Chelsea vs Arsenal, 12:45, BT Sport

irishmover

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Spurs wouldn't really be a top team though.

Arsenal punching above their weight this year in the vacuum caused by the United fall from grace I think.

Arsenal have gained 11(?) points more this season than last season.

I disagree sir.

Also yes Spurs are a top team. Considering everything involved Spurs are the ones punching above their weight. I guess it depends on what you call a top team.

As the CL is showing their isn't many top teams in England.

Andersonisgod

To be honest this has been the difference between a real top side and a side punching above their weight. Chelsea have played with conviction, with a clear plan, with power and speed, all of the hallmarks of a Mourinho side. From the start Arsenal have been ponderous and lackluster and it's reflected in the score and situation they find themselves in.

RichT

Duck Soup wrote: »

I dunno, you pop down the shops for 25 minutes...

Arsenal defence........... is that you?

Alfred Borden

Fair play Chelsea. Tactically spot on and superior in every way today. Big 3 points for yee and I think yee will go on to win it. And now i'm leaving this thread in disgust!

Oranage2

Referee looks like he was told about the mistake.

Should be fun second half, his head surely won't be 100 percent.

Lucas Hood

Is Mark Halsey on Bt today and did he say anything about the red card ? I've been watching on Nbc.

tayto lover

A very embarrassing display from Arsenal again today.
Surely they are not this bad although other results probably say otherwise.
Lots of money to spend in the summer if Wenger can get his hands into his pockets.

Quazzie

Raf32 wrote: »

And now i'm leaving this thread in disgust!

Aj, shur don't go you're great craic.

Francie Barrett

irishmover wrote: »

Also yes Spurs are a top team.

Spurs were a good team with a top player. Now they're just a good team who overspent on some average players.

GavRedKing

Andersonisgod wrote: »

To be honest this has been the difference between a real top side and a side punching above their weight. Chelsea have played with conviction, with a clear plan, with power and speed, all of the hallmarks of a Mourinho side. From the start Arsenal have been ponderous and lackluster and it's reflected in the score and situation they find themselves in.

Luiz and Matic, prior to the penalty had been boswsing the centre of the pitch and stole the ball a few times, arsenal dont have that with Ox whos still green as CM and Arteta is past it, hes like Lamps can put in the odd display but when hes needed against a good side he'll be mauled.

Knowing Joses feeling on Arsene he'll probably send the players out looking for more goals to add to the pain and help the Goal Difference

GavRedKing

Oranage2 wrote: »

Referee looks like he was told about the mistake.

Should be fun second half, his head surely won't be 100 percent.

Sub the ref :pac:

batistuta9

Arsenal haven't gained 11 points more

In the corresponding fixtures to last season they've only gained 2 points

Yet most in the thread will go on about a massive improvement

Brendan Filone

Gibbs to Marriner:

Mr.Micro

Oranage2 wrote: »

Referee looks like he was told about the mistake.

Should be fun second half, his head surely won't be 100 percent.

No, he will probably set out to get the right man over something else, lol

Duck Soup

Oranage2 wrote: »

Looks like the bus has been subbed on.

Looks like the bus scored.

pistolpetes11

Arsene should walk sooner rather than later , constantly getting drummings from the the top teams is starting to take the gloss off what he achieved at the Club.

Mate in work said to me that Ozil was a luxury buy, although I had my doubts because Jose used to always whip him off before the end of a game it has really shown his first big splurge into the transfer market has been a failure, started well but faded terribly, I know he is out injured but looking at the bench and I see a player brought in January and was injured then and only back on the bench now , ( Kalstrom ) thats a shocking bit of transfer dealing.

Ozil is typical of the type of players he likes , plays beautiful football but doesnt like the nitty gritty .

As a Chelsea fan I was looking forward to a great game , Im left feeling sorry for Arsenal and their fans after that first half.

Mr.Micro

tayto lover wrote: »

A very embarrassing display from Arsenal again today.
Surely they are not this bad although other results probably say otherwise.
Lots of money to spend in the summer if Wenger can get his hands into his pockets.

Not going to happen. Wenger as good as he is, is far too entrenched in his ways. He has not adapted IMO to the times.

Fudge You

Quazzie wrote: »

It was going wide so how is it a red?

How can you say that???
You clearly dont know the laws of the game. Please google them.
Peno and red card, no doubt.

GavRedKing

Eto'o earlier

irishmover

batistuta9 wrote: »

Arsenal haven't gained 11 points more

Yes they have. Corresponding fixtures mean sweet **** all. It's not like they've all the big teams left in their last 8 games. I'll be shocked if their points total isn't a reasonable margin bigger than last season.

After 29 games they were 11 points ahead of the same stage last season, no matter what way you try and spin it.

irishmover

irishmover wrote: »

Arsenal have gained 11(?) points more this season than last season.

A quick totting up says they're 2 points better than from the corresponding fixtures last season.

GavRedKing

greendom

Flamini coming on, as well as Jenkinson. Odds on us being left with 9 men by the end?

Duck Soup

RichT wrote: »

Arsenal defence........... is that you?

To quote Scott Murray over on the Guardian's minute-by-minute coverage: "Never mind the Gibbs-Ox penalty farce, the big question is: what on earth is Wenger telling his team ahead of these big matches?"

tayto lover

3 early Arsenal goals and its game on again :D

Quazzie

Fudge You wrote: »

How can you say that???
You clearly dont know the laws of the game. Please google them.
Peno and red card, no doubt.

The rules of the game are denying a goalscoring opportunity. Did he deny one? No.

GavRedKing

Torres

Ulysses Gaze

greendom wrote: »

Flamini coming on, as well as Jenkinson. Odds on us being left with 9 men by the end?

Flamini should have started.

What was Wenger thinking today?

Oranage2

Points are a variable, I rather judge a team on league position and it looks like arsenal will finish 4th, no real gain in my opinion.

Milkers

Kind of funny that Mourinho had sly digs at Benitez for playing Luiz in midfield and only plays him there when forced to yet it's kind of obvious that DM/CDM/CM is his best position.

irishmover

Quazzie wrote: »

The rules of the game are denying a goalscoring opportunity. Did he deny one? No.

Grand so. Sure why don't all players just dive infront of a ball heading for a throw or a goal kick and wrap their arms around it. Won't get you sent off so might aswell.

pistolpetes11

Quazzie wrote: »

The rules of the game are denying a goalscoring opportunity. Did he deny one? No.

The ball was curling , could of went in , may not of , who is to say ?

Handling the ball whilst on the goal line is idiotic ( unless your Suarez who pulled of a gem) and 99% of times will result in a peno and red ,

He gave the ref a decision to make and if you do ya suffer the consequences of it

greendom

irishmover wrote: »

Grand so. Sure why don't all players just dive infront of a ball heading for a throw or a goal kick and wrap their arms around it. Won't get you sent off so might aswell.

And what would be the benefit of that ? They'd get a yellow anyway!

tayto lover

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Flamini should have started.

What was Wenger thinking today?

I said that before the game. Both He and Arteta should have started.
Wenger is very poor tactically.

Underground

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Arsene should walk sooner rather than later , constantly getting drummings from the the top teams is starting to take the gloss off what he achieved at the Club.

Mate in work said to me that Ozil was a luxury buy, although I had my doubts because Jose used to always whip him off before the end of a game it has really shown his first big splurge into the transfer market has been a failure, started well but faded terribly, I know he is out injured but looking at the bench and I see a player brought in January and was injured then and only back on the bench now , ( Kalstrom ) thats a shocking bit of transfer dealing.

Ozil is typical of the type of players he likes , plays beautiful football but doesnt like the nitty gritty .

As a Chelsea fan I was looking forward to a great game , Im left feeling sorry for Arsenal and their fans after that first half.

How can you make a call like that when he's not even a full season into his Arsenal career? Robert Pires, a World Cup winner upon joning Arsenal was pretty poor in his first season, look how that turned out. That's just one example, I could think of countless other examples at Arsenal and other clubs of players who had difficult first seasons but eventually acclimatized, many of those players commanded large transfer fees.

Ozil has come into the PL in a fiercely competitive season. Up until today there were 4 teams believing they had a shot at the title, another 3 or 4 going for a CL place and about 7 or 8 teams looking over their shoulders hoping to avoid relegation. Honestly, people will jump at any opportunity to slate Ozil.

daRobot

copacetic wrote: »

No, really?

Perhaps it's a hard concept for you to grasp, but as it's a discussion forum, obvious things are pointed out pretty regularly.

I would have thought with your post count, you might have figured that one out by now.

irishmover

greendom wrote: »

And what would be the benefit of that ? They'd get a yellow anyway!

Well sure exactly. What was the benefit of Ox trying to save a ball that was heading out for a goal kick to his own team?

Lucas Hood

Has anyone considered the ref awarded a penalty for Ox's handball and judged it not be a goalscoring oppurtunity so no red card and that Gibbs has been sent off for something else ?

_Kaiser_

tayto lover wrote: »

I said that before the game. Both He and Arteta should have started.
Wenger is very poor tactically.

I think Wenger has just been there too long and hasn't adapted to the changes in the game - both on and off the pitch.

Time for a change IMO

Arsenal's season is just crumbling around them.

Injuries to key players have been devestating

greendom

irishmover wrote: »

Well sure exactly. What was the benefit of Ox trying to save a ball that was heading out for a goal kick to his own team?

He thought it was going in for sure. But it wasn't. So he shouldn't have been sent off

copacetic

Quazzie wrote: »

The rules of the game are denying a goalscoring opportunity. Did he deny one? No.

He did, the ball had the opportunity to go in, he denied it that opportunity.

The fact that it looked like it MIGHT be going wide doesn't come in to it. It hadn't gone wide yet so it had loads of opportunities to go in, wind, curling, crowd blowing it, heavy sideways rain.

When a player going through on goal has an opportunity to score it is probably generally less of an opportunity than that ball had.

Quazzie

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

The ball was curling , could of went in , may not of , who is to say ?

Handling the ball whilst on the goal line is idiotic ( unless your Suarez who pulled of a gem) and 99% of times will result in a peno and red ,

He gave the ref a decision to make and if you do ya suffer the consequences of it

So the ball was curling, and could've went anywhere, but it was handled on the "goal line". What kind of curl was on the ball that it could've curled from the goal line to go wide?

viper006

Mariner: your off Gibbs
Gibbs: I'm not ox-chamberlain
Mariner: shut up Walcott

greendom

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Has anyone considered the ref awarded a penalty for Ox's handball and judged it not be a goalscoring oppurtunity so no red card and that Gibbs has been sent off for something else ?

no ref has admitted it was a case of mistaken identity

Boskowski

Brendan Filone wrote: »

Gibbs to Marriner:

Thats silly though. I mean he was hardly going to confuse Merte with Ox was he?

pistolpetes11

Underground wrote: »

How can you make a call like that when he's not even a full season into his Arsenal career? Robert Pires, a World Cup winner upon joning Arsenal was pretty poor in his first season, look how that turned out. That's just one example, I could think of countless other examples at Arsenal and other clubs of players who had difficult first seasons but eventually acclimatized, many of those players commanded large transfer fees.

Ozil has come into the PL in a fiercely competitive season. Up until today there were 4 teams believing they had a shot at the title, another 3 or 4 going for a CL place and about 7 or 8 teams looking over their shoulders hoping to avoid relegation. Honestly, people will jump at any opportunity to slate Ozil.

You can quote me on this next year if lights up the world next , but I think he is luxury player .

Is more than likely going to loose his place with the German Squad and goes missing in all the big games for Arsenal , not really a discussion for here and I prob should not of added into my comment.

GavRedKing

A clean sheet now would be the next target

fullstop

Quazzie wrote: »

So the ball was curling, and could've went anywhere, but it was handled on the "goal line". What kind of curl was on the ball that it could've curled from the goal line to go wide?

I love the way you're nit-picking at the wording of every post just to try to discredit them

pistolpetes11

Quazzie wrote: »

So the ball was curling, and could've went anywhere, but it was handled on the "goal line". What kind of curl was on the ball that it could've curled from the goal line to go wide?

Player was on the goal line ...........