I think it's safe to say that three mistakes cost Arsenal the game yesterday. Two of them were blindingly obvious, one of the them was a small mistake but very costly.

Mistake 1 (very ovbious): After about 20 minutes, just after Thierry Henry had hit the post, Freddie Ljungberg played in Robin van Persie and he finished quite clinically to make it '1-0' to Arsenal. However, for some reason the linesman disallowed the goal for offside. There is no disputing the fact that Henry was offisde but he did not touch the ball, the pass was not made to him and the goal should have stood. It should have been 1-0 Arsenal but soon it was the other way around.

Mistake 2 (tiny mistake): Kolo Toure allowed Arjen Robben to get away from him for just second but that's all a player of his pace needs when he's being played onside by Sol Campbell. He raced through and scored off the post to make it 1-0 to Chelsea when it should have been 1-0 Arsenal.

Mistake 3 (very ovbious): The ball came across the pitch and Lauren tried to take it down but only succeeded in playing the ball into the path of Joe Cole. He still had Sol Campbell to beat but he didn't have to do much to make Campbell look silly and finish with a left foot curler low past Jens Lehmann. From 2-0 down there was never any chance of coming back against a team as defensive as Chelsea and the three points were always destined for West London.

What a shame!

For me there is no question that van Persie's disallowed goal was the pivotal moment. Arsenal had weathered Chelsea's early storm, Henry had hit the post a minute or two before and then they scored a perfectly good goal which meant Chelsea would have had to come out and play instead of scoring themselves and then sitting back and showing everyone - AGAIN - how strong they are defensively. It was a really poor decision by the linesman and it cost Arsenal the game. Arsene Wenger was not at all happy, making a comment that could land him in hot water with the FA. He said "We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team - the Chelsea team."

Not long after that football's ambassador for fair play, Michael Essien, knocked out one of Lauren's front teeth with a straight arm while fending off the ball. For me the replays were inconclusive, maybe I need to see them again, but given his form he was lucky to escape with a yellow card. Moaning-ho said Arsenal were picking on him because of past events where he has tried really hard to break somebody's (Hamman for those who don't know) leg and said Philippe Senderos should have been sent off twice (?) which would be an achievement even for Rob Styles. Robin van Persie was booked for bouncing the ball in an agressive manner and it really does show the terrible disparity between mild indiscipline and dangerous, violent play. Why should bouncing the ball merit the same punishment as knocking somebody's teeth out?

In the second half Arsenal huffed and puffed but didn't create very much. Henry was very quiet, Cech made a good save from Lauren and with about 20 minutes to go they brought on Pires and Bergkamp for the ineffectual Ljungberg, and Alexander Hleb who looked promising but still without enough end product. A couple of minutes later Chelsea scored their second after Lauren's error and that was game over.

Arsenal needed big performances from the likes of Henry and Campbell and unfortunately they didn't get it. Henry, his shot against the post apart, was really quiet while Sol continues to be a terrible worry. He was beaten to a header by Joe Cole (up there with Drogba for ugliness), for God's sake, and at one point took a free kick with his left foot, skidding the ball straight to a Chelsea player. He's right footed! What the hell was he thinking? I know that Arsenal have too many kids playing and that they lack experience but it's the experience that's letting them down this season not the kids and Campbell is one of the main culprits. He never even got close to Joe Cole for Chelsea's second goal. Lots of people were talking about the duel between Drogba and Senderos but Big Phil defended like Tony Adams. He made everything difficult for Drogba and maybe he skirted the edge of yellow cards and so on but he was there every single time. His tackle on Robben just at the start of the second half reminded me of Steve Bould from back in the day!

Elsewhere Lehmann played well again, Fabregas and Flamini did okay in a midfield against two sly cunts and Fat Frank, Hleb was ok, Ljunberg anonymous, van Persie was good but playing on the left and Henry was quiet again. It seems like Arsenal played a 4-5-1 but I really would have preferred Wenger to play a good old 4-4-2. Despite the bad luck they had it's fairly obvious again that this Arsenal squad needs some strengthening come January because without it the 4th place needed to get into the CL qualifying rounds could be out of reach.

Finally, let's talk about Jose Mourinho. At the final whistle he disappeared down the tunnel and didn't even have the basic decency and manners to shake hands with Arsene Wenger. Lots of managers have problems with each other, can't stand each other, can't abide the methods/face/sight of their rival, but to a man they always have enough manners to shake the hand of their rival. For crying out loud even Lord Fergie and AW shake hands! Not Mourinho though. He's as ill-mannered, as arrogant, as childish as they come and for a manager of a team to come to Highbury and not have the consideration to shake hands with his opposite number says everything about Chelsea and the way they have come to be at the top of the English game. They're owned by a cunt, managed by a cunt, supported by cunts and staffed by cunts. I am praying that Barcelona rape them in the Champions League. Afterwards Mourinho said "Do you think that's important for the game? I don't think it is important for the game. What is important is 90 minutes of football on the pitch."

A fairly pathetic attempt to take away from the fact that he couldn't have put aside whatever his feelings are about AW for 2 seconds in order to shake his hand. Classless. And what's more, if you or I had all the money in the world to sign whatever players we wanted - and make no mistake that those are the resources Mourinho has available to him - I'm pretty sure we'd try and build a great team which played great football. No matter what Chelsea win they will never be regarded as a great team because of the negative football they play. That might sound rich coming from a Juventus fan, but at least Juve never paid top dollar in order to bore fans to death. We'd never have been compared to a 94 vintage Barcelona (which we have been!), and this Chelsea side will never even be compared to anything pretty! Defensive, negative, dour, without beauty - just like their coach. His paranoid ramblings about Arsenal's plot to get Essien sent off really makes you wonder about what world he lives in. He really does think everyone is out to get him and always has an excuse for his bad manners.

Anyway, that horrible cunt apart the fact remains that Arsenal have lost 3 in a row, lost their home record, failed to score for 3 games and sit 8th in the table at Christmas time behind the obvious teams as well as Wigan, Man City and Spurs. Arsene Wenger says "We have to show our strength now and come back, and finish as close as possible to the top team."

Amen to that. You've got to make them show their strength though, Arsene, and you've got to bring in the new players needed in January to make you strong enough again. I am backing you against another team that throws money all over the place: Madrid!

The Arsenal vs. Chelsea match Chxta is reviewing is this one:
"LONDON -- Chelsea regained its nine-point lead in the English Premier League yesterday, beating Arsenal 2-0 on goals by Arjen Robben and Joe Cole" (Source)

BBC Coverage:
"Goals from Arjen Robben and Joe Cole restored Chelsea's nine-point advantage at the top of the table - and all but ended Arsenal's own title bid." (Source)

Everyone knows that!

We can't afford to assume that! The thread has to make sense 3 years from now when someone stumbles on it.

It will be stale by then!

But guys which team in the priemiership can whop chelseas ass given the way they play .....or is it luck.



_{Obviously my team man-u is not capable.}

Good of you PrettyH for owning up.
A team like Bolton can beat us anyway.

One does get tired of Arsenal fans whinging all the time..

But then again, when one has a "Whenger" as a coach, what more can you expect..??  

Let's look at Van Persie's "goal" more critically..

Yes, Van Persie beat the marker on him, and advanced torwards the goal..

Yes, Thierry Henry was in an initial OFFSIDE Position....

Now, if the bugger had remained in one position, instead of turning around and running back torwards the goal (torwards the course of play), maybe calls for the goal to stand would be justified... [I hope we have not all forgotten he was running back from an offside position prior to Van Persie advancing torwards the goal.. Or will the arsenal fans deny this obvious truth as well?? ]

But NO.. in the usual tradition of Arsenal always seeking the 'unfair' advantage, he turned around and advanced torwards the Chelsea goal mouth.. Hence, interfering with the course of play (and seeking an undue advantage in the process..)

Now, the above is Football 202.. for those who missed the class football 101.. (introduction to the science of soccer..  )

Suffice it to say that when Arsenal will finally accept that other teams at the present are better than them.. possibly.. maybe.. a true rebuilding of their team can begin.. They have talent.. but looks like the team, management, supporters, and coach are all living in delusions of past glory.. 

Chxta:

I think it's safe to say that three mistakes cost Arsenal the game yesterday. Two of them were blindingly obvious, one of the them was a small mistake but very costly.

Mistake 1 (very ovbious): After about 20 minutes, just after Thierry Henry had hit the post, Freddie Ljungberg played in Robin van Persie and he finished quite clinically to make it '1-0' to Arsenal. However, for some reason the linesman disallowed the goal for offside. There is no disputing the fact that Henry was offisde but he did not touch the ball, the pass was not made to him and the goal should have stood. It should have been 1-0 Arsenal but soon it was the other way around.

....snip...

What a shame!

For me there is no question that van Persie's disallowed goal was the pivotal moment. Arsenal had weathered Chelsea's early storm, Henry had hit the post a minute or two before and then they scored a perfectly good goal which meant Chelsea would have had to come out and play instead of scoring themselves and then sitting back and showing everyone - AGAIN - how strong they are defensively. It was a really poor decision by the linesman and it cost Arsenal the game. Arsene Wenger was not at all happy, making a comment that could land him in hot water with the FA. He said "We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team - the Chelsea team."

... snip..

Arsenal needed big performances from the likes of Henry and Campbell and unfortunately they didn't get it. Henry, his shot against the post apart, was really quiet while Sol continues to be a terrible worry. He was beaten to a header by Joe Cole (up there with Drogba for ugliness) [ Joe Cole... UGLY.. Now I'm really LMFAaHO ], for God's sake, and at one point took a free kick with his left foot, skidding the ball straight to a Chelsea player. He's right footed! What the hell was he thinking? I know that Arsenal have too many kids playing and that they lack experience but it's the experience that's letting them down this season not the kids and Campbell is one of the main culprits. He never even got close to Joe Cole for Chelsea's second goal. Lots of people were talking about the duel between Drogba and Senderos but Big Phil defended like Tony Adams. He made everything difficult for Drogba and maybe he skirted the edge of yellow cards and so on [the signs of a true arsenal fan.. living in delusions..  ] but he was there every single time. His tackle on Robben just at the start of the second half reminded me of Steve Bould from back in the day!

...snip...

Anyway, ...... the fact remains that Arsenal have lost 3 in a row, lost their home record, failed to score for 3 games and sit 8th in the table at Christmas time behind the obvious teams as well as Wigan, Man City and Spurs.  [At last some degree of objectivity, and can we dare say "humility" from an Arsenal fan..] Arsene Wenger says "We have to show our strength now and come back, and finish as close as possible to the top team."

Amen to that. You've got to make them show their strength though, Arsene, and you've got to bring in the new players needed in January to make you strong enough again. I am backing you against another team that throws money all over the place: Madrid! [Not likely... but then again, who knows in this sport.. the game known as football... ]

I am tired of people seeing what they want to see when they read my articles!

I AM NOT AN ARSENAL FAN!

"But NO.. in the usual tradition of Arsenal always seeking the 'unfair' advantage, he turned around and advanced torwards the Chelsea goal mouth.. Hence, interfering with the course of play (and seeking an undue advantage in the process..)"

Cimonjorr

Are u a referee?
What a proper analysis!

No Bro..

Just a student of the game...

Crok!

The ball never crossed Henry's path. Even the FA have acknowledged that!

Like I said...

The problem was never the ball crossing Thierry's path, nor Van Persie's attempt on goal... It was, and still remains Thierry's turning around, and advancing torewards the Chelsea post from an initial offside position.. (to seek undue advantage..)

I refer you to the match b/w Liverpool and Sao Paolo during the finals of the World Club championship for further examples on how the offside rule was utilized to devestating effect...

Bottom line, the goal did not stand, and the referees call was justified..

ps... Maybe from the referees position he had a diference of opinion from you.. but then again, can you fault the lines man also..
I think more light should be placed on FIFA, who in trying to solve one problem created more confusion with all these funny modifications to existing rules..

ps 2.. I didnt hear these complaints when Arsenal (Thierry) took that free kick "quickly" against Chelsea last year.. *maybe when it's in arsenals' favour it's ok, but when it's against them it isn't.. *

Difference between Henry's quicky taken freekick from last season and the offside incident from this season:

Henry asked Paul Durkin if he could take the kick, and Durkin answered in the affirmative, and noted it in his match report, this time around Rob Styles didn't even acknowledge Henry's presence during the van Persie incident in his report.

How do you reconcile such disparity?

Could you please provide us the link to the match report..??

Yeah. Good analysis of the game, but the bottom line is Arsene Wenger should shop for more

quality players by January. Especially in the defence line.

which part?

yeah, the ref made a mistake with the decision made by anuling the goal scored by van persie, its also tru tht tht chelski(chelsea) scored a similar goal, but it all boils to the point the ASSernal lacks depth, finese and class in theeir present squad.

The sale of viera is the bane of their present situation, after his sale no move was made to replace him, check out he's always been the heart off this team.

Im not surprise they r loosing (3 in a row), its not the end they two tough matches coming up Liverpool, Man u wat do think wiil happen in this matches 2 more loss or (nomoreloss) .?

Gone are those theys when they seem invisible but this days loss to teams like west ham, bolton etc shos tht the mighty do fall.

For chelski i think they are fortunate, have a money bag, a disciplinarian (headmaster) in maurinho, they shld just remember tht luck do run out. it has happen to better teams, madrid, ac milan, barcelona, man . u

CimonJorr:

No Bro..

Just a student of the game...

Well you may need to go back to school!

The head of the referee association has acknowledged that a mistake was made. It was a good goal but that is life and such things happen.

Chxta, very good report.

I must say that I was at the game and Arsenal in my opinion played one of their better matches in recent memory.

I expected us to be overrun in the middle by Frank and Makelele but for once Fabregas and Silva seemed to be up for a scrap.

We lost that match on the wings mainly, Kolo Toure was constantly exposed on the wing because Lungberg kept going missing and it was only a matter of time before Robben capitalised on it.

Lauren also got exposed on his wing and made a schoolboy error and we got punished.

Apart from Persies goal which would have changed the dynamics of the game, Arsenal cannot really complain.


Wenger came with a tactic of playing high up the field but we did not really have the personnal to carry it out.

Chelsea played thier natural game and were better at it.

Henry and Lungberg were well below par.

We need to rebuild big time and I for one will not be that sad if Henry is sold.

His money can finance 3 more players, I think we need a total of 5 new players with at least 3 of them experienced players.

Reyes needs to fulfill his potential quickly or be sold before he is worth nothing.

Cygan and Lauren need to be replaced and an understudy for Campbell is needed.

Congrats Chelsea on a good win in a good match.

Chxta:

.



Finally, let's talk about Jose Mourinho. At the final whistle he disappeared down the tunnel and didn't even have the basic decency and manners to shake hands with Arsene Wenger. Lots of managers have problems with each other, can't stand each other, can't abide the methods/face/sight of their rival, but to a man they always have enough manners to shake the hand of their rival. For crying out loud even Lord Fergie and AW shake hands! Not Mourinho though. He's as ill-mannered, as arrogant, as childish as they come and for a manager of a team to come to Highbury and not have the consideration to shake hands with his opposite number says everything about Chelsea and the way they have come to be at the top of the English game. They're owned by a cunt, managed by a cunt, supported by cunts and staffed by cunts. I am praying that Barcelona rape them in the Champions League. Afterwards Mourinho said "Do you think that's important for the game? I don't think it is important for the game. What is important is 90 minutes of football on the pitch."

A fairly pathetic attempt to take away from the fact that he couldn't have put aside whatever his feelings are about AW for 2 seconds in order to shake his hand. Classless. And what's more, if you or I had all the money in the world to sign whatever players we wanted - and make no mistake that those are the resources Mourinho has available to him - I'm pretty sure we'd try and build a great team which played great football. No matter what Chelsea win they will never be regarded as a great team because of the negative football they play. That might sound rich coming from a Juventus fan, but at least Juve never paid top dollar in order to bore fans to death. We'd never have been compared to a 94 vintage Barcelona (which we have been!), and this Chelsea side will never even be compared to anything pretty! Defensive, negative, dour, without beauty - just like their coach. His paranoid ramblings about Arsenal's plot to get Essien sent off really makes you wonder about what world he lives in. He really does think everyone is out to get him and always has an excuse for his bad manners.

Honestly,Chxta you're a good football analyst, I love your analysis but you are a bit bias about Chelsea and the coach and even we the Chelsea fans.
I do not know whether you know the genesis of this feud between the two managers.
And you do not know why Jose M. behaved  as he did.

Jose M. had sent christmas cards to all the managers in premiership including Arsene W, he sent a special one to Arsene Wenger to apologize to him for labelling hin vougue in the last feud but was rejected by Arsene Wenger.
So what do you expect when one is trying to mend fences and another ready for showdown?
please get your facts before you blab.

You said and I quote that "Chelsea is owned by Cunt, coached by cunt and supported by cunts.
This clearly shows your arrogance and lack of respect to freedom of choice of the people.
So you call millions of Chelsea supporters cunts including my great self?
Abramovich can buy your entire family and you have the guts to call him a cunt?
You're the greatest Cunt I've ever seen on earth.
Respect yourself so others can do same to you.
Respect is resciprocal.
Charity begins at home.
Learn how to talk bobo.
You blabbed.
balderdash!

Greatpeter:

Jose M. had sent christmas cards to all the managers in premiership including Arsene W, he sent a special one to Arsene Wenger to apologize to him for labelling hin vougue in the last feud but was rejected by Arsene Wenger.
So what do you expect when one is trying to mend fences and another ready for showdown?
please get your facts before you blab.

GP...ero pese! Take am easy.

Jose had not apologised before Chxta posted that. As for the name-calling, no worry I go make am stool down for some seconds...no vex, ehn!

[size=5pt]Gunners for life[/size]

@ GP

Who say that?


Chxta or what did he cal himself

Have no apologies for my statements just yet. People who knew me back in the day would know that I supported Chelsea when Kanu scored that hattrick 7 seasons ago now. I supported Chelsea back in the day because I didn't like ManU, and neither did I like Arsenal, and back then the only league one could watch was the EPL.
Thank God for RAI and Canal Plus that is no longer the case, and thank God for the internet and PPLive so that even when DSTv chose to misbehave which is in my opinion a too common occurrence, then I can still watch my Juve play.
I began to dislike Chelsea when Roman took over and it became Ch€£$k¥!

And why do I have the freedom to dislike Ch€£$k¥? Because I was never a fan, just a supporter.

Now, to the complaints of me being biased: No I am not. I just said the truth albeight in a not too pleasant manner...
GP, you may have been a Chelsea fan, but even you have to acknowledge that the majority of people screaming Hossana now are Ch€£$k¥ fans, not Chelsea fans...
You must acknowledge that Mourinho's attitude is distasteful at the very best. What is his problem? Must he always find someone to wind up? Take for example his calling Wenger a Viewer earlier this season, and then making a statement that implied that he had a dossier with 120 pages of comments that Wenger had made conccerning Ch€£$k¥! That is crazy if there ever was a definition of the word...

I could go on and on, but if I do, it will once again be misinterpreted as beef, so I hereby hold my peace.

But before I post this, let me tell you the only team I have beef for: and no it is not Milan (that is a healthy rivalry), no it is not Roma (Bianconeri tend to look at the Romanista with a lot of pity), it is the English National Team!

@Chxta
You are biased. Period !
Do you know that Arsene Wenger is the only Coach in the Premiership that has never say Congratulations to Chelsea as premiership champions. Too full of himself.

You are not biased yet you quoted what Mourhino says about Wenger , you did no feed us with Mr wenger says as well.

"If Mourhino had 120 pages, i have about 10 as well"

Akolawole:

@Chxta
You are biased. Period !
Do you know that Arsene Wenger is the only Coach in the Premiership that has never say Congratulations to Chelsea as premiership champions. Too full of himself.

You are not biased yet you quoted what Mourhino says about Wenger , you did no feed us with Mr wenger says as well.

"If Mourhino had 120 pages, i have about 10 as well"

When did Arsene say that? I double dare you to post a link to the source of your quote.

Sending a card is nothing because it could have come from anyone in Chelsea and he has no way of knowing if it was a genuine and a public insult deserves a public apology.

Akolawole:

@Chxta
You are biased. Period !
Do you know that Arsene Wenger is the only Coach in the Premiership that has never say Congratulations to Chelsea as premiership champions. Too full of himself.

You are not biased yet you quoted what Mourhino says about Wenger , you did no feed us with Mr wenger says as well.

"If Mourhino had 120 pages, i have about 10 as well"

Wrong maya tovarisch. Wenger was actually the first manager to concede the title last season. I'd have given you a link, unfortunately, I can't be bothered to search Planet Football at the moment...