The big London Derby between the capital’s two top teams is coming up, and there is no doubt that Wojciech Szczesny and Thibaut Courtois will have a big part to play in who emerges the winner. In the build up Courtois says that Arsenal are a “really top team” while Szczesny has named Chelsea as one of the best sides in Europe, and Diego Costa as one of the world’s best strikers. Szczesny said on Arsenal.com: “Costa is incredible,”
“His partnership with Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard has been incredible and, at the moment, he’s looking as dangerous as any striker in the world.
“We’ve got huge respect for him and we know how dangerous he is. I think he’s scored in most games so it’ll be a tough test.
“At the moment Chelsea are as good as you will get in Europe. They score goals and they’ve always defended very well so it’ll be a very tough test but it’s one that we’re looking forward to.
“Hopefully we can leave last season’s result behind us and show that we can get the result against them.”
Chelsea’s keeper returned the compliment and is looking forward to his first London derby with the Blues. Courtois was quoted as saying: “There are a lot of teams in London and all these games are important as you can prove you are the best team in London, and that is always nice for the supporters to be able to say that, so we will do our best to win these games.
“Of course derbies are always special, Arsenal are a really top team and when you are a small boy you dream to play these games. If you play in them you can enjoy them a lot and hopefully we have a lovely Sunday afternoon.”
Err hopefully Arsenal fans will have a lovely Sunday afternoon, and Szczesny will stop Costa from adding to his impressive goal tally….
looks like szcz ha already shat his pants… gonna be tough if the players giving so much respect to chelski. why dont we just go out and beat them? we can do it if the team is mentally ok.
I doubt Szczesny is scared. What did you expect him to say? Costa is Shit and i hope he busts a fcking hamstring?
6-0, and Szczesny was on the starting XI that day, I wouldn’t blame him if he’s a bit nervous. How many times have you seen Szczesny showing respect for the opposition like that anyway?
I doubt that he is the only one.
that is the problem he isnt used to be like that, that is why im afraid sir
i really do hope he busts a hamstring though…
Time for Courtois to lose his first game for Chelsea.
I’m not confident about this game. A win at Stamford Bridge and beating the overhyped Chelsea would do a world of good to the team’s confidence though. For starters, just play Ozil in the middle.
Mourinho said a couple weeks back that Costa isn’t able to play more than one game a week yet because of his hamstring problem. He played at the weekend as well as midweek in the Champions League. I doubt that means he won’t start, but it may mean he won’t be able to play the full game, at least not at 100%.
Funny how Chelsea’s players can cope with hamstring problems and continue, whilst our players show no signs of injury then all of a sudden they’re out for a month or more…
time to revenge them!!!! MOre hattricks please Wellbecks!!!!!
We need pace to win….I will be scared like szes if I see Ozil, Cazorla, and Jack at the same time on the starting eleven…..
Well the way I see it, everyone who played on Wednesday played well enough to earn their place against Chelsea, except Szczesny, but I doubt he’ll be dropped.
I thought Cazorla played well, but changing him for Wilshere is the only change I can see happening, unless we get even more injuries of course.. Wenger seems to like playing Wilshere in the big games.
I have a serious question. Why do teams like Chelsea and City find it difficult to scrape a 1-0 or 2-1 win past Stoke City or Sunderland, but when Arsenal come calling they’re able to put five, six, goals beyond us? Aren’t we like… supposed to be tougher to beat than Stoke and Sunderland? How many mid-table clubs have conceded five, six goals in the last 4 seasons? Any explanation on this question that has been troubling my mind is most welcome 😀
Arsenal actually try to win these games and as a result, we leave ourselves exposed defensively as we commit players forward to try and score. We are weak in defensive midfield and our fullbacks are often caught forward too, which is why we generally concede a few.
Other teams like Stoke and Sunderland try not to lose the game, so they make themselves more difficult to beat and rarely go forward. They occasionally try and counter-attack to get a goal to hold on to. Most often teams lose doing this, but on occasion it works.
We lack quality central defence backup and a real intelligent combative defensive midfielder. You cannot compare Arteta and Flamini to Matic, Ramires, Fernandinho etc. Wenger glossing over the obvious need for those departments of the team is a ‘crime’. That is our weakness.
Calm down there. Flamini = Ramires and Fernandinho is no better than Arteta but just has legs. Matic, however is in a league of his own.
I’d say Flamini < Ramires < Arteta < Fernandinho < Matic
I pray that szczesny is focus for this game, and doesnt do anything foolish like in the galatasarey match! Coyg!
As long as we have pace going forward with danny boy, alexis, and “the ox” with ozil in the middle pulling the strings we have got a damn good fighting chance of coming away from stamford bridge with a result win or draw! a win is my greatest priority!!!!! Coyg!
Özil will be man-marked by Ramires for the entire game. Unless Ramires gets booked early, or maybe sent off, Özil will struggle to get involved.
I expect we’ll have to attack Ivanovic as he’s slow which means we could potentially attack down the left wing with Alexis. Cahill and Terry are very good at dealing with crosses, so we’ll have to just fizz in low balls and hope someone can get on the end of them. Either that or we can try parking Welbeck on Terry to outpace him with a good through ball – easier said than done, especially as Azpilicueta and Cahill will be quick trying to cover him. Then after all that we have to beat Courtois…
But most important of all. We need to keep a clean sheet. Going a goal down just means that Obi Mikel will come on and the game will be dead at that point..
Its time our players stand up and take it as a personal mission to beat chelsea and mou for Wenger . He has always defended our players even when they have performed poorly . pls do it for Wenger . WIN IT FOR WENGER ….
The game tomorrow will be won or lost in midfield.
Chelsea are a real threat at set pieces – Fabregas gives very good delivery and they have Ivanovuc, Matic, Cahill, Terry and Costa all very good at attacking them.
We don’t quite have the height or physical presence to match Chelsea man-for-man at set pieces, but with Mertesacker, Welbeck, Koscielny and Chambers we should hopefully be able to cope. We’ll have Szczesny as another towering presence too, so I’m feeling a little more confident than I have been – why? I don’t know, it’s not as if our team has changed much, if anything it’s shorter without Giroud. I guess it’s because now we haven’t conceded a headed goal since we played Man City, whereas they were flying in every game at the start of the season..