A Very Poor Performance

Well The Arsenal never covered themselves in glory against the Oligarchs toy boys.
90 minutes before we had a shot on target.
They looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. You can see the team just do not believe they can beat the better teams AND Chelsea were far from at their best.
I think our squad should be able to achieve much more than they are doing but we seem to be sodding about with the formation week in week out. Not good. I won't go into individual performances as I haven't got hours to spare writing about how crap the vast majority of our team were.
One observation though, Calum Chambers. Five games, five bookings and now a suspension.
A young man, sure but in my view we've bought him and loaned out a far better player, in Carl Jenkinson, to West Ham.
This lad was called up to the full England squad when he stood in when Sagna broke his leg. Much better going forward than Chambers, a much better crosser of the ball than Chambers and a better defender than Chambers who just cannot stop falling all over the opposition. Who makes these decisions?

Anyway great respek to Aresen "kid frog" Wanger for going toe to toe with the Portuguese mauler...

like a couple of 6 year olds...


anyway Golry Golry etc

Different league. Both in quality of football and of the respective managers. Wenger cracked yesterday, showed a distinct lack of class up against the Special One.

Although I'd expected The Arsenal to be much better I wouldn't say that was a poor performance, indeed I'd say Chelsea had to work hard for their points in that they continually had to foul to break up play in midfield, indicating that it was tough getting the ball off us. Fabregas said as much in his after-match interview apparently - still, he did knock the ball on for a superbly-taken Costa goal which was, for me the difference between the two sides. We just didn't have that burst in the final third. A disappointment yes, "different league" in terms of football quality, no.
And as for "The Push" - what would anyone do if a mouthy runt stood in their was as they were going to see how badly injured their player was?
jak, I agree with you regarding Jenko although I suspect Chambers was brought in as a future central defender/holding midfielder, it's only bad luck that saw Debuchy injured. I'd like to think that Jenko will return to replace Debuchy in a couple of years and that Chambers will grow into a different role. Right now he's having to cover. As for the yellow cards well yes, Chambers does seem to have that edge (as does Debuchy) in the tackle - something he'll have to learn to disguise a touch more. But when you think of some of the tackling/fouling going on at The Bridge on Sunday - Cahill and Welbeck both committed red-card fouls IMO yet were given the same yellow as Chambers for a tangle of legs and Oscar got away with murder throughout the match, needling fouls, ankle-taps, trips, he must have committed a dozen during the match, the ref gave him a "final-warning" late in the first half but he still got away with another three or four before finally receiving a yellow! Some players seem to be able to get away with it, others not. Right now Chambers is in the latter group.

jpr, I wouldn't mind if Chambers was booked for tackling but most of his bookings have been for laying all over the oppo.
He gets too tight on players, these days that invites them to fall over and begs the yellow card.
Jack Wilshire missed a golden, GOLDEN opportunity yesterday, if he'd converted that, things could have been different.
As it stands though, the big teams find it far too easy to mug us.
I'm fast beginning to think that Wilshire is far from the player he was, slow, indecisive, too often on the floor and gives the ball away at vital times. His wasteful, 33/1 against, pass set up their second goal.
As for Ozil, well what can you say? He's going to have to step up quite a few gears to hack it in the PL.
Cazorla looked totally pissed off at being taken off and Oxlade-Chamberlain looked totally pissed off at being brought on when the game was lost.
Very disappointing,

villainies wrote:Different league. Both in quality of football and of the respective managers. Wenger cracked yesterday, showed a distinct lack of class up against the Special One.  

Yep, Wenger knows deep down inside that he is nowhere near the man or manager that Jose is. I think his frustration just boiled over.

Tilton wrote:

villainies wrote:Different league. Both in quality of football and of the respective managers. Wenger cracked yesterday, showed a distinct lack of class up against the Special One.  

Yep, Wenger knows deep down inside that he is nowhere near the man or manager that Jose is. I think his frustration just boiled over.

You've got me in fits there Tilts - Jose a man - stop it, you're killing me

More of a man and less of a failure than your beloved Arsene.

More of a girlie and, when he's Arsene's age we'll be able to measure his failure rating.