Fair point. Petr Cech has already rescued more points than our past 4 keepers by KM
Hello fellow Gooners. How are you? I actually enjoyed the point at Stoke. Because you know what a point at Stoke is better than none. I saw a statistics saying that the Champions in previous years have more often than not won at the Britannia but rarely lost, so I’ll take the point.
What I liked is that we were far more organized at the back. The clearances were better, Bellerin and Monreal had a solid game. Up front we lacked Ozil and you could see he was missing. I thought the introduction of Chambo brought up some energy, but it highlighted the difference in the quality of the passes.
We created two good chances which Butland did great to save. Other than that, we had a lot of misplaced passes and the pitch was horrible. In all fairness looked mentally exhausted from the Liverpool game.
And we had a lot to thank Petr Cech, who was simply sublime. He made some important clearances, but the two consecutive saves he made were top class. I can already name a few occasions where he was vital to our points tally.
Overall, we played two difficult away games this week and got two points. I have mixed feelings. We could’ve gotten more, but the results were fair. We are missing Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil and Sanchez. That’s 4 of our core players.
We are top by goal difference and 5th placed United sit just 7 points behind. It’s ridiculous. It’s anybody’s game. Next up we have Chelsea at home, who are a shadow of a team that won the league last year by a mile. Still under Guus Hidink they haven’t lost I think, despite the fact that Everton fully deserved a victory denied by a John Terry offside goal.
The importance of those 2 games we drew and Chelsea next is that it’s against opposition which we have a mental problem against. We’ll be strong favorites to beat Chelsea and if we fail to do it it’ll be damaging to our title credentials. We really need to win the home games, because we have to travel twice to Manchester and go to Spurs and Everton away too.
It’s really tight, but I hope that Sanchez and Ozil returning, hopefully Le Coq, Welbz and Santi too, will boost our chances, because we will be fresh. It’s unpredictable. Hopefully though despite the tough fixtures, we will make it this time!
Till then, have a nice week!
Konstantin