To really do well and have any real chance of success this season Arsenal or any side has to be well balanced. Sometimes you will see a club win things with an exceptional display in one of the three key areas of attack, midfield and defence, such as the defence oriented Arsenal under George Graham.
‘Boring, boring Arsenal’ and ‘1-0 to the Arsenal- were famous chants from rival fans in those days, while other successful spells from the likes of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona have been led primarily by the team’s creative and goal scoring prowess, but in general you need to do all parts of the game well to win a major trophy, especially the marathon that is a domestic league.
You could say that Arsenal have done well at both ends of the pitch so far this season, but at the same time we have shown weakness in both, but the visit of Chelsea to the Emirates stadium tomorrow is likely to provide the toughest test so far of our attack and our defence, but which will be called upon more and which will prove to be our undoing or our source of triumph?
With Hazard and Costa the Arsenal back four and the midfield protecting them are going to have to be on the ball and that means that Coquelin, assuming he plays, will be a major figure in how the game goes. I expect Koscielny and Mustafi to be our central defensive pairing and I think they may be perfectly suited to handling Costa but any mistake could be very costly.
Knowing our luck the Chelsea captain John Terry will be back and with Kante and Matic in front of them Chelsea will surely be a tough nut to crack. For me the performance of Ozil and his ability to feed the likes of Walcott and Alexis Sanchez will be crucial.
What do you think Gooners? Will this be our toughest game yet and which area of the team will let us down or bring us the result we need?
Bob.
My biggest worry is the indiscipline that comes with our players’ nerves, particularly in the first 15-20 minutes of the game. You can almost always feel the players letting the game slip away from them before they start showing signs of life very late in the game after already being beaten. The only time I recall us being at our sharpest at the start of a game in recent times was against Man United last year at the Emirates. That blistering start of the game had speed, pass precision, intent, beauty, and most importantly, zero nerves! Our mental strength tends to be our biggest weakness. We can talk tactics all we want, but if our collective nerves get the best of us, we will suffer an embarrassing defeat. Costa will be his usual self – just don’t let him rent space in your heads. He will eventually expose himself.
Even though Costa is a dirty @@@@! He isn’t playing under the same dirty manager as before. ? And I very much doubt that we will see him slapping and kungfu kicking our lad’s later on today lol ?Maybe a dive or two at the most.
I honestly hate Chelsea more than any other team, even rottenham. Maybe a little less now that Mourinho is gone, but regardless hope we can take it to them. COYG
Stability first, that’s the key words.
The game plan is 4 – 2 – 3 -1.
Both CB’s Kos and Mustafi must keep their head chill to handle Diego Costa. The smug face thug man was the game decider against us two times last season. I still wonder why we can’t use his special temper to weaken Chelsea yet.
Our midfield axes will be Xhaka and Coquelin. Both in best shape to bring more balance at center. Dilemma on whether it’s Ozil or Cazorla to start up. I choose Ozil to see his impact at first half. Cazorla however will play as subs to replace Ozil or Coquelin.
Our attacking option will be Alexis in left, Theo in right, and Lucas as target man.
So, my line up will be like this :
Cech
Bellerin – Kos – Mustafi – Monreal
Coquelin – Xhaka
Theo – Ozil – Alexis
Lucas
Substitutes : Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Elneny, Cazorla, Iwobi, Giroud.
That would be the best. I just hope we won’t use Alexis as our number nine.
I really want to see that Xhaka’s long balls and goal attempt/scores but Wenger won’t let it be.
Obviously everything will depend on Wenger’s team selection ( line up) and that my friend, is the main area that will either win it or lose it against Chelsea.
Don’t expect any game plans because there isn’t any with Mr Wenger and thats a fact that has been given from our players (past and present) He just picks the team that he believes will do the job, thats it.
In other news, Wenger gives Sanchez a roasting of a warning for not following club Orders regarding penalty takers.
Apparently Cazorla and Walcott are ahead of him.
Well fatty, as penalty taker Theo is as bad as Alexis. If I’m Arsene, I would try Xhaka. With that power you can rip the net and wack the goal keeper at the same time, hahaha…
That’s a good question, a difficult one to answer. Costa is a nightmare, like if Keown had of been a striker. Our defence, I would’ve thought this would be there biggest test before season started. Midfield has to be in-sync with both defending and attacking. Usually we find it very tough to score, so yeah, it’s difficult to answer.