How crucial is Arsenal’s game against Chelsea now? Win or bust?

Is beating Chelsea next week even more crucial than it was before? by Nick

Manchester United have beaten Sp*rs 1-0, making us and United Level on points in the table. While Arsenal are 7 points off Chelsea, the game between Manchester United and Tottenham really shows how crucial a win against Chelsea is next weekend.

After this poor weekend, I’m starting to think that a loss against Chelsea will mean top 4 is surely out of reach. Top 4 this season is so competitive that even a draw for clubs in this part of the table would be devastating to their title chances.

With us only being ahead of United on goal difference, and Chelsea being 7 points ahead of us, the easiest route back into the Champions League is winning the Europa League. I’d personally be perfectly fine with concentrating on winning Europa and dropping to maybe fifth or sixth once again. While it may not look good to be finishing outside top 4 for the THIRD consecutive season, I’d rather us do that then trying too hard for top 4 and ending up just short and out of the Europa League by the end of the season.

Getting UCL football will also help us with our whole transfer dilemma. The first thing it’ll do, is that it will attract players to the club, because who wants to be playing in Europa? The second thing it will do for us, is it will provide us with extra funds that we are lacking at the moment.

While it pains me to say this, a Sp*rs win would have obviously helped us widen the gap of us falling even FURTHER down the table, but now Manchester United are on our backs, fighting to get our fifth place spot. We’ve got Chelsea this upcoming weekend, and United have got Brighton, so it’d be an absolute miracle if Brighton could pull something off, and we won.

Getting into the Champions League through the Europa League will be hard, but I personally think it will be easier than trying to get top 4.

-Nick

37 Comments

  1. We have an above average squad. Emery can’t make our players exceed themselves (ie. how Wolves have compared against top 6 teams). Our club is apparently skint broke, only afford to loan players, embarrassing.

    What’s the point? We can’t wrap up a deal worth of £10m to bring in a replacement for 30-40 million player we are letting go for free. Laughing stock is what we are.

    1. It was never going to be easy with our current squad. I think Unai needs a couple transfer seasons and funds to be able to implement his agenda. I think we also have selection issues. With a good selection, I think we beat Chelsea or draw at worst

      1. I dont like this”” give emery time he is new to PL/this is wengers crap team/ blah blah blah”
        How do wolves being new comers win?
        How did west ham win yesterday?
        How comes utd win with Ole ?
        Fact this man is clueless, has a big fat ego, destroyed the creativity of the team, plays boring and dangerous back passing, etc
        He simply has to go
        #emeryout

        1. Wolves is a newcomer and West Ham have a new manager like Arsenal, but Emery managed to bring Arsenal above them on the table

          Man United already have more expensive players. Solksjaer inherited those tall, skillful and quick players from Mourinho, which are very useful in set-pieces and counter-attacks

          Whereas Wenger collected injury-prone players like Ozil, Welbeck, Ramsey, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Koscielny, Monreal, etc. Emery cannot do much with such frail players and he has to be given at least two seasons like Klopp/ Guardiola

          1. ?Well said gotanidea; people like Red and White would have sacked Sir Alex Ferguson after his first unproductive season at Manchester United.

            1. Its not being productive or unproductive, this is AFC we may go down but not without a fight.This emerry’s team has no bite, no style , no innovation and no urgency.You can see this man’s football philosophy and conclude that he is not the man for AFC.It will not be long before we challenge Watford, Leicester or wolves or WHU for 6/7. How can you casually pass the ball around when 1-0 @80th minute ? Why no long balls to the 18 yard box?
              Why Ramsey on the bench.? Why Ozil not on the bench?Why no plan B? Im sick and tired of this man, just waiting for him to be sacked (which will never happen, cause he can be assured losing 8-2 aint bad for stan)

              1. We don’t have Giroud anymore so those long balls you suggest are for who exactly? Lacazatte??

                Give Pep this same squad Emery inherited and no backup in the transfer market, he won’t achieve anything for Arsenal…

                You can only blame Emery after he has been given the proper foundation for success and he still fails. That’s why his tenure at PSG is considered a failure and was sacked.

                In Arsenal he is over achieving, at this stage last season, we had lost all hopes of securing 4th. If we beat Chelsea at home, it’ll be 3 point btw us.

  2. I agree we don’t have the squad to get Into the top4, where as UTD have an all round better team than we do, as do Chelsea & Spurs. The Europa League seems best option for us & considering Emerys record in the competition makes sense to take it alot more seriously than the League.

    But, do we have the squad to go on & win the Europa League? I’m my honest Opinion NO. Last season was the best opportunity v Athletico 1st leg but blew that as we don’t have a winning mentality & looks pretty much the same this season.

    Time will tell but Ozil being frozen out shows Unai isn’t all he is cracked up to be as we have no creativity in the middle which he brings to the table that’s why our Attacks are struggling big time, 2shots v Wham says it all. I get playing his way but if we don’t score or create how do we win a football match? I like Unai alot but seems to be making some mistakes atm but it’s his 1st season so after the summer will have a proper verdict on the man.

    1. There was a discussion at ESPN that Emery might want to sell Ozil to free up the wage bill

      I fully support it if it’s true, because Arsenal have plenty of no 10s, CMs and generalists, but they don’t have wingers/ wide players that specialize in drawing the attention of the opponents’ defenders

      1. Arsenal have plenty of number 10s ?
        Please list them Because I seem to have forgot which players you’re referring to .
        Please don’t say iwobi because I really don’t want to get in another discussion about him ,but anyone else I’m all for it .

        1. How is Ozil being frozen out, when he can’t be relied on to play consistently due to injuries, such as back spasms and knee strains?

  3. Does it really matter if we do get 4th place ?
    Is it suddenly going to dawn on Stan that he needs to spend money ?i don’t think so .
    What would happen ,we come second in the group then go out to the 1st big club we get .weve seen this year in year out and without that investment emery as his arms tied .
    It’s painful to watch but until he changes is way of running this club we are stuck with the football and personal we’ve come accustomed to for the last 10 years .
    There’s only so much a manger can do with the players at his disposal.
    It feels like we’ve taken one step forward and two steps back this season ,the last 4 weeks have been the arsenal of old and the upcoming fixtures we have don’t look to kind .
    I’ve changed my name from xxnofx to my proper name so don’t worry TH14 I haven’t gone anywhere,just annoying when I’m having a discussion and people refer to my old username as it looks out of place on here .

    1. I agree with you Dan, although I am sad that likes of Auba, Laza, Mkhi and Ozil are not supported by the club with making Arsenal more competitive when those players are in their prime. Maybe some of them are not playing as they use to, but truth is we dnt know the real reasons behind it. We can only speculate, but the future will show.

    2. I thought getting to CL would bring more money to Arsenal (sponsorship, brand, jersey sales, tickets, participation money, etc), despite getting knocked-out after the group stage

      If Cl brings more money and Arsenal can attract more high profile players because of it, then CL is very important

      1. Yea because it made all the difference when wenger was qualifying for the competition.boils down to the owner not if we qualify or not .what do you think will happen if we do make top 4 ?hes suddenly going to give the manager 200 mill to spend ,because that’s the minimum we need to get us competing on a lvl playing field

        1. Yes Dan, as Ken1945, Phil, jon fox, Kenny Rolfe, I and others have asked, where has the purportedly £50 million paid to Arsenal for playing in the Champions League over all those years gone?

  4. I don’t think a top 4 will be doable particularly with Man U playing up to their level again.

    This year was always going to the first of a number of rebuilding and “un-doing” years.

    CL football is the only thing that gives us a chance to get back to former levels and indeed the Europa league looks the best chance but still a long shot.

    Frankly, I am not sure if we will get back to the CL or top 4 places anytime soon as long as we have the current owner. Maybe if we signed Klopp or Pep we could have had a long shot but a simply “good” manager with an inferior squad and budget is always going to find it hard to perform miracles.

    1. Sorry forgot to add the answer to the question: I don’t think the Chelsea game is any more or less crucial than any other game because we don’t have a reasonable chance to finish in the top 4 and should instead be focused on developing our youngsters and adapting to the new manager.

  5. Arsenal players are poor, QED
    Top 4 is still possible if Chelsea and Tottenham flop. Manchester united is going also to fight to the end, but all in all, l want us to qualify for the CL through top 4 route. Europa is very unpredictable,

  6. A very bad time to play chelsea,our team look dejected and we seems to have internal issues, am not looking forward to the match.
    I hope UE will get his house in order, having issue with ur players when you dont even have an alternative is dangerous and could be his undoing leading to his sack. What tactical reason is enough to have majority of your subs full of defensive minded players, did Emery went to London stadium to defend?
    We are an attacking team and should stick to our aim of outscoring the opponent, that was our we managed to get 22matches unbeaten,d coach should forget about trying to be too cautious about defense ,its obvious he isnt good at organising defense

  7. I’m sure the players would be very motivated to beat Chelsea, because of the prestige of the game, as compared to playing against the likes of Brighton, Southampton, Wolves and West Ham

    Arsenal players and staffs get too comfortable with the life at Arsenal. This has to be changed first before they can compete for EPL title, because there seems to be no real pressure at the club

    I agree that the Europa League path looks easier than getting into the top four in EPL. They don’t have any skillful wide player that can consistently penetrate the opponents’ defense and they have to get one in this transfer window if they are really serious

  8. “It is not about the two shots on target,”
    “Look at how many chances we would have had if we had done better with the last pass.
    “Look at how many chances we had to make the last pass. This is the problem.
    “I think we did not have what we had in the other games. We did not control the game better than them.” – Sokratis.
    There again you have another player pointing out the fact that the team talking bout the creativity in the game and team.. No final pass, no key pass, Iwobi kept trying but the boy definitely can’t do it alone and shouldn’t be the only outlet for pass.. the rest of the team were completely clueless when going forward.
    the game against Chelsea is one we need to win, I’m not expecting anything or excited about any upcoming game, if the coach likes let him play with 9 defensive players with a striker, that’s his business

    1. I fear no manager will win the PL with Arsenal as long as Kroenke is the owner. Not even Pep or Klopp would win the PL with this squad. They would probably finish in the top 4 after a few seasons but that’s a long way away from winning the PL.

      1. Jah son, as stated by Things are changing, Pep Guardiola couldn’t win the EPL with this squad, with the current transfer budget and under the self funding financial model applied by Kroenke.
        Just out of interest, what have you ever achieved in life to entitle you to call Unai Emery a “clown”?

  9. @eddie,bro I understand you very well but if you think the coach will use Ozil against Chelsea then you are in for a disappointment ,unlike some fans here who are bias I told my friend who is a west ham fan that we needed ozil in that match,but the truth is you don’t know what you will get from ozil in an away match like that,and I think our strikers should have done better with those chances, how many chances do our two strikers needs before they score,we could have won the game in the First half if only lacazette score than one on one,and am pretty sure if the coach had replaced him yesterday in the second half some fans here will still complain,but all in all most of the blame should be on the owner,no top team depends on just one creative player man city have like 7 both wingers and midfielder toth have like 3 or 4 even Liverpool Chelsea we are the only top team in the premier league who just one class but inconsistent midfielder in ozil,I really don’t know why the man believe we can challenge with the squad the coach may have his faults but he’s not a magician,tell me if we sack the coach,who do you think will come to arsenal with the self financing model policy.

  10. Well I thought the game against West Ham was crucial & we didn’t even win that…. so I’m not getting my hopes up for the Chelsea game!

    1. Sue, every game is crucial; they all have 3 points up for grabs.
      Losing to West Ham and beating Chelsea is still a nett gain of zero points. As Arsene Wenger used to say; being a London Club like Arsenal means a lot of difficult local derbies – currently Tottenham, Chelsea, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Fulham.

      1. Exactly, these days west ham, Fulham and crystal palace are extra motivated to play Arsenal all in the name of local derby… it’s annoying

        1. Let’s get this right
          Playing the Spuds is the Local Derby.
          Playing any other London team is a London Derby.There is a huge difference.Notvtgat you would tell on your tv

  11. The Chelsea match is not “crucial” to our season as we are already destined to slide down the table after a promising start under our new Management team.This should not come as a surprise to all rational fans as our winning streak , whilst most welcome was rarely convincing n terms of performance.To be fair to Emery he has inherited a very modest unbalanced squad which has been hit by injuries to defenders such as Holding and Bellerin who are a cut above the others.However Emery has surprised and disappointed me recently by playing a defensive 3centre back system which flies in the face of the high pressing game he favoured at Seville and PSG.He needs to revert to a flat back four and play more creative players if he is to get the best out of Laca and Auba who was non existant against West Ham.Either Ramsay or Ozil , or both should play against Chelsea.

    1. Unai is confused. we are now playing boring football. we are sliding the Newcastle style. honestly do you think the manager can attract world class players with the way he is treating Lacc, Ozil and Ramsey? if you were one of the could you join?

  12. the team was lacking good defenders, aholding midfielder and aball playing midfielder. fix the issues and play enterprising football. now,? boring boring football is what we are seeing Arsenal playing. Abu and Lac soon will be wondering why the hell they joined. don’t tell me Unai can attract abig name to the Emirates! it is afallacy. the journey to the wilderness has began. get ready.

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