Naïve Arsenal 0 – 3 Efficient Chelsea

I guess all of us are feeling different emotions like frustration, anger, dejection and even hopelessness. What else can you feel after such a performance!? It’s sad to see the team so out of depth and the fault lies entirely with the manager.
How can Arsene send out a team that plays right into the opposition’s hands? I don’t know whether it was a tactical disaster or sheer stupidity. For 90 minutes we played football that was right up their alley and if this game lasted another 900 minutes we wouldn’t have scored a goal.


We got a lot of the ball. It was expected. Chelsea defended. No surprise there. They would wait for their chance. Not rocket science, is that? They have enough quality to take that chance. Years of top performance is evidence to that. So what was Arsene Wenger thinking!
Firstly, why did we keep taking the ball wide all the time? Secondly, how do we expect to beat their players with high balls played into the Chelsea box? Thirdly, what prevented us from changing the strategy and trying another mode of attack? Finally and most importantly, what was the manager doing when all this was going on?
We should have started the game at high tempo but instead we got lulled into a slow rhythm that made life easy for the visitors. Did it even look like they got out of second gear in this game? It hurts me immensely that we can let ourselves be outclassed in our own backyard. And that’s exactly what we have done. We have allowed the opposition to dictate the game to their strengths.
We don’t know how to cross the ball, we don’t know how to attack a cross and we don’t know how to defend a cross. Ultimately, that’s the summary of the game. All day long we got the ball wide and hardly found any of our players inside. The Blues got a couple of chances and they put two in our net.
Interestingly, height didn’t really matter here. The two goals Chelsea scored were from balls that were barely waist high. But technique matters. You need to know the corridors of uncertainty in the box and you must have the ability to find them. If not, then you should not try learning that all day long in such a big match.
Gallas should have dealt with the cross for the first goal. But he stopped himself from putting his leg across. For all his great qualities and hard work, he keeps making such half mistakes that cause us problems in big games. Do you think Terry, Carvalho or any other top central defender would let such a cross reach the striker!? I could understand if it was a fast cross whipped in away from him and Drogba scored with a fantastic lunge. But the ball just flew past the French international and straight onto the feet of the Ivorian. If your top players can’t get it right, how can you expect to get results in big matches?
Part of the blame also falls on Sagna for allowing that cross in the first place. He didn’t even stretch a leg out! Did you notice the number of times our crosses were blocked by their first man? It’s all part of the same thing. This is Chelsea’s strength and our weakness and we succumbed to their tactics.
Another interesting aspect of the first goal was the speed at which the ball moves from right to center to left and then into the goal. At one point you could see three Chelsea players on the right wing. Most of our players were defending that and the ball moved backwards. Terry seized on the opportunity to move forward and he found width on the left. This is the speed we have missed. This is the speed that used to be our strength. In the last two games we have taken far too long to switch play and have failed in creating space by giving the opposition enough time to recover.
I can find similar faults with the second goal. But that doesn’t mean anything. These problems are not new. The result isn’t very surprising. The painful part is, we never learn. Wenger keeps talking about his team growing up and maturing but it’s just talk.
Amongst the players I was very disappointed with Gallas, Eduardo and Arshavin. I thought Dudu was too focused on scoring himself and didn’t play in his team mates who were better placed. Given his lack of speed and physical presence it was not surprising that Chelsea defender’s found it easy to tackle him every time he took an extra moment.
Arshavin is a player with immense talent. I expect a big player to put in an extra special effort in a big match. Our best chance of the game fell to him when Cech was out of his goal and lost the ball. The Russian was outside the box but had a clear shot at an open goal. But if you take three touches to sort your feet out, some or the other opposition player will get a block in.
I have already pointed out the problem with Gallas. Part of the problems with these players was compounded by our tactical naivety so it’s not fair to single them out. Champion squads see top players taking charge of games. Unfortunately, we haven’t got anyone who can do that. I don’t think Gallas can ever take charge, so it’s up to Arsene to drill this into the likes of Cesc and Arshavin.
There are enough points that can be discussed. We can blame many players for their mistakes. Does it matter? At the end of the day, it’s the manager and the players who have to realize what’s gone wrong. Unless that happens, we will keep ending the big matches in frustration and pain.
To me the bottom-line is that we were outsmarted and outplayed in our stronghold. I can understand Wenger won’t speak much in public and I can only hope he will understand the real problems and deal with them in private. The buck stops with him.
As of now I don’t want to talk much about title hopes. There’s a long way to go in the season and we have a long way to go before we have hopes of getting silverware. It’s much more important to get the basics right every three days and focus on the game at hand.