Six Things I Learnt from the Chelsea Game by Uche
Looking back at Arsenal’s game against Chelsea yesterday, I must say that our performance wasn’t bad. Of course everybody has an opinion on this game from the positive to the negative but here are a few things that I would say I got out of this game.
1. We Have Improved:
Before, this Arsenal team did not put up a fight against teams like Chelsea, especially last season. In fact, the smaller teams even showed more fight than we did playing against Chelsea. But after last night’s performance, it is evident that we are bolder and better in every aspect. We went from losing 6-0 to losing 2-0 in a very tight game.
2. This was a game of fine margins:
I will be the first to admit that I missed the first half of the game but from what I saw in the second half, we outplayed Chelsea. In fact, they parked the bus and were visibly nervous all through the game. I never expected us to have as much possession as we did – and they only let us have that much possession out of fear that we will hurt them if they came out with all guns blazing. So this is good.
3. Exceptional Quality Made the Difference:
Very often when we lose, we call our manager and players average. But that is not always true. Let us not let anger rob us of our ability to be fair. That game was tight and what won it was the exceptional quality possessed by Diego Costa (the league’s best striker), Eden Hazard (the league’s best attacking midfielder) and Cesc Fabregas (premier league’s best number ten). When you play very well and you get undone by the brilliance of a Luis Suarez or Cristiano Ronaldo, don’t beat up yourself too much. They are the best players in the world for a reason. We had such players once in Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera and they won us tight games too against very good opposition.
4. Jose Mourinho is Tactically Superior to Arsene Wenger:
Believe me, it hurts to admit this particular point but I am at peace in conceding the obvious. Once upon a time Arsene Wenger was the new and unknown kid on the block with all the innovative ideas and he stormed the premier league and won a bunch of titles back when Manchester United dominated everything. But alas, all good things come to an end. No coach or team can dominate forever. Ferguson and Wenger’s dominance was undone by Jose Mourinho back in the day and today, even Jose Mourinho accepts that the competition is fiercer than ever. You only need to mention these three names to get the so called Special One thoroughly humbled. They are Pep Guardiola (who beat him 5-0 in their very first El Classico in la Liga), Jorgen Klopp (who humbled Mourinho 4-1 in a Champions League master class inflicted by Robert Lewandowski) and Diego Simeone (the newest genius manager on the block who won la Liga last season and eliminated Mourinho’s Chelsea from the Champions league at Stamford Bridge by thoroughly beating them 3-1). All three managers are younger and hungrier than Mourinho and have beaten him resoundingly. So managers dominate in cycles and I have made peace with the fact that our boss is no longer the best and may never be able to beat a Mourinho led Chelsea side.
5. Arsenal is not going to win the Premier League:
Our best chance of winning it was last season, but we screwed it up by not buying additional strikers to share the burden with Olivier Giroud. The competition is too fierce now and we are not ruthless enough to win. I don’t see Wenger telling Wilshere or Chamberlain to get into the opposition’s box and try to get fouled so we can get a penalty. But that is the kind of ruthlessness that coaches like Mourinho and Guardiola employ to get ahead when the going gets tough. Guardiola does it regularly with Arjen Robben and Mourinho did it on Sunday with Eden Hazard. Wenger is too idealistic to do stuff like that.
6. Arsene Wenger Loves his Midfielders:
For as long as Wenger remains the boss, he will do things his own way even when he is wrong. The whole world agrees that we need pace and wingers to balance our team. The Galatasaray master class confirmed that much. But Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil will always be in Wenger’s starting eleven and in each other’s way. That is as certain as the rising sun and I am done losing sleep over Wenger’s ways. I will enjoy the game when we play well and sulk when we don’t. Why fight the things we cannot change?
Have a good one folks. Peace.
Uche
Well this article certainly cheered me up.
7. With Wenger in charge we will win around 1 trophy a decade and stay at number 4
Shame on you, Uche, just this once. “We went from losing 6-0 to losing 2-0”, is that an accomplishment?
Agree with Uche on number 4 but don’t you think Martnez (of Everton) is also much better tactically than our Wenger despite having half the class in our team?
Emm Everton played the same way all the time. Tactically there wasn’t much wrong against Chelsea. They are just much better.
6-0 or 2-0 we still dropped 3 points don’t you get it. A ten man City came from behind to steal a point. What’s wrong with us much lesser teams even beat Chelsea last year but we get smashed.
@Dboy, u’r right
I don’t agree with that theory of younger generations of managers always beating older ones. That makes sense for players not managers. How come Fergie went on winning long after he was supposed to have retired? What generation was Vicente del Bosque when he won the the World and European cups? Never beating a Mourinho team is a pain we all feel but throughout most of that era of draws and losses we have been well behind Chelsea in terms of team quality. And this was a tight game.
Fergie was a national champion. With all his exploits in England, he dint do that in Europe. If my memory serves me right, Fergie defeated Mou once.
Del Bosque won those trophies with “Barcelona” Let him do it again!
Its not just about being younger, the quality has to be there.
Tell me Simeone/Klopp/Pep would handle Arsenal against Mou and fail to score in four trials.
Wasn’t Del Bosque the Real Madrid manager?
So did “Brayen Munich” win this year’s World Cup?
I agree with him that managers dominate in cycles. Not necessarily because of their age but a lot of other factors. Like players, managers decline. Some players last way into their thirties while others peak early and start declining. Other players attain so much success that it gets to their heads and they think they’re invincible, so they stop doing the things that got them that success in the first place. This is the category Wenger falls into. He’s all powerful on and off the pitch and has no one to question his decisions. The only reason the board is not breathing down his neck is because he’s making them a lot of money. Hell, they even gave him a new contract! My advice to us all is to be pessimistic for the duration of Wenger’s contract because nothing would change while he’s at the helm of affairs. Worse still….he could be offered a new contract. I’d shoot myself.
with what .. a super soaker? dont do it.. we need the water
A decent boycott by the fans would see Wenger gone within a month. It’s a matter of deciding which comes first Arsene or Arsenal. I read recently that our wage bill is higher than Chelsea’s and that we’ve spent just 10% less than Chelsea on our current squads. Given that Chelsea are favourites to win the Premiership and we are mooted for 3rd or 4th place as usual there is something seriously wrong. Arsenal have become a 2nd tier club and the question is how long will us fans continue to put Arsene before Arsenal???
@Mistamonn… you make a hellota sense on that comment! In fact, you make too much sense it hurts. One CL final in 18 years at the top, a long trophy-less drought (stadium debt, my ass!), repeating the same unsuccessful tactics year after year even though they carry the same weaknesses, can’t beat poor United at their worst, strengthening the enemy with transfers… the list of transgressions this man has committed against Arsenal is growing & bordering on treason! I’m sure any top-level manager should be able to figure out better tactics to outwit a fellow manager well before losing 12 games against him. But Wenger? Nope! Stuck to his ways!
People are massively overreacting. Arsenal have played the most top 7 fixtures (City, Everton, Chsea and Spurs). Before Christmas we play only United and Liverpool who are struggling bigtime and should beat. We can stick together a winning run and catch Chelsea. I’m not saying we are very likely to win the league, however we can lose to City and chelsea and still win it. It’s consistency over a 38 game season. Costa, Hazard and Fabregas are not the leagues best in their positions. Costa isn’t a one season wonder, however I would argue that Aguero, Falcao, RVP and Rooney are better. A no 10 is an attacking midfielder and I would argue that Alexis and Di Maria are better. Fabregas ain’t a traditional no 10. He is more box to box. Ozil is flopping big time atm and don’t complain about Wenger playing him out wide. Those are stupid excuses. I quote from an interview in August: “It’s different playing on the left. When I was in Madrid, I often played on the right. I enjoyed that because I’m left-footed and I was able to cut inside to give assists and get shots on target. On the left, it’s more difficult. If I do get past someone I’m still away from the danger zone, still on the flank, and it’s harder for me to find the final ball with my right foot than with my left.
People called me a liar for saying that he played on the right for real madrid. Well there is your proof. The on l y thing seperating us from chelsea is a defensive midfielder.
I wouldn’t bank on Man utd. Do you know we have not beaten Man utd in our last 13 meetings. Wenger couldn’t even take advantage of Moyes. Even he is unbeaten by Wenger while at Utd.
There’s another addition to Wenger’s long list of transgressions… 13 games – can’t beat United… Oh yeah, 12 games too, and we can’t beat Mourinho… That’s 25 games Wenger has failed to win against top opposition… Don’t give me that bullshht that she didn’t have the money to compete! It’s his tactics that are rotten!
i just finished watching the game again, and i must admit, we did play well. but then, im gonna agree with the post, esp 4 and 5. mourinho is tactically superior to wenger, and we are not going to win the premier league…
surprised u only realised that after chelsea game.
majority of us knew that when the transfer window shut
LOL Muff. That one surprises me too,how some of us knew it straight after transfer deadline day. And some people are just shocked by whats happening.
Right on point, my countryman. We need a younger and hungrier Manager.
Arsene should have left when the ovation was loudest. I hope he does not get humiliated beyond repair before quitting Arsenal.
Age isn’t suddenly going to make a difference. What would the difference be? Arsene Wenger wouldn’t. be in the job without hunger.
We have new lessons, ohh, okay. I might aswell track my comments from last seasons game and past them here apart from the score line reducing.
1. Wenger cant still beat Mori
2.Wilshere still looses the ball unnecessary
3.Chelsea has a better and more balanced squad overall
4. Wenger does not learn from the past and he keeps making the same mistakes
5. Our players don’t seem to be motivated and up for the fight in big games
6. Lack of early substitutions and picking the right team
The question is, we the funs have learnt all these lessons, but has Arsene and his boys learnt anything too!!!
& I totally agree mate & by the way #FACK AW! !! Hiz days are over on to the next
umm sorry to burst your bubble- few years left on the contract- so yes his days are numbered- somewhere around the 800 mark left
Wenger was never a tactical genius. His main USP was finding crude players and shaping them.
Anelka, Ovamars, Petit, Viera,…………
But after the better use of technology, you have scouts in every fcuking game.
Porto, Benfica and other Portuguese club thrive on selling players. They scout South America like none other.
Wenger has stoped bringing in unknown players by the hand now.(Shut up Sonogo was a u-20 World Cup star).
He lets Southampton do the work now and than cherry picks.(How he missed out on Bale is beyond me).
Wenger USP is squad building.
Like if you compare the Double winners of 1998 to the Invincibles of 2004. You will find 3-4 players who remained.
After Bergkamp retired and he sold Henry, he built again.
The team that reached the UCL semis and lost to United was again a whole lot different team.
And now you compare the same squad to the FA Cup winners. Same story. 2-3 players remain of that squad.
I believe we are still short in many places. I believe this January and our next summer window will be the key difference.
Also if you look at the hugh clear out this summer-
Flamini, Arteta, Diaby, Rosicky- Contract will be up. They will be replaced by Gnabry, Zelalem.(Dan Crowly will take a bit more time).
Podolski and Santi(+30 rule)- should be sold. Will be sold.
That is 6 players. Only veterans.
Giroud has a big chance of being sold if he fcuks up anymore.
Mert will reach the ripe age of 30. I feel he will be a 2nd choice CB. And we will bring in someone new.
I see up in this January and Summer bringing in atleast 7-8 new players from outside and within.
And than we will be set.
Also,
Danny- 23
Mesut- 25
Sanchez- 25
Chambers-19
Ox- 21
Jack- 22
Ramsey- 23
Szczesny- 23
Gibbs- 24
We will be set for a very very very long time to come. And i wouldn’t mind us selling may be one or two if we get an ridiculously good offer. 50+. Nothing less.
Squad building is just the basics of being a manager. It’s like a central midfielder knowing how pass and break up play. After building a squad, how do you get the best out of the squad game by game? That’s called tactics, and any manager should have tactics be it inferior or superior to his rival. Wenger simply has NONE. I’m sure I speak for most fans when I say that the frustration is not so much that we lose the big games but the MANNER in which those games are lost.
Very well assessment. We got to be patient for at least another season.
I can sense there is a taunt hidden somewhere.
😉
Nope just conquer with your assessment which is nicely stated. Is just that most of fans here have tasted blood (improvement of last season+trophy), they expected wenger to be in full force to come out a championship team.
From I see he is still building the new team but this time he is quite slow. “)
Love point no. 4.
Well as much as I hate Mourinho, I have to admit that he is a tactical genius…..The best thing about Mourinho is that he analyses the opposition and has a plan in place to exploit their weaknesses and more often than not it works.
Wenger on the other is too attached to his ideologies and wouldn’t wanna change much tactically. We can only hope that we get our season back on track now and put this disappointment behind us.
AW is not a big fan of squad rotation, he believes in starting IX. But now he doesn’t know what is his best starting IX and what is his formation. And for all ‘tactically genius’ manager have two things in common “their teams defend well” and “they score when it matters the most, sometimes one chance in whole game and still they score with that one chance”.
7. letting fabregas join them blues might have handed them the league title.
8. although this game didn’t scream for a that ‘beast’ DMF everyone craves about but this game needed a proper finisher to make more of those 2 chances against chelsea.
9. Nothing to blame about the 4-1-4-1 formation coz ozil goes missing in big games.
The lad is just in poor form and has lost his mojo a bit. He always was a big match player.
Let me describe-
U-21 world final. MOTM- Mesut Özil.
2010 WC against England, ran rings around the English, got noticed in the process and picked by RM.
Dump those.
Let’s just talk of the FA Cup-
MOTM performances against Liverpool and Everton.
I keep repeating this but
It’s only a matter of time.
Sorry that should read U-21 World Cup finals.
No. Not a chance.
Didn’t you see him celebrating the 2nd goal with Diego(pull your hamstring) Costa?
Six things the board and wenger need to realise
1)You cant use the same philosophy of passing and scoring the perfect goal as you did back 10 years ago. That team had ljunberg, pires, Bergkamp, viera, Henry, not to mention a great defense. Those players have left and have not been replaced even now.
2)You especially shouldn’t try the passing and attacking game against mourinho at stamford bridge. They have an unbelievable record at home. I know it sounds a bit defeatist but be logical for a second. We all knew there was no other possible outcome from this game. They are just too strong at the moment. The pressure was on Chelsea to beat us at the bridge but they showed no signs of it getting to them. They were patient and methodical and at the end of the day they got what they set out for. Even a draw would have felt like a job well done for us.
3)Ozil may play on the wing for Germany at times but the German national team is at a different level. His mistakes wont be punished that much since they have a good defense and they usually end up scoring 3 or more goals in most games. We Don’t. Anyone who saw him play for Real Madrid or the German national team knows that his natural position is at No. 10. Why does wenger keep sticking him on the wing, when it is clear for all to see that he has neither the pace nor trickery to beat wingbacks and put crosses in. The boy can pass. Stick him in the middle , where he will have the maximum options to pass the ball.
4)Get a Defensive mid ASAP. Diaby is in his 10th season. He has played around a 130 matches. That is 13 matches a season. He is turning 29 in six months. Why is he still at Arsenal? Since viera left, this position has been virtually empty. A defender would be nice considering the fact that we are relying on a 19 year old with just 22 games for Southampton to get us through the season is a sorry state of affairs. A loan deal for a striker would be good considering the fact that we are one injury for welbeck away from having to see Yaya Sanogo leading the line. Giroud is still 3 months away.Oh lord.
5)Wenger needs to show some cojones and make the tough decisions. We should have gotten rid of the players who are not at the level of arsenal and also those who are not consistent. We could have had fabregas but couldnt as our midfield is packed with average and just good players. No disrespect, but diaby should have been let go years ago. And cazorla also hasnt been doing enough for me. Arteta should have been released last season. He cant run and he ends up giving needless freekicks and most often than not he has been booked by half time.
6)Mr Wenger, do you honestly feel that you can take Arsenal to the position and the respect we commanded once ? If not, please step down and let someone else bring in their new ideas. Same goes for Stan Kroenke and the board. You are turning this once highly respected club and its fans into a joke. I feel deep sorrow when i think how quickly and dramatically Arsenal’s star is falling.
COYG. All you trolls are invited to destroy that dislike button
Didn’t Cazorla win you the FA cup and community shield a few months ago? Ingrate!
I don’t know why everyone thinks Wilshere played badly against chelsea? He played great, his movement and passing was on point. I know he had a great opportunity to score and took a horrible first touch, but other than that I thought he played well
Would like to see a line up (when walcott comes back) of
—————-welbeck————
–sanchez—-ozil/cazorla—–walcott
——-wilshere/arteta———–ramsey/arteta——
—-gibbs—-kosc——mert—–chambers(susp 1 game though)
——————–szczesny————
To save all the crap blogs PLZ AW leave. AD c YA and half of that team. New manager play our players in there right positions and u will see the difference if not we have Man U in a few weeks and they will find a way to over come the arsenal
We need to go on a run now and pick up the points, I believe our next 3 league games are Hull, Burnley, Swansea… 9 points expected out of those three games.
What our team lacks Is…
1. Aggression
2. One or two big strong physical players (leaders) e.g tony Adams or viera
3.dont be afraid to shoot outside the box. We can’t always walk the ball into the net.
Hit the nail on the head there son.
ive been hitting that same nail for several years now…bloody built a house with the amount ive accumulated
I also missed first half. I listened to game and watched highlights. We had some good chances. With healthy Giroud, Ramsey, Walcott. It could have gone either way. Cesc had hands up should have been a free kick and Szez was scared to come out b/c of recent red. Obviously Chelsea better side, but we’ve got players to come back, January window, and hopefully some good geriatric meds for Wenger
Wenger asked for January window to be scrapped. I doubt he will do any proper business. Might just sign an injured player again. Don’t hold your breath.
7) Its time for AW and AFC to part ways
MOU may be tactical but we shouldn’t forget dat Chelsea players are far better than ours one on one. Can Morinho (if he is in charge of Arsenal fc) beat chelsea with dis our present players.
I bet he can. He won the Champions league with Porto.
The Hazard penalty was partly to blame on not having a proper DM and Chambers (though I think he is playing very well for his experience and age). Once Hazard lost Chambers he just breezed past Flamini. Noe if we had a proper DM he would have checked Hazard ,even if he fouled him and taken one for the team. But if you look at how Hazard lost Chambers Flamini was just helpless. That’s why some of us knew on transfer deadline day, we had no chance.
I think arsenal played well and was quite unfortunate, a DM would have read the danger when Hazard switch to the middle and Chambers should have been communicating. That penalty cost arsenal the game, it allowed chelsea to sit back and wait for a counter which they did in the second half.
Mou been classified as a tactical genius, i doubt it, i would more say the smarts of one player which was HAZARD he won the game for chelsea, my too poorest players were Ozil and Sanchez, both did not show physical strength on the ball and was too easily ease off the ball. I was very disappointed with Sanchez the chelsea right-back won the ball from him on several occasions too easy and got under his skin .
In a match like this we needed another big body to physically wear chelsea down and this is where a Sanogo or Giroud would have caused chelsea problems in the box, especially at one, i think Sanogo although RAW is an important pat of our developing squad, especially chasing games. Seeing a Podolski who is not really interested is not helping arsenal. A Sanogo and welbeck would have given this Chelsea defense hell in the second half.
I hope he returns after the international break, because he is an important member of the team, mr Wenger is still a puzzle after showing some fire with the tackle on sanchez, he went back to a fake smile immediately, if he had continue ranting i felt that would have fired u the team more, basically what wenger did was just for show..
Would the Gala team done better, with ozil not offering much on the wings i felt Ox would have gotten more free kicks and put terry and the LB under pressure without the need to chase the game and also help in defending against hazard.
I still think arsenal can challenge for this title we have a squad that can actually do some damage, if selected correctly, even without an experience DM(Hayden/Coquelin must be given their chance)
Hmmmm….. Wenger Wenger Wenger …..
1. The only thing i want to know is, what did wenger discuss with Özil to convince him to come to Arsenal?
2. Ozil is a good player that become xtra odinary when he’s in a team filled with Quality not Potential. We’re nt and will never be that team with wenger.
3. How can we the fans make Usmanov the major Shareholder and get rid of Stan?
4. We the fans can kick wenger out faster, by voicing our thoughts and boycotting Home Games. That way they’ll count their loses in ticket sales & wenger won’t be the Profit man anymore.
5. If We really love Arsenal, we should be aggressive…. Wenger must go. We own the Club not Stan, we pay wenger’s salary with our money, We are Arsenal NOT Wenger. Let Us Voice it Out. Don’t let Superstar signings or emphatic wins decieve us, Wenger is Past his Peak and is Stagnantly Stubborn to Evolution. We Are Moving Foward & he’s dead weight.
Thank for Everything Lé Prof but it’s time to take a Bow.
¤We Are Arsenal¤
i would add one more item to that list of six .we learned that wenger the clown is a thug . he attacked the chelsea manager while representing the arsenal . how long more must we put up with this thug clown . wenger out now berofe he brings our great club down in every sense of the word.
Under AW R I P ARSENAL
Omg you guys are such amateurs!! the problem with arsenal is INJURIES!!!
How can one team lose Walcott/Ramsay/Giroud+Arteta+debuchy+sanogo
Two of those starters (Walcott and Ramsay) should’ve been in that game against Chelsea if they weren’t injured then we can discuss who could’ve won. Arsenal’s problem for the past 10 years has been too many key players being injured during key periods of the season.
Finally, how would’ve chelsea fared against us without costa/fabregas/hazard? ya exactly!!
So we went from 6-0 to 2-0 and some fans are calling it an improvement…lol !!
And what about going from a 6-0 to a win?
I even saw that guy from Arsenal TV talking about an improvement as we did not get trashed…!!
I mean, I kind of know now that some Arsenal fans are just addicted to “the failing routine” institutionalised by Arsene Wenger, but come on!!
It is, obviously clear, that Chelsea is a better team and better managed, but is that what you want?
You still have fans saying that Wenger is the right man for the job… Sometimes you wonder if we just deserve all the f*ck ups and downs happening right now (and before).
This a club, even before the season starts, were ambitions and objectives are never stated. From the start of the season and after a few games, you already know we will challenge for f*ck nothing!