Arsenal vs. Chelsea (scores included)

growler

PHB wrote:

Jesus I just saw that.
You're happy that one of your players whacked somebody and they lost a tooth?

no, of course not,just being flippant. Do get a bit over excited when we get points a highbury.

Kingp35

KdjaC wrote:

Whats up with Essien hes been fairly nasty recently and from seeing him with lyon thats not his normal game

Not true. Essien has always been a dirty player. Some of his tackles while playing for Lyon were just as bad as his recent ones. Sky showed a montage of them and they were pretty bad to say the least.

KdjaCL

Kingp35 wrote:

Not true. Essien has always been a dirty player. Some of his tackles while playing for Lyon were just as bad as his recent ones. Sky showed a montage of them and they were pretty bad to say the least.

Hes a ball winner and with lyon was fairly creative with it too, i never seen him try to hurt a player intentionally. With Lyon he was a bit late sometimes but this season hes been cynical and actually looks like hes trying to hurt someone.

kdjac

Kingp35

KdjaC wrote:

Hes a ball winner and with lyon was fairly creative with it too, i never seen him try to hurt a player intentionally. With Lyon he was a bit late sometimes but this season hes been cynical and actually looks like hes trying to hurt someone.

kdjac

Fair enough im just going by what sky showed really. Some of them looked pretty bad though.

mchurl

KdjaC wrote:

Hes a ball winner and with lyon was fairly creative with it too, i never seen him try to hurt a player intentionally. With Lyon he was a bit late sometimes but this season hes been cynical and actually looks like hes trying to hurt someone.

kdjac

Some of the tackles sky showed when he was playing for lyon were scandolous. They were all studs up and over the ball. I think he has got a very nasty streak to him and he isn't even that great a player.

jank

It wasnt going to Arsenal's day when Henry hit the post and Van Persie got his goal disallowed. Seems to be happening alot recently.

The sooner Cole gets back the better as Arsenals whole back line looks ****ed.

ZENER

I thought the gunners were hard done by, it looked like a perfectly good goal to me and week in you see them allowed.

In fairness though even if was let stand I still think Chelsea had their measure, Robben was flying today and Cole deserved MOTM.

Arsenal looked lacking in ideas and as usual trying to score pretty goals. League more or less over imo.

ZEN

redspider

A good game between Arsenal and Chelsea, played at a frenetic pace. Chelsea clearly the stronger team in most areas of the pitch, but still Arsenal had the capability to nick a goal or two. The Henry shot that came off the post was their best chance and very close. Henry was well tracked in the match but still created a few chances for himself.

The linesman gave offside againt Henry for van Persie's disallowed goal. I think from the linesman's position it looked as if Henry was interfering with play. The decision does go against this years "interpretation" not to blow until the offside player actually touches the ball. The problem with this new ruling is that its not being applied consistently in the english league. Its a FIFA guideline as far as I understand. I personally think that players in offside positions need to "remove themelves" (ie: stop running and walk towards the half way line) from the play for at least 30 secs.

The chance came about as a result of Arsenal's formation, which was to position the midfield and defensive backline very far up the pitch. Although it created a chance or two, I totally agree with Grame Le Saux's analysis from MOTD2 that it played right into Chelsea's hands and gave the likes of Robben, Drogba and Cole too much space to receive the ball and run at the Arsenal defence. It was a poor tactic selection by Wenger. Whilst it could be argued that Arsenal dont have players with attributes for defensive midfield roles such as Makelele and Essien, this was no reason to allow Chelsea to play to their strengths.

I think Wenger's attitude was to go down fighting, playing Arsenal-style football. It didnt work however. Also interesting to see that Mourinho nipped down the tunnel ahead of Wenger and did not shake hands with him. I think this petulence and immaturity from Mourinho, which is matched by Wenger's whinging, and his attitude to Mourinho, etc, does neither manager any good. Its true Wenger never blames his players, but he never blames himself either !

The title looked liked Chelsea's before this match, having only dropped 5 pts so far! It looks more like theirs now.

redspider

Roddy23

Arsenal's true colours shining through today, they looked more nervous than a bunch of turkeys at Christmas in the tunnel. From the off Chelsea were all overr them, Arsenal fans can count their blessings it wasn't a total hammering, Robben wasted 2 great chances, Drogba could have had a penalty, Essien was unlucky to hit a leg with his shot etc. I can understand why the linesman gave the offside aswell, as I fail to see how Henry can no be interfering with play just by being where he is.

In fact I wass pleasantly surprised that Chelsea didn't go out to bore everryone to death, shame we didn't do the same against the Pool.

Drogba is world class. Robben back in form. Lauren toothless. And Utd still miles behind. Lovely.

Chelsea supporter?

The two goals Arsenal conceeded, arose because of Arsenal's lack of a left back at the moment. The first goal where toure switched off, if Clichy or Cole were playing Lauren would have been right back, and Toure would have been in the centre. The second Lauren was caught out of position.
What was extremely worrying yesterday was the form of the big game players: Campbell, Ljungberg, Pires ( wasn't on too long though), and Lauren. These are all players who have been playing at the top level for years, but yesterday the younger lads showed them up. I thought v Persie, Cesc, Flamini and Helb were very good, Henry was a bit quiet, Senderos played well, Toure although caught out for one moment played well.
But chelsea over the 90 mins were the better team.
Come the summer, I'd expect a bit a few changes: Pires, Campbell, Ljungberg, Bergkamp could all be on their way, along with Cole who looks like hes off to Real.

Lex Luthor

I think this new offside rule is too complicated.

How is Cech to know if henry was offside, so in other words he has to think of his positioning when Van Persie shoots. Does he concentrate 100% on the shot, which is what goalkeepers are taught to do, or does he have a thought on Henry and whether he's gonna get passed to...

So in a sense Henry was interfering slightly...

But the rule is pants and needs to be reversed

Grimlock

Kingp35 wrote:

Not true. Essien has always been a dirty player. Some of his tackles while playing for Lyon were just as bad as his recent ones. Sky showed a montage of them and they were pretty bad to say the least.

Is the montage hosted anywhere onine, I don't have skysports but would like to see it!

Kingp35

Grimlock wrote:

Is the montage hosted anywhere onine, I don't have skysports but would like to see it!

No idea mate sorry.

SCULLY

Lex Luthor wrote:

I think this new offside rule is too complicated.

How is Cech to know if henry was offside, so in other words he has to think of his positioning when Van Persie shoots. Does he concentrate 100% on the shot, which is what goalkeepers are taught to do, or does he have a thought on Henry and whether he's gonna get passed to...

So in a sense Henry was interfering slightly...

But the rule is pants and needs to be reversed

Couldn't agree more - under the rules it was a goal but when a keeper has a striker of the quality of Henry a few feet ahead of him it's kind of distracting!!

Enjoyable game - poor ref though. I thought that Essien was fortunate not to get the second yellow and could easily have gone. However, the furore over the Lauren incident is only because of his bad tackle against Liverpool. If the ref thought that Essien went for Lauren on purpose he should have gotten a red - if it was accidental then why the yellow? (Campbell also accidentlally caught Cole and , rightly, did not get carded).

I thought Chelsea were well worth the 3 points (we've waited long enough for the domestic double against the gunners!) and though that Senderos was extreemly luck not to be sent off for his last man tackle against Robben (bearing in mind he already had gotten away with a rugby tackle against Drogba in the first half) - but strangley this hasn't been mentioned much in this thread. Still a nine point gap at christmas will do nicely (though what odds at Spurs being ahead of Arsenal at Christmas at the start of the season?)

therecklessone

SCULLY wrote:

If the ref thought that Essien went for Lauren on purpose he should have gotten a red - if it was accidental then why the yellow? (Campbell also accidentlally caught Cole and , rightly, did not get carded).

Cos Stlyes is a rubbish referee?

Gangsta

growler wrote:

Drogba is world class. Robben back in form. Lauren toothless.

LMAO....are you serious???:eek:

Arsenal were unlucky to have a disallowed goal. Essien was lucky to stay on the pitch, a very dirty and not a very good player.

But all in all I believe Chelsea, as much as I hate to admit it, deserved to win:(

I thought arsenal coped well enough after the initial blizzard by chelsea in the midfield but as the game went on with chelsea in front I knew it was going to be a difficult job getting two back.

growler

Ok , in all fairness Arsenal were unlucky to have the goal dissallowed, and you don't expect Henry to miss the golden chance like he did, I was surprised at Wengers tactics and midfield set up, and even more surprised he was willing to risk Senderos and Campbell so far up the pitch when it was obvious that Robben (if not always Drogba) would better either of them in a sprint. Essien was obviously targetted by the gooners for a red card in typical Wenger sporting fashion. Lauren deserved an oscar for turning an arm in the chest into a mime of "dying from ebola". Once again Arsenal are exposed for being too reliant on Henry to rescue them, Lungberg was hopeless most of the time and although Hleb and co are good, Arsenal are really missing Viera.

I was delighted with the way Chelsea approached the game, it was obvious that they were more confident going into the game. If we can play like this in the CL consistently and still have Crespo / Duff to add to the mix Chelsea can go all the way this year.

Anyone notice the reaction from the stewards to Joe Cole when he went towards the Chelsea fans after scoring ? Never seen such a heavy handed approach from stewards before, anywhere.

6 points from Arsenal is a milestone for Chelsea.

The non-handshake was a bit petty allright but I'll assume that Jose suspected that Wenger ( known for his sense of humour and love of practical jokes) had one of those joke shockers up his sleeve.

Of course it was bad for football so it doesn't really matter!

Kingp35

growler wrote:

Essien was obviously targetted by the gooners for a red card in typical Wenger sporting fashion. Lauren deserved an oscar for turning an arm in the chest into a mime of "dying from ebola".

Didnt Lauren lose one of his teeth!!

SCULLY

Kingp35 wrote:

Didnt Lauren lose one of his teeth!!

I wondered that myself - at the time Essien seemed to catch him in the collarbone area yet skys touchline reporter said that the Arsenal physio said Lauren would definitly loose a tooth.... don't know what the real story is...

growler

Kingp35 wrote:

Didnt Lauren lose one of his teeth!!

think that was form a later incident when he ran into Essien's arm. The first time he was caught in the chest / collarbone area and went down like he'd been shot.


Oh , and for all the fuss about the disallowed goals , Chelsea have suffered enough in highbuy over the years with decisions going against us. 2 years ago in the Cup Gronkjaer had a goal dissallowed ( wongly), I also seem to recall Keown taking Vialli out back in 99 and no peno was forthcoming, decisions go for and against us all.

The Muppet

growler wrote:

...........................................................

Of course it was bad for football so it doesn't really matter!

United supporters have had that for years , by the looks of things ye may get used to it.

PHB

Lauren lost a tooth when Essien put his arm out to protect himself from a tackle, whacking Lauren in the upper body and lower jaw at the same time, in turn loosing a tooth.
It is a straight red, like leading into a tackle with an elbow.

growler

Lex Luthor wrote:

I think this new offside rule is too complicated.

How is Cech to know if henry was offside, so in other words he has to think of his positioning when Van Persie shoots. Does he concentrate 100% on the shot, which is what goalkeepers are taught to do, or does he have a thought on Henry and whether he's gonna get passed to...

So in a sense Henry was interfering slightly...

But the rule is pants and needs to be reversed

As far as I understood the rule Henry was interfering with play :

"Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team mate.

Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent. "

So if Henry had continued to walk away the goal could have stood ( we don't knwo whether it was Henry who was flagged as offside) , but since Henry knows the rules wtf was he doing calling for the ball despite being miles offside which imo makes him (a) active and (b) attempting to decieve Cech.

Necronomicon

Mourinho has seemingly got everything he wants at Chelsea, why he has to act like a petulant 8-year old is beyond me. How hard would it have been to just shake Wenger's hand at the end of the game? Then more people would talk about how good they were rather than something so stupid. Also had to chuckle at his conspiracy theory that Arsenal set about to get Essien sent off. Yes, it was Wenger's master plan that Lauren would head-butt Essien's elbow and lose a tooth. He is crafty, Wenger. Mourinho also failed to address Essien's second foul in the second half which was another clear yellow.
Rob Styles loves to show those cards, but he bottled it on the one decision that was beyond reasonable doubt.

OY

growler wrote:

As far as I understood the rule Henry was interfering with play :

"Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team mate.

Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent. "

So if Henry had continued to walk away the goal could have stood ( we don't knwo whether it was Henry who was flagged as offside) , but since Henry knows the rules wtf was he doing calling for the ball despite being miles offside which imo makes him (a) active and (b) attempting to decieve Cech.

Exactly! The arsenal fans at the bar where outraged at this decision. I could not see why they did not get it. Henry clearly called for the ball and was running full speed towards the goal.

I would absolutely understand had he been standing still, or walking away but he wasn't. It was a shame for it was the culmination of a great period of play from arsenal and could have changed the game completely but i stand behind the decision.

therecklessone

Ref's chief Keith Hackett says the gaol should have stood

When you examine the video many times you can see Henry is not active

He backs Styles later on though, so no chance he'll get an extended break from grown ups football.