There has been a lot of talk over the years since the previous dominance Arsenal had over Chelsea was turned around when Jose Mourinho first took over as their manager. Spending exorbitant amounts of money on players while Arsene Wenger had the spending power of a street cleaner with a big overdraft did not help matters but once the hoodoo was broken it was turned around and it was Arsenal that could not get a result against Chelsea.
Wenger has always insisted that his failure to win against his managerial rival was not a mental problem for him, and now that the Gunners have beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea in the Community Shield, that is not so much of an issue anymore.
But the boss has admitted today that there may have been an issue in the minds of some Arsenal players and perhaps the team as a whole. In an Arsenal.com report he also said that he was not paying too much attention to how our London rivals have struggled so far this season, insisting that it is still early days and that he still expects a tough and intense challenge at Stamford Bridge.
But he also thinks that our win in the season opener at Wembley last month may well have helped Arsenal by removing any mental blocks that our players may have had.
He said, “For me, what is important is that Arsenal win games. It can sometimes be a mental block for the players or the team when they do not win against certain teams. On that front it was good [to win the Community Shield].
“What you expect from these kinds of games is [that they are] always high intensity, full commitment and of course you want to prepare for that and play with a full focus.
“For us it’s a big game. Let’s not forget it’s the start of the season and only five games have been played. We know our position at the end of the season will depend on how well we do in the big games.
“I do not think too much about where Chelsea stand in the league at the moment. I focus more on us performing well, with full power.”
Wenger also suggested that Arsenal may have a secret weapon in Petr Cech and not just because of his excellent keeping ability, but because of the little insights he can give on his former team mates. So are we confident Gooners?
Breaking news! – Chelsea given huge boost for their crunch derby with London rivals Arsenal, as Arsene Wenger is declared fit and available.
If we eventually manage to Grind out a draw, Akb’s will be like, mourinho has not defeated wenger this season, blah blah blah
Not going to happen if Wenger persist with giroud and Ramsey on the wing.
At best ,a draw but my betting mind tells me Chelsea are winning this
dont know if wenger can punish chelsea, but wenger certainly has punished AFC fans quite a bit this transfer window. but he probably increased ROI for kroenke by not getting cavani with a poor resale value so thats all that matters.
If we don’t do something stupid like getting a red card, conceding a penalty or a freak early goal I think we should be okay. We have this annoying tendency of shooting ourselves in the foot in the big games (RVP red versus Barcelona, Wilshere red versus United, OX hand ball versus Chelsea etc).
Who cares if “only five” games have been played???? This is the BIG one against the one with a BIG MOUTH and that mouth must be shut. Arsene himself knows how much pain that mouth has caused him and he’s got to do everything to give the mouth a KO!!!
Wenger said the same thing 2 yrs back….and we got hammered badly
How I would like to be a fly on the wall and gear what Wenger is telling them in the locker room. I was looking everywhere but could not find a clip with pre game pep talks from Arsenal. I can only imagine how it was when Tony Adams was there by hearing from Gerrard.
My international experiences had started in May 2000. Despite being quiet and shy, I suddenly had Tony Adams screaming in my face, in the old Wembley dressing room: ‘Are you ****ing ready for this?’
My blood turned cold. My throat was already dry. I managed a Scouse mumble: ‘Let’s have it.’
Where have we lost these players? Where are our captains? We didn’t even needed a coach, so big were our players. Why do we field players ready to give up if they make the slight mistake? Why do we start games with Gibbs or Arteta? Why do we start games with Ox? I don’t care about the score, just want to see they break bones or die trying. C’mon! Make us f$king proud godammit!
Bud you forget to mention
England went on to lose
the qualifier against
Latvia 1-4 🙂
But yeah just has to be
the day to break the cycle.
I don’t remember that game but I believe Gerrard speaks about the game against Ukraine. If my memory serves me right, Tony Adams scored that night.
wenger’s pregame speech to big up the players:
ok guys, we need a bit of consistency today and although we haven’t beaten chelsea at stamford bridge for 100 years, i believe in you. zee referee and fans will be a bit against us and i have already prepared my excuses. also, altho we have no good centre forward, everyone can score maybe. maybe we can have a bit of intensity in the first half. i wont be yelling at you, or getting off my seat, or preparing any special tactics for this game. just go out there and do what you can. make sure you don’t foul zee chelsea behemoths and remember : no long balls: we play everything on the grass in short predictable passes. also: if you have a bad game, i wont sub you no matter what so your delicate confidence will be protected. dont forget to collect your checks after the game.
Budd, good question. Who bought these weak souls? Who puts them on the pitch time and time again to represent the club?
Again, I am not going into this debate again. Everyone here cried ROTATE! Let’s just say the rotation team did not delivered and be done with it.
we cried ROTATE, but we also cried 100 times for a 2nd DM so he could rotate into someone reliable. instead we got arteta in zagreb. 0 contribution. 0 surprise.
This game is a really
big chance for Arsenal
before Chelsea can recover.
A win would be a massive boost
for the winner and a big blow to the loser.
What if Chelsea already recovered? Just play the goddam game as it would be the last you play. Seriously, it is a matter of confidence. We have technical people, we can do it. But if you are not right up there no amount of skill will make it. And we all agree here that Mourinho is better than Wenger at making players to be good up there. We will see. I reckon we will win this. But then again, this is what I expect from my team. Hope they won’t let me down.
If we concede first…its practically over..
The entire plane will be at the post blocking
Tony Adams is back…right?
Coquelin
not to concede early is key , i think.
also: we cant play in our half the whole time so we have to retain possession from in midfield. i bet chelsea will try to strip us in the midfield.
thirdly, altho i dont particularly like walcott at CF, he’s better than giroud. if we’re to score, we’ll have 1 chance and we better take it.
it’ll be good to have a defense: coq, bellerin, cech, monreal.
I have since ceased listening to Wenger, pre game or after……the dude is full of contradictions and its just embarrassing some of the stuffs he comes out with….he had always said the appalling record against Chelsea does not bother the squad or him before and after every beating Mourhino hands out to us…and now he is saying it did after winning one game against him….and don’t let us go into the constant blunders on injuries….Every time Wenger gives a prognosis on an injured player it’s always always wrong, by miles…so if he says its a minor injury just know the said injury will require an op and the player will be out for months……its a joke really