There were strong performances throughout the Arsenal team as we played host to a very strong and defensively organised Chelsea side yesterday, with players like Coquelin, Ramsey and Cazorla as well as all four defenders having a shout for the Man of the Match award but I am giving it to Mesut Ozil who linked our play and was all over the pitch and never stopped until the end.
Ospina 6. Perhaps lucky with the Oscar penalty claim but his usual calm and confident display.
Bellerin 7. Did very little wrong and got forward tirelessly to help our attacks.
Mertesacker 7. Strong display from the BFG and some key tackles.
Koscielny 7. Quick, powerful and aggressive as usual.
Monreal 7. Another solid display from the Spaniard and some good work going forward as well.
Coquelin 7.5 Did a great job especially staying in control after the booking
Cazorla 7. Did a job for the team but I feel his talents are wasted in a deeper role.
Ramsey 7.5 A much better display on the right from the Welshman.
Ozil 8. I am forgiving him that late miss because he must have been tired after his non-stop game and at least he was there.
Alexis 7. His energy and desire were vital but his decisions and final ball let him down at times.
Giroud 6.5 Worked hard in a thankless task against the Chelsea defence but struggled to influence the game.
subs.
Welbeck 6. Did alright but had no space to use his pace.
Walcott 6. Little time to impress but looked sharper.
sorry im one of ozil biggest fan but even i dont dont think he deserved it. he was brilliant during 1st half but in 2nd half he seem to fade out a little. missing a last minute sitter, losing a couple of possesion just cant be overlook like that. ramsey and bellerin is much more deserving imo.
I really don’t know what rambo need to do to get a recognition on this site. May be he needs to carry us on his bag for 1 more season for us to respect him. Rambo played on the right and he never hides. he worked like mad all game. he is our most complete midfielder and he should be in the middle. One of Ozil or cazorla need to make way for rambo in the middle. We cannot try to accommodate everyone in the starting 11 in such a game.
You know sanchez always drifts inside. then Rambo will come in too on the other side. where is the width? how can u break chelsea when you don’t make the pitch bigger?
Arrigo Sachi once said the best 11 Players is not always the best team. We need to be picking the best team. Why play Rambo Ozil cazorla in a big game together. This is not Hull or Burnley its fxxxxxxx Chelsea. We shall always lack width when we do this. We need to stretch a Defensive team like Chelsea andmake the pitch bigger. Theo Ox and Welbeck are in the squad for a reason. We are playing at home. take the fxxx initiative.
That said Rambo Bellerin and Nacho were by far our best players yesterday. Ozil has been great since his return but giving him man of the match is just laughable.
What’s annoying is that we tried the same lineup against Reading, and we suffered for it. I’m sure this lineup
http://www.justarsenal.com/arsenal-v-chelsea-expected-line-ups-and-tactical-advice/40696/comment-page-1#comment-955513
would have done better. I didn’t even include Cazorla or Ozil.
I think coqelin was one if not our best player he was a wall in the middle of the field w/o him we would of lost big
And yah I don’t think ozil was MOTM he had good first half
Second half he looked tired and he missed a sitter that would of won us the game
Ozil man of the match Fu–k no,the man against strong opposition seems just non combative,he looses the ball easily and seems disgust against himself,giving up instead of running his ass to try getting it back.Bad body laguage,it make you think he is weak.
Look at Sanchez,the guy has many silly choices in his games but he is forgiven because when he looses the ball he run after you like you stole his money,strong body language.
Ramsey for Fu–k sake is not a RW,only his friends and family are happy to see him play there but any true Arsenal fans would prefer Welbek or Walcot there because they are true RW.Those who say he is more a threat for goal than the two others are deluded .
In the start of the season we were playing with everyone out of position,slow wilshair in the middle,slow Oz and Caz on the wing.Guess what were going nowhere.Wilshere got injured,ramsey too and Ozil and Wenger was forced to play people at their real position and we started to win.
I guess the problem is Wenger,he has to find a way to play his favourites even against the balance of the team.Wait next year when Wilshair will be totally fit,back to the a case with crappy results until he get unavoidably injured.
HECTOR BELLERIN 9.5
Ramsey perfoming better than Carzola leaves me wondering wat game u were watching, and welbeck getting equal with walcot makes me feel sick.
Ransey almost cost us the point wen he lost the ball in middle of the park in the dieng minutes and welbeck will run n’ run but never make an assist or score(no goal in the league2015) walcot did some visible staf at least by pulling some defenders n’ trying to run behind the blue boring bus
Despite his unconscious collission with Oscar I tink Oooooopinal deserve a 7ratin for the Ramirez safe. Sanchez has lots of works to do,releasin the ball at the right time and good end product. I was tinkin our attack was perfect until yesterday game,lots of loos balls from d attacker in a promisin areas,I must confess cfc were more deadly in d attack dat we do. To win the league next season the attack needs to be on top takin full chance of the situation. It wasn’t down to Olivier alone bt ouch all d front men,ozil was frustrated at some point I guess
You must not forget that this is the type game mour tactics are made for, they had ten pts lead and away from home, are we really that surprised the match finished nil all.
I believe Henry was too harsh on Giroud, our other players gave him nothing in support and or opportunities, admittedly che had him in pocket but still harsh i reckon.
We do need another top Striker but that is mainly for CL and games against che, i think we could win a league title having Giroud as our main man but in a match i wouldnt expect to get the better of che anytime soon. We know we can be a match for any team in this country right now except for che, so of course we are capable.. others will improve however so we must too.
I dont agree on Sanchezs score Welbecks Walcotts or Girouds.. very inflated if you ask me. Sure che defended brilliantly especially back four but that means our main striker plus outside forwards should have been more intelligent maybe Giroud should have come back towards midfielders with Sanchez and Ramsey running on ahead… Sanchez Ramsey just werent in box nearly enough times especially first half and Giroud should have realised pretty quickly he wasnt going to get joy in between two cbs.
The old additive its easy to say now… but i was screaming for change of tactic and or players well before Arsene made the call.
Whenever we play Chelsea, if its at d bridge we lose, if at emirates we draw. Dis means we get only 1 point out of a possible 6 while Chelsea get 4. D next time we visit d bridge we must definitely aim for a draw, we shud park d bus. Dat way both of us will hav 2 points out of 6. Had we drawn against Chelsea at d bridge Dey wud hav been only 7 points ahead of us and not 10. If we cant win we must not lose either!
Mous tactics exactly: If cant win get a draw, but never loose…
Are you fking kidding me?
Were not mind readers.
U must not underestimate d value of a draw.
For eg., had we drawn our match against man utd at d emirates we wud currently hav been 5 points ahead of Dem instead of just 2 points. And as things stand now whether we finish above utd depends a whole lot on our trip to old Trafford.
A MATCH AGAINST A TITLE RIVAL IS A 6 POINTER, SO IF WE CANT WIN, WE MUST NOT LOSE EITHER!!
imo, Bellerin deserves the MOM award..Hazard was barely visible in the entire game yesterday and that was down Bellerin’s tight marking on him..He really has come into his own this season and deserves to keep his place until the end of the season!
Fair rating This time around but I felt Bellerin put in a huge shift,showing Maturity in defence and attack he was very solid,Ozil was very good and looked fatigued towards the end he really did well also ramsey played well but with a little bit more composure he would have Made some excellent decisions. Cazorla was really good,but i felt Wenger should have brought in Wilshere for Ozil or Carzola,he needed that player who can burst through that Berlin Wall and the moment was calling out for Wilshere its a huge shame Wenger did see it But in fairness he believed the team would do it an its a shame they just fell short
Bellerin has shown he’s capable of performing in the big games…… And he’s only just a boy…….credit to him
Ramsey is our biggest goal threat from midfield. Goals is what win you big games. Ramsey plays well in the big occasions. Cazorla for all is quality has been poor in his shooting this season. I don’t know why but his shooting has been off all season. Ozil barely shoots. If you don’t shoot you don’t score. The perfect goal doesn’t always work when you play a team like chelsea.
Either we play Ramsey in his best position or we bench him. I am tired of this experiment in big games. When we play small teams it works but even vs reading in Fa cup you could see that we didn’t have enough width in a massive wembly pitch.
We want competition in the squad. there is nothing wrong in having one of Ozil or rambo or cazorla on the bench. Its call having a good squad. no need fitting square pegs into round holes.
Cazorla’s shooting has been a mystery. 2 years ago, whenever he shoots, the ball nestles at the back of the net. I also feel he’s being wasted in a deeper role.
D whole team put up a fight esp defensively but we need to do more in the attack,u don’t get to see lots of chances in a big match bt the ones You creat mum be miximize to the fullest. I do not join the badwagon on olivier and new striker but our widemen didn’t do enough. Ozil created the most chances yesterday bt we had just one shot on target ,where were the chances he created? Squanderd? Not soo good
I know hes a super star, but Alexis had a stinker yesterday,
I can’t believe how we are getting smashed by the media this morning, I think its a good result, It gives us a bit of breathing room over United, which means if we win all our other games, they can’t catch us, I’m happy.
Kinda pissed off with Henry this morning too, I think he is talking a serious ammount of crap lately, with his comments about Hernandez and Giroud. Giroud has been immense since he has come back in, there are not too many top strikers for sale anyway.
Every one is talking about Ospina penalty possible yelow no one talks How high oscar boots was Ospina protected himself else ospina would have had the boot right in his face the rafree was right we need to proect the goal keeper have a look at it and then look at the hand ball and how the hand moved the direction of the ball the hand was used to protect the ball from moving any further Arsenal played very well pitty the ball never went to register a goal we deserved a goal so proud the Arsenal was commited not to conceed well done
The boot is high but too far away from Ospina to be deemed dangerous. The leg is down by the time Ospina is within “dangerous” distance.
The reason Oliver does not give a penalty is because the advantage is played. The advantage is the shot. Our player saves it and clears it off the line straight off the pitch – you will see at least 10 times in a weekend of football that a player shoots and is then connected with by the opposition – these are not fouls because the advantage is the shot and once it has been taken as long as the ball is out of playing distance of the fouled player then the foul is irrelevant. If the ball stays in play it is probably a foul as Ospina has stopped Oscar challenging the next ball. The reason it is not a foul for dangerous play is due to the fact Ospina doesn’t act dangerously. He comes out fast but it is just an unfortunate clash, usually in that situation both players get knocked over and neither is hurt. Was just unfortunate that Oscar took a knock to the head – Ospina doesn’t raise his hands or leg which is where the dangerous usually comes in.
The hand ball appeal can be given but is understandably not a penalty. His arm is raised and he is using it to make himself big, however, it is not really in an unnatural position and is mostly just up as part of his tackle movement. It certainly wasn’t directed towards the ball. As a referee it is down to you if you adjudge that hand to be deliberately high or just part of a natural movement. Oliver chose the latter and you can’t blame him for it.
Mata or ozil?
who is better?
I think we had the opportunity to take Chelsea, but we blew, by not being tactically prepared, Wenger considers is best team With Ozil, Ramsay and Cazorla, in the team at the same time, and to be honest the majority of the times it has worked, however chelsea has a good defensive system (parked bus), one tactics to compact this system is pacey wide players and a two prong attack to keep but defenders occupied. We did not used none of the above, we suddenly looked more dangerous with the injection of Walcott and Welbeck in the game.
Giroud can not be held responsible for the lost when he basically ad 3 defender with him all the while and no supporting cast near him, To Sir Henry if you do not like him for a striker thats fine , but do not put the balme on him for arsenal inabilities
I am disipointed with team, they had to win that game, now everyone is trying to find excuse, they park the bus, as i recall they had 2 clear chances while we didnt have one, i really tought, mentality was changed but guess i am wrong, we played home and they allready won title so none of us had something to lose, and again they settled for draw, and i really dont understand Ramsey winger decision, why would you play 433 whit cm on wing while you have 2 wingers on bench? if Welbs and Walcott arent that good that cm needs to play on wings than why bother buying Welbs or extending Walcott contract? We werent sharp and not enough speed, you could see yesterday when our them start counter no one was fast enough to brake while the fastest player in EPL is on the bench. Wenger knew they will park the bus and still he started with Ramsey while we all knew it wont work, he was so anxious, more than us fans, looks increadible for a man with his exp.
I think Mr Wenger was weary abt chelsea’s counter attacking abilities and how they could hurt us if we are not defensive conscious. I feel this is why he may have opted for Ramsey on the wings again since Theo may not offer such cover for Hector. Welbeck sees himself as a striker so that would have been calamitous for us playing welbs and OG12 in a chelsea match. We could gamble at the bridge but not at the Emirates. Losing at home would be a disaster, worst still, to maureen and his bus boys. I feel only Alex oxlade chamberlain is the missing link in our play. If he were present yest, we could boast of width, defensive cover, attacking threat and goals too. I feel till the Ox returns, this is wengers formation.
Was he also worried about Reading’s counter attacking abilities when he played Ramsey in the same position? Let’s stop giving him excuses!
One of the reason we lost games in the past especially at home was our failure to respect opponents. We feel because we play at home and play with a lot of possession, we should always outplay our opponents. Teams have learnt how to set up against us and hit us on the break. Remember last season aston villa 3-1 and more recently, Monaco. Truth is, we must respect all our opponents and see all their players as genuine threat. Reading would have humiliated us if we approached the match without caution and i think part of the reason for our last winning run was down to the fact dt we respected all our opponents and played with a lot of caution while we used our opportunities well. If ozil had connected with d ball yest, or welbeck had remembered dt we bought him to score goals, we would have defeated chelsea. But we can’t throw caution to d wind bcos we play at home or we play reading. If the ox isn’t bck b4 d fa cup final, yest formation will likely be our formation for wembley.
Yes thats probably reason, but if you dont attack you wont win, so there you go, our manager accepted defeat before the game, and he hoped that maybe Alexis or Ozil perform something crazy and win, thats not how team should be set up, Chelski defence is slow why not use that to our beneffit, no one said we need to have 70 % poss to win, if he was scared from counters than why didnt he surprised Mou and played his style, beat him on his own game, they didnt have strikers they couldnt hurt us, he shold have started with pace and counter their slow defence, simple logic, but it seams our manager freezed
Chelsea didn’t attack the whole game. That’s why we weren’t set up to counter. You can only counter an attack and Chelsea wanted to sit back and play defense. I can’t remember their RB or LB getting up except at set pieces.
Speed is only useful if you have the space to use it. Chelsea sit inside their own 18 yard box. Speed is not a problem for them.
I commend ALL the players who put in a hell of a shift yestetday but IMHO this game was lost when the team sheet was submitted by Le Prof. A team as disciplined and defensively organized as Chelshit, especially in the center of the pitch cannot be vanquished by consistently ignoring the wide channels and playing Carzola, Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud together. This game screamed for a LACAZETTE, or even Welbeck up front to stretch Terry and Cahill with pace. OG has been in superb form lately but he struggles to impact games when his physicality is matched.
The Ox was missed
100 % agree, but i am more worried about future, if he cant deliver when it doenst matter than how he will deliver whan it matters, if that was match for title i doubt we would won
Pace in the middle is pretty much useless against a defence sitting on their 18. Giroud is technically great at playing with his back to goal and I’d use him over a striker with pace against Chelsea ANY day. That said you hit the nail on the head about width – the only place we could get 1 on 1 was in those wide areas and sadly we were cutting inside too often. All our best play came from wide and when Walcott came on his movement was dragging space for crosses and cutbacks from that right wing. Shame we just couldn’t capitalize on it and had already taken Giroud off. I want Giroud, Ozil + Theo on the pitch at the same time damn it!
I think much of this soul-searching as to how we should have broken them down and done better is great but tends to gloss over a few important points imo. Whilst it pains me to say it this was arguably perhaps the best equipped and best organised defensive back 6 unit in world football. If they choose to defend you have a hell of a problem – better teams than us have had the life stifled out of them in recent years. Yes pace through the middle is likely to be ineffective but I actually think that is where their relative weakness is – Ivanovic and Azpiliceuta are tough, tough dudes to get by, 2 of the best one-in-one defenders in Europe. They don’t get ripped as a rule and neither Welbeck or Walcott have the ammunition to gun them down imo. If we were going to win it was always going to be a solitary goal through a half-chance. Lots of chat regarding Ramsey playing “right wing” (he wasn’t playing as a winger but I’ll leave that for now) – but I think Ramsey and Bellerin offer better balance than Walcott/Bellerin for example – Hazard was quiet for a reason. I think Ramsey is there to help Hector grow/blossom and shed a few inhibitions. Ramsey/Bellerin offered better odds of not losing the game – if it was a true title decider then the team sheet may have been different and more adventrous. Strange to think that this board has spent a couple of years slagging Wenger for being too gung-ho and as soon as we see decent evidence that he is hedging his bets in a much more balanced and pragmatic approach he also gets hung out to dry. The best I can say about the game is that our back 6 looked almost as solid as theirs – both sides had one clear cut chance but largely cancelled each other out. 1 point may be very useful come the end of the season. Now if we can reproduce that away at the Bridge next season then that would be a huge step for us.
This was Giroud’s best chance to prove that he can score against the big sides with good defenses.
I love Giroud and he should start as 1st striker next season but Welbeck’s lacking as a striker confirms to me that we need another top quality striker
Whats the point of having great service from the likes of Ozil and Cazorla when they can’t be physically dominant and better finishing
Honestly, I don’t know much about Dybala but Lacazette is goal machine and would be perfect
He was always the only player in chelsea’s penalty box and with ivonovic, terry and cahill it was more of a 3 v 1 for him. Ozil is brilliant but they can’t expect him to pull off a miracle when no single attacking player is making a run in to box. True lacazette will be coming off with much better season than dybala.
Chelsea has held us scoreless in our last 4 meetings. This is not about Giroud not scoring against a good defensive team, this is about the entire team not being able to score against Chelsea.
Wouldn’t be too harsh, scored against most teams other than Chelski this year. In fairness Aguero, Dzeko, Jovetic, Lukaku, Benteke, Falcao, Rooney, Sturridge, Sterling, Balotelli, Ibrahimovic and Huntelaar all failed to score against Chelski as well this year. Van Persie 94th min equaliser at OT the only notable “big name” striker goal against them. And I know you love Lacazette but you need to curb the enthusiasm just a tad – as you know OG was La Ligue top scorer and whilst AL has been knocking them in for fun he presently only has 5 more league goals than OG achieved. Rest assured Wenger will know all about him though but don’t see Lyon selling especially if they win Ligue 1.
sanchez should get -7
he was the best defender for chelsea… consistently relieving the pressure and disrupting arsenal’s attacks.
I honestly have no idea how this piece of shit gets praised by the media,fans and the pundits alike.
His energy is brilliant, i’ll give him that… but his positioning, decision making, passing are apalling. His dribbling has been figured out by the opposition defenses and looks distinctively average now. His shooting is good but not great.
Overall i think alexis is just a good player, nothing special.
And on current form he IS the weakest link in our attack
*appalling
‘this piece of shit ‘ c’mon dude bit of an overreaction isn’t it?
maybe
but i just don’t like sanchez.
Ospina 6.5
Bellerin 7
Mert 7
Kos 7
Monreal 8 (he had no protection infront of him)
Coq 7
Cazorla 5.5
Ramsey 7
Ozil 7 (would have been higher if only he had scored)
Sanchez 3 (apart fom that pass to bellerin, everything he did was poor)
Giroud 5
Welbeck 2 (almost cost us the game with that ridiculous pass initiating chelsea counter… monreal stopped it by commiting a cynical foul)
Walcott 4
I’ll join in:
Ospina 6
Bellerin 8
Mert 7
Kos 7
Monreal 7
Coq 7.5
Cazorla 6
Ramsey 7
Ozil 7
Sanchez 5.5
Giroud 5.5
Welbeck 5
Walcott 5.5
Wenger Can’t beat Maureenhoo…. no, he can’t !!!!!
Perhaps some on this site are aware that even Alex Ferguson failed to beat Mourinho but still managed to finish above him and win the league leading to Mourinho’s sacking! There is nothing special in beating Mourinho except maybe bragging rights for whatever they are worth! You don’t have to beat Mourinho to win the league. If the man packs the bus that is his business. you go on and win other games and leave him with his packed bus! Arsenal will not win the league this time because of a poor start due to injuries not because of failing to beat Mourinho. For those who love bragging rights beating Mourinho is a big thing but realistically it does not mean much since it is not a requirement that to win the league you must beat Mourinho. We should not be like Tottenham which has made beating Arsenal priority number one at the expense of fighting to be in CL. Every time Spurs beat Arsenal and get bragging rights they go on to lose about 3 games consecutively! One then wonders why they expend all that energy to beat their perceived enemy number 1 and then lose 9 points in return. I wouldn’t want us to be so obsessed with one individual and lose the broad picture. When time comes we shall beat Mourinho after all Newcastle which is struggling now to stay in EPL beat him. Let us look at the broad picture which is to keep our players fit so that we can mount a serious title challenge next season.
Ozil MOTM??
I thought Ramsey was good. He was all over the pitch from minute 1 to 94… I just don’t know what game some people on here were watching. They expect Ramsey to do more in order get any praise or MOTM but expect much less from Ozil to give him MOTM..
I am not bashing Ozil, he did fine in the first half. But Ramsey for sure was our best player yesterday.
I remember the criticism he has been getting all season, people were saying Ramsey needs to calm down, he is looking for glory all the time whenever he gets the ball, he is greedy and selfish and wants to shoot or score all the time and that he needs to come be a team player and let Cazorla, Sanchez, Ozil, Welbeck to do the creating and scoring. Now he is not taking shots or getting into the box that often and people are bashing him as ineffective.
smh..
If u don’t think that Ozil is not the MOTM… Be assured that u don’t know much abt football…
@Goonstar if u think that Ramsey was MOTM…I guess u were watching Wales vs Swansea
@Alexxx…….Hahaha, Don’t get me into the Ozil this Ozil that debate… I can’t be bothered with it any more. You can keep giving him MOTM performances just because you love him from the bottom of your heart rather than what he give in any given game..
smh
It was fun watching Ozil, Bellarin and Monreal yesterday
Ozil MotM? No way. He did link up play with some great passes, but he also lost the ball on a few occasions and went MIA too…great player but he irritates me with his attitude.
For me, Coquelin continues to be the glue that cements our team into being a solid unit. Plenty of players played really well and difficult to find a MotM but he stands out as the man we cannot do without if we are to progress next season.
Funny that plenty of fans have been arguing for a defensive midfielder for many years and finally if reluctantly Le Prof has had to agree…still, better late than never! 😀
I honestly think all of our back four plus Coq played better than any of the rest of our team so agree for me Ozil not MOTM. But people need to pay close attention to what Ozil does because some of you guys are missing something imo or watching a different game. “MIA”? You do know he touched the ball more than any other player on the pitch? “Lost the ball on a few occasions…” along with nearly everyone else, but had best pass completion stats for Arsenal. Also created the most chances in an incredibly tight game. I am not trying to big him up because he was just good and not great, but he always appears to be judged on a different set of criteria to all our other midfielders.
U clearly lack football knowledge if u watched d game n Ozil is ur motm. we needed speedy wingers n a vry mobile number 10 (santi) to break dat defence. Too bad d manager doesn’t c dat. N picks ozil due to sentiment. Ozil needs a strict manager cos he plays like ders notin at stake.