Chelsea 2 v Arsenal 0 - FT (Drogba, Alex)

[wanaj0]

Skylolo, JM put an end to Wengers dominance. He came with an open book on how to handle Arsenal

Now the players are being blamed. Arshavin and Nasri are now the problem. Well dump them and bring on the 'youth' players and start the rebuilding again.

I done tell una that this project na Ajaokuta project. It has no end!

Anyway, I blame Essien and Anelka. This was suppose to be 4 kondo!

[odi]

IMO, your analysis is completely sound. But what totally amazes me is that you see your team making the very same mistakes again and again, showing the very same weaknesses year in year out, and yet you apportion most of the blame to individual players, instead of placing the buck ENTIRELY on the person that picked the players, 'organised' (term loosely applied) them tactically on the field, and is responsible for their mental strength?

Once, twice, certain players make mistakes, fine. But when the SAME mistakes are made again and again and again... Haba, is the coach blind or just incompetent?!

BTW! Oloye, here is my response to the game posted earlier. The problem is it is easy to develop follow, follow forumers wey dey read and lap up your sound bites like fly wey the follow sheep. I nor get time for them now.

Here is what i wrote earlier.

tolahs, your analysis as usual are intelligent, educational, lucid, concise and always a pleasure to read. However my bro, we really need to look at a persistent failing of ours. It is called defending as a team. What this squad\team has not improved on, for all its huge strided in every other aspect of the game, is defending. For example, I take you back to Chelski game last season when we lost 3 nil at home. Look at the first two goals, Arshavin did not track back, the CM was hoplessly out of position and we concede the crucial 1st goal. We repeat the trick again, this time on the right side with Nasri asleep allowing Cole to run in to set up the second. In both goals, analyse the defensive play of the team.

Sadly, we play Chelski again, and we repeat the same trick. The same players (Cole and Drogba taking advantage of sloppy team defending. What was Nasri doing for the first goal? Why did two Arsena player stand around Ramirez without putting pressure on the ball, thereby allowing him to pick a pass to Cole. How can our players be so hopelessly out of position that a simple ball can open them up in such a congested space? I may not be a Coach or professional footballer, but I know that when you play the high line it is paramount you put pressure on the ball and squeeze the line. So why have we made such individual and collective error and defended like school boys for the first goal? Why is it that it is the same players who consistently, cost us defensively?

In fact, word in the industry is the top teams play us confident that if they keep it tight, we are bound to concede because we have a defensive strategy that allows for us to give up a goal. The evidence backs up this view. So why play as well as we did and throw it all away with such poor defending. Why can our players not learn from previous defensive mistakes? If you are missing your top players, it goes without saying that the replacement will not be as clinical. This is were you must compensate by defending properly.

Our defensive strategy is to press high up and force mistakes, this has been very effective especially against the poorer teams in the league. What I have noticed is our players become complacent and ill-disciplined, then we concede. Most of the time this poor defending is not punished because we out score the opposition. But when we play the better teams, they are quick to exploit the space we leave if we do not maintain our shape defensively. What is becoming apparent is we have now developed a bad habit from playing the weaker teams, we take this bad habit of poor defending to the games against the top teams and we lose. Defending is in the mind, you need to practice and form a regimental mentality and discipline. Sadly, we lack this important facet of the game and it is threatening to undermine another season.

My view is Wenger has to take a more pragmatic approach, I think Wenger should be a bit wiser with tactics. Playing away to Chelsea with the lazy and at times wasteful and unpredictable Arshavin plus the lazy Nasri is asking for trouble. We were punished for Nasri's laziness when he lazily allowed Cole in for the first goal. For example, you will not see Chelski or Manure play two defensively weak wide players when they play, Chelski, Arsenal, Liverpool and now City. Manure when they play us will bring in Park for obvious reasons. Even when they are forced to play weak wide players, they compromised by putting a defensive work horse in some other parts of the pitch.

We must compromise and Wenger must take a pick of one, he cannot play both Nasri and Arshavin in such games. For example, could he have played Eboue to keep an eye on Cole and tuck in where necessary? Could we have played Rocisky because he never fails with his defensive responsibilities? Could we have JET because he plays that position of plugging the runs of the FBs whilst providing a serious threat offensively.

We lost yesterday's game because of our poor defending as a team, the stats bear this out. We also gave away the ball 14 times in our half to Chelski's 7 times. The second goal came from us carelessly giving the ball away in our own half.

[Waffiman]

Errrr..... I made my point on Wenger and even went as far as to point out how he is trying to rectify the situation. Whether it is the right approach will be borne out come the end of the season.

For all Arsenal defensive lapses, it must be noted that they were at least 4 short from the first team. That performance tells me we can now go to any ground and get a result if we work on our defensive lapses. As I noted, in my piece, we have improved defensive as a unit but this improvement was not enough for the game against Chelski. Yes! We made the same errors that have costs us so much in the past but overall, we were far from the defensive shambles of last season that played Chelski and Manure. Given that we have a new defence who are still gelling as a unit, there is a lot to be encouraged about.

Arsenal are improving as a squad and the squad players like Wilshere and Gibbs are now forcing their way into the first team, this is good for competition. A good example of this is Diaby, he knows he cannot afford too many poor performances, he played very well yesterday both offensively and defensively. Why? He knows his place in under threat in the team. I do not see many team in the league with such quality options and these players can only improve. However, no amount of improvement can deal with the type of defensive lapses that has cost us games in big games recently. It must be sorted out and it will be sorted out.

IMO, your analysis is completely sound. But what totally amazes me is that you see your team making the very same mistakes again and again, showing the very same weaknesses year in year out, and yet you apportion most of the blame to individual players, instead of placing the buck ENTIRELY on the person that picked the players, 'organised' (term loosely applied) them tactically on the field, and is responsible for their mental strength?

Once, twice, certain players make mistakes, fine. But when the SAME mistakes are made again and again and again... Haba, is the coach blind or just incompetent?!

BTW! Oloye, here is my response to the game posted earlier. The problem is it is easy to develop follow, follow forumers wey dey read and lap up your sound bites like fly wey the follow sheep. I nor get time for them now.

Here is what i wrote earlier.

tolahs, your analysis as usual are intelligent, educational, lucid, concise and always a pleasure to read. However my bro, we really need to look at a persistent failing of ours. It is called defending as a team. What this squad\team has not improved on, for all its huge strided in every other aspect of the game, is defending. For example, I take you back to Chelski game last season when we lost 3 nil at home. Look at the first two goals, Arshavin did not track back, the CM was hoplessly out of position and we concede the crucial 1st goal. We repeat the trick again, this time on the right side with Nasri asleep allowing Cole to run in to set up the second. In both goals, analyse the defensive play of the team.

Sadly, we play Chelski again, and we repeat the same trick. The same players (Cole and Drogba taking advantage of sloppy team defending. What was Nasri doing for the first goal? Why did two Arsena player stand around Ramirez without putting pressure on the ball, thereby allowing him to pick a pass to Cole. How can our players be so hopelessly out of position that a simple ball can open them up in such a congested space? I may not be a Coach or professional footballer, but I know that when you play the high line it is paramount you put pressure on the ball and squeeze the line. So why have we made such individual and collective error and defended like school boys for the first goal? Why is it that it is the same players who consistently, cost us defensively?

In fact, word in the industry is the top teams play us confident that if they keep it tight, we are bound to concede because we have a defensive strategy that allows for us to give up a goal. The evidence backs up this view. So why play as well as we did and throw it all away with such poor defending. Why can our players not learn from previous defensive mistakes? If you are missing your top players, it goes without saying that the replacement will not be as clinical. This is were you must compensate by defending properly.

Our defensive strategy is to press high up and force mistakes, this has been very effective especially against the poorer teams in the league. What I have noticed is our players become complacent and ill-disciplined, then we concede. Most of the time this poor defending is not punished because we out score the opposition. But when we play the better teams, they are quick to exploit the space we leave if we do not maintain our shape defensively. What is becoming apparent is we have now developed a bad habit from playing the weaker teams, we take this bad habit of poor defending to the games against the top teams and we lose. Defending is in the mind, you need to practice and form a regimental mentality and discipline. Sadly, we lack this important facet of the game and it is threatening to undermine another season.

My view is Wenger has to take a more pragmatic approach, I think Wenger should be a bit wiser with tactics. Playing away to Chelsea with the lazy and at times wasteful and unpredictable Arshavin plus the lazy Nasri is asking for trouble. We were punished for Nasri's laziness when he lazily allowed Cole in for the first goal. For example, you will not see Chelski or Manure play two defensively weak wide players when they play, Chelski, Arsenal, Liverpool and now City. Manure when they play us will bring in Park for obvious reasons. Even when they are forced to play weak wide players, they compromised by putting a defensive work horse in some other parts of the pitch.

We must compromise and Wenger must take a pick of one, he cannot play both Nasri and Arshavin in such games. For example, could he have played Eboue to keep an eye on Cole and tuck in where necessary? Could we have played Rocisky because he never fails with his defensive responsibilities? Could we have JET because he plays that position of plugging the runs of the FBs whilst providing a serious threat offensively.

We lost yesterday's game because of our poor defending as a team, the stats bear this out. We also gave away the ball 14 times in our half to Chelski's 7 times. The second goal came from us carelessly giving the ball away in our own half.

[oloye]

Hallelujah Gibbs is replacing Cliche oops i forgot he was there when ManU thumped them at the Emirate, let me see did Jack the Wilshere play yesterday i thought he did. As for Ramsey common Waffi you and Wenger why do you love to take a mickey out of Arsenal fans, so a guy who is out with a serious injury is now the messiah Arsenal is waiting for , hmmm i swear something is wrong with gooners fans to be listening to this sort of gospel. I have heard of the good gospel but this one na fabu gospel.

Shouldn't you be supporting Limmrock or whatever they call that team in Ireland?

Oloye, abeg ignore this rude boy. Keep on dishing out the bitterness to these deluded, confused and teeth-gnashing arse fans. Lovinnngggggg it!

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

[odi]

That performance tells me we can now go to any ground and get a result if we work on our defensive lapses. As I noted, in my piece, we have improved defensive as a unit but this improvement was not enough for the game against Chelski. Yes! We made the same errors that have costs us so much in the past but overall, we were far from the defensive shambles of last season that played Chelski and Manure. Given that we have a new defence who are still gelling as a unit, there is a lot to be encouraged about.

It's funny. Word for word, you said almost the same things last season after you narrowly (and unluckily) lost to Manure at OT last season. Only for the 'improvement' to show at the Emirates in the return game . Last season, arsenal conceded 2 goals to Chelsea becose Ashley Cole was not tracked. And the same thing again this season. SMH... arsene wenger needs 2/3 seasons to learn simple lessons.

Oh BTW! If you or any other gooner opens ur mouth to compare Ashley Cole to any LB you have at the emirates (past, present, future), I will personally stuff your head even further up AW's backside!

[Waffiman]

That performance tells me we can now go to any ground and get a result if we work on our defensive lapses. As I noted, in my piece, we have improved defensive as a unit but this improvement was not enough for the game against Chelski. Yes! We made the same errors that have costs us so much in the past but overall, we were far from the defensive shambles of last season that played Chelski and Manure. Given that we have a new defence who are still gelling as a unit, there is a lot to be encouraged about.

It's funny. Word for word, you said almost the same things last season after you narrowly (and unluckily) lost to Manure at OT last season. Only for the 'improvement' to show at the Emirates in the return game . Last season, arsenal conceded 2 goals to Chelsea becose Ashley Cole was not tracked. And the same thing again this season. SMH... arsene wenger needs 2/3 seasons to learn simple lessons.

Oh BTW! If you or any other gooner opens ur mouth to compare Ashley Cole to any LB you have at the emirates (past, present, future), I will personally stuff your head even further up AW's backside!

Ashley Cole is an Arsenal product and he is still a Gooner. BTW! My company was among those invited by the club to send a representative to a leaving party for an Arsenal employee who was retiring. Well, we went guess who was the first to turn up for this party? Ashley Cole and there was no doubting his Gooner credentials. Clichy showed immense promise and was better than Cole at the same young age. However, Clichy has not progressed as we all would have liked and the word is he has lost his place to Gibbs. Arsenal had problems with Cole because of his advisers but the club knew they had Clichy and Gibbs, consequently, Cole was no loss to Arsenal.

[RudeBoy]

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

Of course it pains me I'm a true Gunner! Football support for some of us is tribal! I was born into it. I can't chop and change like you and Spastic. Last year na Spurs you support, the year before na Chelsea. This year you dey support Man U. Enjoy o!

[Vindave]

Song has killed us again
a defensive midfielder should keep play simple. He got caught in possession in a dangerous area. What was that for?

You see why a simple and pretty side way passing is better than dribbling and losing possession?

[oloye]

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

Of course it pains me I'm a true Gunner! Football support for some of us is tribal! I was born into it. I can't chop and change like you and Spastic. Last year na Spurs you support, the year before na Chelsea. This year you dey support Man U. Enjoy o!

No i did not support Spurs last year, i did not support Chelsea d year before i supported Jose as for ManU my comments are purely on footballing matters, even ManU supporters know that i am not one of their fan. My beef with Arsenal remains the delusion of trying to force a camel through the eye of a needle in the name of entertainment. My beef with Gunners remains what looks so glaring as failure and error which the manager keep on repackaging every season as a brand new product. It reminds me of those brokers on wall street who have the penchant for repackaging worthless portifolios and sell it to clueless punters.

[Coach]

Pay peanuts, you get monkeys...Apes! When your midfield marshall wouldnt get a sniff in the starting line-up of any of youur rivals, you're making a bed to lie in the bossom of failure. When yuour 'bargain basement' goalkeeper couldn't catch a cold in Siberia, you're finished.' Too many bog standards, not enough worldclass. Trailing at Chelsea, the magician that is, plucked Jay Emanuel Thomas from the depths of his sleeve. In states governed by Sharia law, he'd have been beheaded for such disrespect!

[Waffiman]

Pretty nice lineup ... All injured ...

The French have called up Diaby despite a bad ankle.

K Gibbs
M Almunia
C Fabregas
V Diaby
T Vermaelen
T Walcott
R Van Persie
E Frimpong
N Bendtner
A Ramsey

I am convinced this line up will beat the team that played against Chelski yesterday.

Good news is T Walcott, R Van Persie, C. Fabregas cannot be injured on International duty.

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

Of course it pains me I'm a true Gunner! Football support for some of us is tribal! I was born into it. I can't chop and change like you and Spastic. Last year na Spurs you support, the year before na Chelsea. This year you dey support Man U. Enjoy o!

No i did not support Spurs last year, i did not support Chelsea d year before i supported Jose as for ManU my comments are purely on footballing matters, even ManU supporters know that i am not one of their fan. My beef with Arsenal remains the delusion of trying to force a camel through the eye of a needle in the name of entertainment. My beef with Gunners remains what looks so glaring as failure and error which the manager keep on repackaging every season as a brand new product. It reminds me of those brokers on wall street who have the penchant for repackaging worthless portifolios and sell it to clueless punters.

Oloye:
I neva read analysis if you provided any, but can you comment on that Arsenal's wall? We were thought in secondary school NEVER to let an opponent be part of your wall, as he will duck and the ball will be played right through where he was. I was surprised when Brazil used this simple tactic to score against us in Atlanta in '96, and I am definitely shocked to see Arsenal do that in 2010. Any comments as a former pro defender?

[Waffiman]

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

Of course it pains me I'm a true Gunner! Football support for some of us is tribal! I was born into it. I can't chop and change like you and Spastic. Last year na Spurs you support, the year before na Chelsea. This year you dey support Man U. Enjoy o!

No i did not support Spurs last year, i did not support Chelsea d year before i supported Jose as for ManU my comments are purely on footballing matters, even ManU supporters know that i am not one of their fan. My beef with Arsenal remains the delusion of trying to force a camel through the eye of a needle in the name of entertainment. My beef with Gunners remains what looks so glaring as failure and error which the manager keep on repackaging every season as a brand new product. It reminds me of those brokers on wall street who have the penchant for repackaging worthless portifolios and sell it to clueless punters.

Oloye:
I neva read analysis if you provided any, but can you comment on that Arsenal's wall? We were thought in secondary school NEVER to let an opponent be part of your wall, as he will duck and the ball will be played right through where he was. I was surprised when Brazil used this simple tactic to score against us in Atlanta in '96, and I am definitely shocked to see Arsenal do that in 2010. Any comments as a former pro defender?

My bro, let us give credit where it is due, when you strike a ball like that, you do not stop them.

Maybe Song should have done better but the free kick was not the problem. The problem was the careless way we gave the ball away that led to the free kick.

Like I said above, there are two ways of looking at it. Either we become more clinical in front of goal in these kinds of games or we find a way to defend well enough so that our inefficiency in front of goal does not matter as much.

Going into the game, it was obvious we need to score at least two, to win because we will give away a goal. The fact is, our defending still has a way to go to be good enough to win games like this. Wenger also has to be pragmatic and stop this nonsense of Arshavin and Nasrii against the top teams. The fact is the "you score two and we will score three" approach cannot win you titles.

As an example, Clichy played well, but was is his final ball really good enough to justify him marauding forward and leaving gaps at the back? This is the type of balance we need to strike, IMHO, he did not cost us any goal but was risk of him going forward worth it? Was the risk of playing Nasri and Arshavin worth their problems to the defence. The answer is an emphatic no. The result is testament to this and the crucial goal came from a defensive weakness created by the inclusion of Nasri.

[oloye]

Nor mind Rudeboy the thing dey pain am like novalgin injection dey pain persin wey go take malaria melecine. Chai that bulala from Alex sweet me for belle like honey, i just shout goal and shut my computer go nack tombo to celebrate King D new wife.

Of course it pains me I'm a true Gunner! Football support for some of us is tribal! I was born into it. I can't chop and change like you and Spastic. Last year na Spurs you support, the year before na Chelsea. This year you dey support Man U. Enjoy o!

No i did not support Spurs last year, i did not support Chelsea d year before i supported Jose as for ManU my comments are purely on footballing matters, even ManU supporters know that i am not one of their fan. My beef with Arsenal remains the delusion of trying to force a camel through the eye of a needle in the name of entertainment. My beef with Gunners remains what looks so glaring as failure and error which the manager keep on repackaging every season as a brand new product. It reminds me of those brokers on wall street who have the penchant for repackaging worthless portifolios and sell it to clueless punters.

Oloye:
I neva read analysis if you provided any, but can you comment on that Arsenal's wall? We were thought in secondary school NEVER to let an opponent be part of your wall, as he will duck and the ball will be played right through where he was. I was surprised when Brazil used this simple tactic to score against us in Atlanta in '96, and I am definitely shocked to see Arsenal do that in 2010. Any comments as a former pro defender?

Oga mi i am more shocked by the accuracy of that bulala as it zipped right through that nice hole carved up by Essien. Yes i remember how we used to push anyone who tries to stay in the wall away. You may stay at the end of the wall but you can never be part of the wall, it is like allowing the enemy to be part of the sentry. I was this happen with ManU too, luckily Van Der Sar was up to the task when the bulala came calling. To be fair if Arsenal lines up all their baskets against that bulala it will just rip through it. Alex should be arrested for violent conduct, there too much venom and vilonce in that bulala if that hit someone in the wall, the result could be fatal.

[tolahs]

http://desigunner.wordpress.com/2010/10 ... ous-games/

Chelsea V Arsenal: Technically And Tactically Different From Previous Games:
Let’s look at the passing stats from the last three games.

Oct 3 2010 – Chelsea 283/349; Arsenal 342/398.

Feb 7 2010 – Chelsea 262/322; Arsenal 405/503.

Nov 29 2009 – Chelsea 283/338; Arsenal 384/467.

Arsenal looked solid defensively and apart from an Essien header of a set-piece and a somewhat Fortuitous goal by Drogba, the hosts didn’t create much. It’s not a surprise that all our best chances; two shots by Arshavin, Nasri missing narrowly, and the first minute chances; all came in the first half and before Chelsea scored their goal. Till that point the game was open and the first goal made a huge difference.
It’s not difficult to understand why Arsene was disappointed with our missed chances. If you look at the number of chances Chelsea created outside of counter attacks, it’s clear we stopped them well. If we’d scored the first goal we would have found it easier as they’d have been forced into playing an even more open game

Chelsea didn’t have much creativity in their midfield and we stifled their full backs for large parts. Yes, Cole did get an assist but that was a one-off and he didn’t get much before or after. The following chart from Guardian Chalkboards shows that the traitor had very little contribution in the final third.

[Bigpokey24]

here we go again with some silly stats.. assanla lost 2- 0.. ..all they do is pass the damn ball in their own half.. assanal is the reall king of backpass and sideways passes

[tolahs]

Ain't no one stressing on the derby results - some of us choose to analyse - you ain't gotta dance

[dkib]

http://desigunner.wordpress.com/2010/10 ... ous-games/

Chelsea V Arsenal: Technically And Tactically Different From Previous Games:
Let’s look at the passing stats from the last three games.

Oct 3 2010 – Chelsea 283/349; Arsenal 342/398.

Feb 7 2010 – Chelsea 262/322; Arsenal 405/503.

Nov 29 2009 – Chelsea 283/338; Arsenal 384/467.

Arsenal looked solid defensively and apart from an Essien header of a set-piece and a somewhat Fortuitous goal by Drogba, the hosts didn’t create much. It’s not a surprise that all our best chances; two shots by Arshavin, Nasri missing narrowly, and the first minute chances; all came in the first half and before Chelsea scored their goal. Till that point the game was open and the first goal made a huge difference.
It’s not difficult to understand why Arsene was disappointed with our missed chances. If you look at the number of chances Chelsea created outside of counter attacks, it’s clear we stopped them well. If we’d scored the first goal we would have found it easier as they’d have been forced into playing an even more open game

Chelsea didn’t have much creativity in their midfield and we stifled their full backs for large parts. Yes, Cole did get an assist but that was a one-off and he didn’t get much before or after. The following chart from Guardian Chalkboards shows that the traitor had very little contribution in the final third.

I have not seen the match but have you factored in arsenal scoring first and chelsea unleashing attacking play overpowering the gunners?

[wanaj0]

That Alex shot look like Thunder Baloguns own oooo. If that shot hit person na die It was with so much venom! Sure he wanted to kill somebody