Anyone who watched Arsenal’s abysmal defeat to Liverpool in our last away game would have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a completely different side to the one that turned up at Stamford Bridge yesterday. This was a team of fighters that played fast free-flowing football and looked in control of the Champions for look periods of the match. After losing our last two away games it was vital that the Gunners proved they could compete with the best again.
Arsene Wenger was asked after the game if he was happy to see his players battling so hard against Chelsea. “Yes,” he replied. “But people forget that two months ago we beat Chelsea in the Cup final and they don’t give you the cup, you know, so overall I believe we have shown that many times. It’s true you have to accept criticism when we deliver the kind of performance we had at Liverpool – the only way to respond is on the pitch and that’s what we did today. It was a question today what will happen, at least with the attitude, the response, the determination. It was vital for us even above the result to come out with a solid performance on that front.”
He also thinks that the point yesterday was even an improvement on beating Conte’s men at Wembley “The challenge was higher, because we played the final on a neutral ground and today we played at their home where they are traditionally very strong. So the challenge was higher for us, but I feel overall we did exactly what I expected the team to do.”
It may have been what Wenger expected, but, going by the comments on here before the game, very few Arsenal fans were feeling very confident. Perhaps we will have a bit more belief in future games?
Sam P
Exactly..
With such perfroamnce week in week out, fans will be happy even when we lose by a lone goal or two provided we fought hard and turn things around.
I enjoyed seeing Chelsea sulk especially in the second half.
Luiz intention was to hurt Sead. That was what I could make of it.. More like this Kola dude is so strong. I have never seen such a strong lad playing for Arsenal. LOL
Yes, Luiz had the full intention of hurting Kola. He had the option to kick the ball away but he waited for Kola to come and then he lunged at him. Very deliberate! Kola must have hurt Luiz earlier in the game, I have to re-watch the game. It looked like a revenge..
Yes, team performance and the entertainment they can give us are more important than the results. But most Arsenal fans just want wins, even though the wins are achieved by using pragmatic strategy.
The performance in the Chelsea match was good, because all players fought hard to retrieve the ball and play with some motivation. But it should be improved in the next matches, otherwise a better team like Manchester City will dominate Arsenal in the field.
They have to learn how to handle heavy pressure from the top opponents. All defenders and midfielders should try to make the ball flow from the back, otherwise the goalkeeper would be forced to use long balls.
Once they manage to build the attack from the back and improve their skills, I’m sure we will see more entertaining shows from Arsenal.
I feel like when the team plays chelsea, the mentality is “let’s give it to ’em” but regresses to “let’s play beautiful football” when playing smaller teams.
If players can play with the grit shown on the weekend with a tad more ruthlessness, the team will have progressed, mentally and tactically this season, regardless of the final table position.
yeah we played well, because there was no ozil in the midfeild, hate it or love it, its the truth