Chelsea vs Arsenal (inc lots of goals hopefully)

smuckers

growler wrote:

so damn happy to finally have beaten Arse at the Bridge, been waiting for that for a long time.

Ok, twas a bit of a jammy goal, but Drogba had 3 good opportunities, chelsea had another 2 good chances from 1st half corners, Arsenal had very few chances, Va Va Voom was almost entirely absent from the game.


Thought that Graham Poll was his usual crap self today too, did his level best to make the game as slow as possible and to be utterly inconsistent, can't understand how Cole was left on the pitch , although maybe the chants of Chelsea Reject got to him. Arsenal are such a cynical bunch when things are not going their way, fouling at every opportunity. Even Lehman seemed to have been gotten to by the Chelsea fans behind him in the second half, making as if to go for someone in the crowd.


Although Wright Phillipps looked good, I think he's too slight, it seems very easy to shoulder him off the ball, he'll need to spend a lot of time in the gym to get the upper body strength that could make him a real threat. Del Horno looks like an excellent acquisition.

Yea but SWP never seems to give up, he tracks back alot, a very encouraging debut for Essien.

el rabitos

This game was an absoloute cracker!!

think ur on the crack mate, what a boring affair that was. tit for tat stuff for 75 minutes. zzzzzzzzzzzzz

MrJoeSoap

Read his post again el rabitos.

For the people talking about Essiens performance today, if that was a Smertin or Jarosik who had come on and played like that last season nobody would have batted an eyelid.

I've no reason to believe he wont do well but don't start praising him for doing sweet f.a. like he did today (although he played one nice ball to SWP).

Headshot

Gileadi wrote:

you mean like arsenal were able to woo baptista to england to stop him joining real

ohh wait he joined real anyway :rolleyes:


man united probably have the most pulling power from any of the english clubs but clumping arsenal in there is bang out of order

baptista isnt a work class striker

and i probly over did it a bit on arsenal

i dont know what i was thinking,

i respect arsenal but hate most of their players

jank

evad_lhorg wrote:

drogba is pants tbh. he missed a sitter at the end when senderos headed the ball to him. speaking of which , senderos is crap too! arsenal wont even be in the top 3 this season looking at their team .tottenham will be up there.

2 words.

Knee Jerk

PHB

Lets get this straight evad_lhorg, cause I hate Arsenal more than any other team, and I think that's the sillest comment ever made.

Chelsea beat Arsenal 1-0, at home, by an utterly fluke, offside, goal, and inturn they won't even be in the top 3?
I'd recommend you put your money where your mouth is and place a bet on Arsenal not being in the top 3. UI'd say you get odds of at least 10-1, it'd be a huge huge bonus. Infact the odds on Spurs in the top 3 and ARsenal not, must be at least 50-1.
Put a fiver on it, gwan. That'd be a lot of money for you!
No wait, its not like you actually believe that, is it?

mr_angry

We lose to Chelsea in the Premiership, and Liverpool have more points than us...















Something is very wrong with the world. Hey - aren't Spurs top of the table too? Nooooooooooooo!

ZENER

An absolutely terrible game of football. Both teams were awful, the goal was a joke.

Wigan are better than both of those teams, at least they played like they wanted it. If that's the standard of football we can expect from the top two teams this season we're in for a disappointing season. The subs Wigan brought on last week made more of a difference to the game excitement wise that the 70 million worth of over-rated dross Chelsea and Arsenal brought on.

From the neutrals POV a terrible game not illustrative of the quality it promised beforehand.

Yawn !

ZEN

jank

People may complain about the standard of football at that game but id like to make a point

Now Arsenal were nowhere near their best in the final i/3 but at least they made a go of it by probing and pressing the Chelsea defense albiet with little success

Chelsea are the ones who play the negative tactics by having all but one behind the ball. Expect the same for the whole season. If they keep winning, what do they care!

RasTa

Indeed 6 points out of 6 for Chelsea.
Utd are looking alot better and i cant wait until we meet. Henry was terrible although no player really stood out apart from Hleb maybe

SteM

jank wrote:

1) Arsenal need a plan B. Ok its early in the season but against the best of defenses they need to try something different. Unfortunately the beast is gone off to Real. Hleb looks a really good buy and seems to link up well with Cesc.

I know they have Henry who is one of the best strikers in the premiership but I'm really surprised they haven't tried a cheeky bid for Owen. I think he'd certainly improve their squad.

ntlbell

RasTa wrote:

Indeed 6 points out of 6 for Chelsea.
Utd are looking alot better and i cant wait until we meet. Henry was terrible although no player really stood out apart from Hleb maybe

To be honest you can't really blame henry, henry had to keep coming out to the left for the ball which is where he's most dangerous from anyway, but when he was out there who was in the box? no one.... what does he have to do? come back inside ball goes across the field and we're back to square one when in most cases the ball ends up back in the keepers hand from an attacking position around chelsea's box, keeper launches the ball forward chelsea win it in the mildfield.

this is not patient build up play it's just nonsense. the fact of the matter is the whole of arsenal where not good enough yesterday as they weren't good enough in the charity sheild.

and as many "pundits" go on about chelsea do give very little away so if you come for a draw the chances are you will get caught out, and arsenal did. drogba isn't exactly what i'd call a silky footballer but he caused arsenal absloute panic after he came on and it was only a matter of time before chelsea got a goal.

what i would agree with is helb he was for me the best player on the park, always looking to go forward very direct, it's just unfortunate he was playing with another 9 outfield players that wanted to go backwards.

for me every team needs to take a leaf out of wigans book, get the ball down and play and attack delhorno's side of the pitch they exploited it nearly every time, robben going backwards? doesn't happen much and for me del horna isn't that great of a defender and it showed when he was left exposed against wigan which enabled them to get lots of crosses in which chelsea were not always comfortable with.

chelsea's defence from this side needs to be tested more and for me it's the way to nick a goal or two from them.

Gileadi

i dont know if you could highlight del horno as the weak link in the defence based on yesterdays performance,i thought he did extremely well and more than coped with any threat that he was asked to deal with

also if he is found to be abit weak then he wouldnt be playing once bridge is back to match fitness,also options to play ferrara there ala last season,but i dont think JM will try and play gallas there for the time being

Headshot

Gileadi wrote:

i dont know if you could highlight del horno as the weak link in the defence based on yesterdays performance,i thought he did extremely well and more than coped with any threat that he was asked to deal with

cant wait to see Ronaldo against him
then we'll see

PHB

Del Horno's weakness isn't in himself, although I think he is the weakest, which isn't saying much, of the Chelsea back 4.
His weakness is in the winger not tracking back to protect him.
Duff does this, Robben doesn't, so when he plays, the left side is a weak point.

Duff however mostly plays on the right, so protects him.
If not, SWP will be there, and he always tracks back, he is a team player.
So the right always has someone, the left does not.
Robben plays, left side is uber in attack, very weak in defense

Gangsta

It's going to be a very boring season if it continues like this.Ffs how lucky can you get in getting that goal?? Chelsea looked like the away team!!! When Baptista wasn't signed I knew we were f*cked :mad:

growler

Thought Del Horno looked the real deal , i can't wait to see Riverdancing Ronaldo against him either, Del Horno gets some crunching tackles in.

redspider

As a neutral, I was fairly dissapointed with the skills and performances of both teams on display. Clearly, the defences were in control and the game was more akin to a game of chess than anything. Chelsea had more potential to break through but this game was looking like one goal would do it. The goal eventually came. Drogba proving the handful with his physical presence, but not with his skills. The goal was a lucky one. So, Chelsea are quite fortunate to have 6 pts at this stage, an perhaps that is ominous for all.

I think for both teams this game came too early in the season. It was not a pressure game, it was not a title deciding game. But it was 3 pts all the same. To Mourinho, it didnt matter to him, or so he claimed. He would have been happy with a draw I suspect but is delighted with the win. Wenger perhaps cared more but perhaps now is missing the likes of Viera. Henry, as usual when faced with good defenders, runs out of options quickly and is unable to run in from the wing at an angle and score a goal. I thought Arsenal needed a Bergkamp to try and open things open, albeit with the same tactic of passing it through.

In terms of entertainment, the value was low. This was not a good advertisement for the English league and dissapointing as it was the top two teams from last season. Chelsea are not looking to win trophies with entertainment, although no doubt their style of play will prove more fruitful against lower opposition.

redspider

ps: I tried to post this yesterday but boards.ie seemed to be down for most of the daytime

Gileadi

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote:

cant wait to see Ronaldo against him
then we'll see

well theres no doubt ronaldo has the potential to make del boy look a fool like any other defender,but this seasons big games will have to convince me that he can dazzle world class defences like he can evertons and those teams from the CL qualifiers

i recall reading a friends united magazine on the bus to work one day where ronaldo said if you put 10 defenders in front of him he was confident he could beat them all....days later maldini,just a single defender had him in his pocket for both legs of the AC game (albeit he is one of the worlds top defenders)

none the less he was kept quiet then and i cant recall him making any defender other than lauren at the fa cup final looking like a mug,anyway time will tell

PHB

Actually, Ronaldo was our best player on the pitch in the AC Milan game if you ask me, and he did make some breakthroughts, nearly all the chances we had came from him.
Ronaldo was also not marked by just Lauren in that game, Gattuso helped out and he was nearly always double teamed. That is his major major contribution, that if he has the ball, somebody else isn't marked.

Gileadi

PHB wrote:

Ronaldo was also not marked by just Lauren in that game, Gattuso helped out and he was nearly always double teamed. That is his major major contribution, that if he has the ball, somebody else isn't marked.

maldini i think you mean

PHB

indeed :P

Pepe LeFrits

Bloody hell, Ralph gets around!