were parked in your half before the Costa incident lmao. Goal was inevitable at that point.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

That's what i saw as well, Chelsea were camped in around the box lol. Didn't see anyone further than 30-35 yards back.

Who knows what would have happened but Chelsea were quite obviously on top.

[RealGunner]

Get out of here. Outplayed

We were parked in your half before the Costa incident lmao. Goal was inevitable at that point.

10 minutes of pressure, you created nothing in that moment. Before that it was us on top. Goal would have been inevitable if you actually tested Cech with something dangerous

[Chumlum]

Horrible match, at least from the Gabriel red card on.

[Jay29]

So, team for Spurs?

I'm guessing it'll be:

Ospina; Debuchy, Chambers, Mertesacker, Gibbs; Arteta, Flamini; Campbell, Ramsey, Chamberlain; Giroud

With a few youngsters like Bielik, Reine-Adelaide (if fit) and Iwobi on the bench.

[Peccadillo]

That's what i saw as well, Chelsea were camped in around the box lol. Didn't see anyone further than 30-35 yards back.

Who knows what would have happened but Chelsea were quite obviously on top.

You are probably trolling but for the avoidance of doubt Chelsea were hardly on top. I saw both sides have their own spells and I can guarantee if you look at the stats prior to the red card they would support that. It was a cagey affair which could have gone either way prior to the red. Chelsea were the more defensive side of the two prior to the red. Oscar looked like a 3rd DM half the time.

Anyway its satisfying in a way to know Chelsea realise they cant outplay our current squad and have to rely on being scums. We'll end up on top of him come the end of the season unless you make some big signing in Jan such as Stokes.

[VendettaRed07]

Edit- Wall of Salt

[urbaNRoots]

Guys we were not winning that game regardless of whether or not Costa was being the worst human on the planet or not. It was just salt in the wound. At the very best we walk away with a 0-0 draw but even then so what. What kind of big club are you when all you can hope for is a grind out 0-0 draw. When's the last time we even scored a goal against a Mourinho Chelsea? All we do these days is spend 90 minutes dry humping teams like stoke to scrape away 1-0, 2-0 wins. We need to completely dominate just to get something past. We are not built to defend and covert on just a few chances. We can barely score any goals on dozens of chances

Had we made the moves we know we needed to make this offseason I believe we could have surpassed them but no. We bought zero outfield players. RVP has been gone for over 3 years now and we still haven't replaced him. This loss again is on Wenger, and he has set us up in a position for failure yet again. So despite the disgrace from Mike Dean, and Costa it doesn't matter. There is a reason why nobody thought we had a chance of winning even before the game despite Chelsea being in terrible form and near the bottom of the table. We just can't do it. We are tactically clueless and easily shut down by other teams who know what they are doing

I think your frustration is completely misplaced. We WERE playing well, and we WERE getting chances. If we got a 0-0 that would be an acceptable result away against the current champions.

The untouchable City just lost at home to the same team we lost, they are 5 points away and unlike them we won't be visiting Stamford Bridge again this season. The great Chelsea are 14th in the table and still have to come to the Emirates.

It's way too early for these kind of reactions.

[VendettaRed07]

I would like to believe that it's just over reaction and it's too early to make these sorts of judgments. But after the last few seasons I just don't see it. We didn't improve anywhere other than Goalkeeper this offseason. What is different about the team this year than will make a difference in where we end up. I like Walcott at striker but I seriously question whether or not we will change our style of play and tactics to really take advantage of it.

I just can't take how we always lose these games. Especially Chelsea. We just can't perform against them. Yes we looked better at points, and we were hard done by the ref.. But its just like it's always something. There's always another factor that results in the loss.

It isn't just the end result I have an issue with. I'll take a top four finish, and another deep FA cup run. But can't we ever, and I mean ever, get a big result against a scummy team like this. Can't we ever beat them? Why can't we get any of the embarrassing, thrashing 6-0, 8-2, 5-1 wins against anyone that apparently everyone else has enjoyed against us.

Anyways, I'll stop now and just let it go. I hope the team can just move past it.

[Adit]

That's what i saw as well, Chelsea were camped in around the box lol. Didn't see anyone further than 30-35 yards back.

Who knows what would have happened but Chelsea were quite obviously on top.

You are probably trolling but for the avoidance of doubt Chelsea were hardly on top. I saw both sides have their own spells and I can guarantee if you look at the stats prior to the red card they would support that. It was a cagey affair which could have gone either way prior to the red. Chelsea were the more defensive side of the two prior to the red. Oscar looked like a 3rd DM half the time.

Anyway its satisfying in a way to know Chelsea realise they cant outplay our current squad and have to rely on being scums. We'll end up on top of him come the end of the season unless you make some big signing in Jan such as Stokes.

You are being biased.On the ball chelsea looked more threatening than Arsenal. Defensively both teams looked solid and offensively both teams looked un creative. But like Mole said before the red card chelsea looked superior on the ball as they were camped inside arsenal's half for 15-45 minutes.

[T-Mach]

I don't know where this notion of Chelsea dominating Arsenal is coming from?Yes,they were doing good just before the red and that's that.The ten to fifteen minutes before the red it was all Chelsea but they weren't by any means dominating.Rather 'twas Arsenal that seemed dangerous with Theo going close.

Anyways a game where we cannot read much into the result thanks to C*ntsta but plenty to read from the way we played.

It's high time Sanchez improved his game or at least changed.His cutting back and shooting is as old as AW's 'jaded' excuse now and the opponents have started to nullify him but kudos for trying.

Also,he seems highly fatigued most of this passes were wayward,touches were sloppy and almost all his shots pinged off defenders.Guess,he needs a rest and it's a shame that with our injuries he'll have to keep playing.

And also whatever has happened to Cazorla?The fellow seems to be a pale shadow of his own self.As Jay mentioned somewhere his set piece deliveries were horrible yesterday and couldn't go past the first defender a la Ivanovic's crosses.

As I mentioned in the Stoke thread,Arsenal do well Cazorla does.He keeps us ticking and I believe teams have realized this too and hence have started using separate tactics for him.

Yesterday was a decent enough chance for us to win at SB and we got C*ntsta'd.

[Twoism]

To clarify few things:

- we played well when Le Coq was not injured, Chelsea carried on good spell after Coq forced to play with injury and that was not clear cut either ( for every Dick and Jane keep saying we got outplayed)

- Wenger rested the wrong player mid week, it's Sanchez and Santi who need it

- We do need leadership/ discipline back to the team. As much of a *bleep* Costa was, we need cool head and Giroud and Gabriel were frustrated or hot headed.

- That's being said, I applause Gabriel, he stood up for his mates ( something we rarely do nowadays, bring back Viera, Keown please).

- I blamed the team midweek but they did what they could yesterday. No amount of transfer moaning could help us now, just gotta power through til Xmas.

- the table is unpredictable this year, everyone is bad and inconsistent so we still could do something and maybe that's why English teams got schooled so hard in Europe.

[T-Mach]

Guess Sanchez badly needs some rest.He should be getting minutes from the bench & not starting games after his extra long season.As for Cazorla,he has shown magic in patches just needs to improve his consistency.

Gabriel's red card and Zagreb's winner proved how bad we miss Per.He organizes the defence and takes much more responsibility during set pieces and stuff.Also he shows that the being the captain is much more than being wearing the armband.Forcing Oezil to acknowledge the fans was just an example how good a captain he is.He would've probably calmed down Gabriel I guess.

As for why no Arsenal players were there with Gabriel,why wasn't Bellerin called to translate for Gabriel(which he did during our Singapore tour)?Coz he understands Portuguese much better than Spanish?I still felt it should've been Belle & not Oscar.

With Gabriel pushing and shoving everyone around him,it's now wonder Santi came anywhere near him.

[RealGunner]

has over 40k signatures lmao

Get on it lads.

https://www.change.org/p/the-football-association-the-fa-prevent-mike-dean-from-refereeing-another-arsenal-game?recruiter=388814900&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Put in a fake address n mae

non-Arsenal fans welcome too

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