Tony Pulis made the claim that Arsenal’s squad was stronger than that of Chelsea’s following his team’s defeat yesterday, but do we agree?
The Blues sit top of the Premier League table by a huge seven points at present, with Liverpool able to close that gap to only six points should they win this evening against Stoke City.
West Brom manager has moved to claim that Arsenal, who are nine points behind the leaders, have a stronger squad than that of Chelsea.
Pulis said: ‘If you have a look at the players who were not playing and not in the team today, and then you look at Chelsea’s, I think Arsenal have definitely got the stronger squad.
‘So they have probably got the staying power to see them through and it will be interesting to see what Chelsea do {in the coming window}. I think Chelsea will spend.
‘I don’t think your man will sit back on what he’s got, I think he will invest.
‘So it will be an interesting window for the top four or five clubs.’
If our squad was the better of the two, we could blame our rival’s lack of European football for their impressive form, but do we genuinely believe we have a stronger squad?
Chelsea’s starting XI is clearly very strong, whilst they have players like Zouma, Terry, Begovic, Willian and Fabregas mostly outside the first-team this term. Outside our XI we have the likes of Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck, Lucas Perez, Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker and many others.
We clearly have larger numbers when it comes to those worthy of playing regular league action, but the league leaders most likely have the stronger core of stars.
Do we have the stronger squad but the weaker XI?
Pat J
We have quantity but we still lack quality on the bench and need a Top winger(s) with Alexis up front. I say give Lucas a try on LW
Cech & Ospina
Bellerin Bosscheilny Mustafi Monreal
Jenko/Debuchy Mertesacker Paulista Gibbs
Coquelin Cazorla
Elneny Xhaka/Rambo
Theo Ozil Chamberlain
Iwobi Welbeck
Sanchez
Giroud
Perez
That is very good squad! We have good cover for each position. I believe our squad is the best in the league! This is why I believe Wenger will NOT be spending any monies this January!
The one area where the quality really drops compared to other massive clubs, is the fourth segment down.
Also, until Xhaka fully adapts and we know more, ideally you need more than one wizard with a ball for that area. Maybe we should not have relied to heavily on him seeing as we only have one.
I think we have similar squad:
– Diego Costa is better than Olivier Giroud and Perez in the striker position.
– Fabregas is better than Ozil in the attacking midfielder position.
– Sanchez is better than Pedro, Hazard and Fabregas in the attacking midfielder position.
– Pedro and Hazard are better than Walcott, Iwobi, Perez and Ox in the winger position.
– Coquelin and Cazorla are better than Kante and Matic in the midfielder position.
– The defenders have similar qualities.
But the desires of the managers are not the same. I think Conte is much hungrier for achievements than Wenger, since he is much younger.
I think our squad is deeper. Also,
I would compare Costa to Sanchez and I think Sanchez is better.
I think Oil is better than Fab I also think Santi is better than Fab
I agree Pedro/Hazard is better than Walcott/Iwobi
I think Kante/Matic is better than Coq/Santi defensively but not going forward.
I think our back 4 are better.
More importantly take out Costa/Hazard and Kante for Chelsea and Sanchez/Ozil and Coq for us and we have the better replacements.
But like you said, it is all about the manager at this level and Conte has Chelsea better organised and motivated than we are.
did you just say cazorla and coq are better than matic and kante?.
Lolz delusion at its finest.
Also stop saying sanchez is better than hazard.Still no proof of that yet.
Chelsea are better than us in attack and midfield positions.
In defense only koscienly can start for chelsea
Mustafi?!!!
Personally, I think we have the best squad in the PL. So I have to agree with Pulis.
You can only wonder where we would sit in the table with an other manager who had a bit more passion to fire up his squad.
I saw that Martin Keown thinks Klopp is the best manager in the PL, I have to say I am impressed with Conte and love Pep, either way, all three seem to have a way of firing up their squad and fans with their passion and ability to manage during half time and intra game.
You have to wonder if we would capitulate as much as we do if Wenger would get up from time to time and show some passion to his players when they struggle of fail to put in an effort. I guess it is simply not his style. But this day and age passion is a big part of football.
Look how much of the talent gap Atletico, Liverpool (and Leicester last season) makeup by fighting 90+ minutes every game. Can you imagine Arsenal bringing that type of intensity for 90 minutes? If the best squad out works every opponent it is hard not to imagine results. Instead we hear our squad being a bit tired in the second half etc.
I’ve seen both types, loud passionate, calm in control, Ive seen both of them succeed. Pep, I would say is calm and in control most of the time. When we played city he reminded me of Arsene. With some managers, it might depend on how much he believes in his players abilities, on whether he roars them up and down. If one of these demonstrator type manager, had say Barcelona, along with any world defender he chooses, would he really need to be heard. The day when these type of manager begin to shout less and sit more, that is probably the day we should fear.
I have not watched a City game this season without seeing Pep bark instructions to his players, passionately.
If we acknowledge that our squad is better or at least as good as Chelsea’s then there can only be three reasonable excuses for being 9 points behind them in the league. 1) Firstly the impact of the Champion’s league commitments 2) Our manager 3) A combination of 1 and 2.
I don’t think the CL is the reason, some teams can win the CL and championship at the same time, but for us we exit the CL in the knock out stages and still fail to win the PL
no. 2 is perfect
havent watched wwe for quite sometime.
Just realized mustafi looka exactly like sammy zayn
Arsenal fans always find excuses when they they fail.
How can u blame our poor performance on the champions league.
Chelsea have better players on the ball than Arsenal.
They have a manager that has a winning mentality.
They have a manager that will not say “this is not the first time of Chelsea losing and it’s not going to be the last time they will lose.Chelsea will continue to lose in the future”
They have a manager who will relegate you to the bench if u don’t perform.
Arsenal also has a better team but a SAD manager;
A manager who blames anybody except himself
He blames the media ,fans ,football pitch, the weather,t he months of the year, his zip but never himself.
Until we change the manager,Arsenal will continue to retrogress.
Was thinking about this yesterday and what I reckon is that Chelsea from a defensive standpoint has the better squad, Arsenal in the attacking sense has it better. So it’s difficult to say. Chelsea have a poacher of the highest quality which might make up for any shortcomings in attack, when compared to our side. They also have some other quality attackers. We have maybe better defenders at the back, but it’s our attacking players that don’t measure up on the defensive side. And there defensive players don’t measure up to up ours on the attacking side.
Let’s just say if Fergie had the quality of our squad over the past decade, he’d win five Champions League trophies, 7 EPL titles, 6FA cups, 5League cups in a ten year period but then ONLY Wenger could assemble such talent on such a very tight budget… wish he knew how to get the more out of these players, I mean for how long did we cry out for striker even with Sanchez in the team, he played as a striker at times at Barca and the Copa America to good effect but we only just “Discovered ” Sanchez the striker this season.
Arsene is the only one who could beat Fergie at a time when they had so much in advantage. By your logic Arsene would have won half the amount Fergie did in this time, so that means the restrictions did set us back and because we’ve been out of the loop for so long it has had an effect on our players and our manager.
My point is that Wenger is a master at turning players into technically superior players but Fergie is a master at coercing the spirit of Champions out of even the dudest of players.
sanchez is a better center forward than costa what the f. are you people crazy this like going to a shrink. tell them what they want to he here if it make them feel better wish players on our team is in demand sanchez. maybe ozil I’m not sure what to team want our players we would not have gotten them in the first place
Pulis’ words are spot on, and the fact that we with a better squad are 9 points behind only show one thing. Chelsea have a manager, who are better at organising and motivating the players to use their potential the right way.
Arsenal overall squad is very similar in strength to Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United. Liverpool and Spurs overall strength is slightly weaker, but there is a difference in the way they play and base on the way the matches this season has unfold Arsenal and Chelsea seems to be less dominant against quality opposition.
Despite Chelsea being top of the table, they have suffered the same problem as Arsenal in quite a few games this season. For example, Arsenal and Chelsea first choice style of play which is possession style football seems to collapse against tougher opposition especially when put under pressure I have seen many matches this season where they have been force into counter attacking rearguard style football.
Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United have been very dominant against virtually all opposition this season regardless of result. Most teams has struggle to get a good foothold in matches against them. They rarely get force into counter attacking style football.