Arsenal 0 - Chelsea 3: Lightweights Squashed.

Another smashing at home to Chelsea, last season, 4-1, this season 3-0, not even a goal to celebrate? The true value of Arsenal was shown last evening, to win championships, you need to show you can derail your opponents. Instead, Chelsea have shown us where we need to get to if we ever want to be champions again, especially in the short-medium term. Ashley Cole must have thoroughly enjoyed this, two assists, and Drogba put the icing on the cake with a thunderous freekick.

1) Solidarity.

Chelsea had easy pickings yesterday, they were all united in what they wanted to achieve, they attacked as one, the defended as one, no weak links, and when Obi did mess up, even Anelka would come back to help. Contrast that to Arsenal, the whole team never operated as a single unit, clear divisions in how the midfield, attack and defence play, no synergy at all. When facing a formidable opponent, you need to be one, otherwise you will fail.

2) Tactics.

This is something that needs to be addressed. prior to the game, Fabregas and Wenger said, "we'll play our game and see how it goes," compare that to Ancelotti who said after the game, "We knew that Arsenal like to play in the opponents half and we prepared very well our defensive positions, keep control of zones." Is it any wonder why Chelsea knew exactly how to win, and we never? You can't stick to 1 scheme in every single game, it is easy to plan for. We never prepare for the opposition, and only ever had 1 striker on the pitch at a time, so where will the goals come from? And since when did random crosses become a method of playing? We may be a small sized team, but with the right tactics, we can negate that deficiency.

3) Champion mentality.

Once we go behind, we never come back, especially against such big teams. The team feebly tried to come back by running hard and applying pressure, but they had no method in that madness, Chelsea are ready for high impact, you need to be intellectual to open them up, we sent in crosses for Eduardo, thinking Terry and Carvalho are short..... The team needs to react quickly, once the first went in, we should react, not after 2 goals have gone in. And this business of giving up after 70 mins sucks, Liverpool and Man Utd have shown in the Champions League that nothing is ever a lost cause. We need to stop giving up, and give our all for 95mins, I thought the players said they had learned to concentrate for a whole game after the Liege, AZ and West Ham games?


Player Ratings

Almunia 3: One good save, after that, the rest he could have at least reacted. The Drogba free-kick was because he decided to move and not be confident.

Sagna 2: Rotten crosses as usual, and two goals came from his side. Once upon a time, Sagna was a rock at the back, what has happened to him?

Gallas 3: Costly errors for the first two goals, couldn't handle the Chelsea attack.

Vermaelen 3: Latest Arsenal defender to fail to contain the Drog. Own goal and awful defending for the first goal.

Traore 3: Sent spiralling by Drogba when they fought for the ball, and Ivanovic did a similar thing to him. Got forward but with no quality.

Song-Billong 3: Carried the ball well and compressed space, only had 45mins, injury or tactical?

Fabregas 3: No invention, and as captain, gave up very easily again, becoming a ritual. In tough times, the captain should stand up tall.

Denilson 3: No passing, not much defensive work either, what value did he add?

Nasri 3: Not a winger, but still played there, why? Not able to unlock the doors for his team. He is best behind strikers, not on the flank.

Arshavin 2: Much is expected from him, but not on the same wavelength as his team mates.

Eduardo 1: No confidence, not a lead striker, got nothing from Terry and Carvalho.

Walcott 1: No technique or intelligence, very very very predictable, Cole and Ferreira had an easy time with him. Speed is not everything.

Vela 2: No right foot, and runs into blind alleys, never let off any shots, what was the point?

Rosicky 1: Made a few nice passes, but cowardly kicks on Obi, if he had shown as much ambition in his attacking play as those kicks, we may have actually scored.


Trainer Rating

Wenger 1: His marriage to one formation is killing the team yet again. Never deployed his players where they are best, Eduardo is not a lead striker, Nasri is not a winger, and why keep Rosicky on the bench for so long, he is one of our most intelligent players with experience against big opponents.

No tactical variation, Chelsea knew exactly what was coming,and he never changed it. Why not use 3 defenders and have two strikers on? Instead we kept with a 4-3-3 with inadequate players for it for 90 mins. Does he also approve of aimless crosses? He never told them to stop it, if he approves, he needs to stop this tactic, it doesn't work.

Time To Go To Work.

On Sunday, Arsenal need to clock in for work and get a job done, it doesn't matter how, they simply HAVE TO WIN. This is where we can really judge if we are ready to box with the top teams for a domestic championship.


Last season, the players never went to work and were destroyed 4-1 at home, in most instances, such a result should lead to questions on the trainer, especially as the team sucked all season. I called it '11 employees contracted for 90mins', this time round, all 18 members of the matchday squad need to stick together and be ready to bleed, or as Gallas said in 2007 after the Man Utd 2-2 home match where he scored a last minute equaliser, "We had to fight. We said if we had to die we would die together on that field."


The players need to understand, allowing Chelsea to extend their current 8 point lead at our expense is out of the question, as seen by other teams losing 9-1 in the league, we cannot rely on others to do the job for us, if you want something done, do it yourself. This means we need to chase goals, and unlike last season where Wenger elected to use 1 striker and have 2 on the bench, this time, use Vela and Eduardo together from the start, where else do you expect the goals to come from if they don't start?


Tactically, Wenger needs to change some things. This Ancelotti side is very narrow, but they can also change instantly to become a more wider team because Ancelotti has done a lot of tactical work with the players. We need to pressure who ever is at the base of their midfield and stop the ball coming out, and by doing this, we also leave ourselves open for Chelsea to run at our defence or shoot from range. As a keen watcher of Serie A, the way to beat Milan under Ancelotti was not stifle Kaka or Pirlo, but ensure Gattuso and Ambrosini never made the primary pass to them, Wenger needs to do this and whoever does it must be fit and concentrated for 90mins.


Silvestre has been a common denominator when we have lost heavily, and he seriously needs to have a good game, it is matches like this where we need him most, and if he doesn't have a good game, I expect the other 9 out field players to help him out and not leave him in the cold to freeze, if they do, we will lose.


I won't predict a result, but I'm certain we will lose if we don't force the issue and tell Chelsea we are willing to die, Chelsea have nothing to prove, nothing to lose, only everything to win, a loss and they won't lose top spot for another fortnight, a win and they have daylight over an opponent allowing them more room for error. We lose, we have no room for error, and are fighting for nothing for the rest of the season.

Sunderland 1 - Arsenal 0: Horrible

No match review, all I'll say is the team never showed personality, Wenger gets a -10 for his tactical knowledge, and Gazidis gets a -10 for his transfer dealings, we sell a striker and don't replace him? Get real, to win a title, be it the FA Cup or the Championship, we need a squad for it, all it took is an injury to one player and we froze up, disgrace.


Almunia 0
Sagna -2: (Don't attack if you don't know how to, and fix your stamina and technique damnit!)
Traore 0
Gallas 0
Vermaelen 0
Song-Billong 0
Fabregas -2: (Where is a captain when the tough times come?)
Ramsey -3: (Don't expect a first team start in a bigger match after this performance)
Nasri 0
Rosicky 0
Eduardo 0

Wenger: -10. Read a book on tactics, your 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 is commonly seen as a boring 4-5-1 today. Why buy Vela and not play him from the start? You see the crosses aren't working, and you put Walcott and tell him to put more crosses in? You see your 4-5-1 isn't working, and that Sunderland are only have 1 striker, have you heard of using 3 at the back? It is better to lose 2-0 on the break than losing 1-0 without attempting to change. Without changing tactics, we will not win titles, please buy a book on them, I'm getting tired of sticking to one style of play all the time.