It’s Arsenal v Chelsea at The Emirates on Sunday and what a game it promises to be.
A win would see our boys close to within 5 points of our opponents with a game in hand while a loss… well, it’s a bit too scary to think about.
Kieran Gibbs will of course be out after breaking his metatarsal midweek while Arsene Wenger has revealed that the swelling on William Gallas’ eye from his clash with Andrey Arshavin is so severe that he is a doubt. However, the manager mentions that his face would have three days to recover and I have to say that I can’t see him missing the game against his old team.
Based on the players involved and the substitutions made against Standard Liege midweek I expect the team to be something like this: Manuel Almunia behind a back four of Bacary Sagna, Gallas, Thomas Vermaelen and Emmanuel Eboue with Alex Song, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas completing the midfield triangle and Tomas Rosicky, Eduardo and Arshavin playing up front.
Armand Traore may play at left-back like he did against Sunderland, yet I think Wenger will opt for the experience of an out-of-position Sagna or Eboue. Nasri’s early substitution midweek lends me to suggest he will start, possibly for Denilson who would be hard-pressed to play two games in a week after two months out. If Gallas doesn’t come up then it will be Mikael Silvestre who takes his place.
Up front we will need to take our chances against a well-drilled Chelsea defence and a forward trio of Rosicky, Eduardo and Arshavin has the quality, pace and experience to get the job done. Theo Walcott remains an outside chance to start but I suggest the manager might look to use him and Carlos Vela to provide impact off the bench when the forwards tire.
In the last couple of games I have been frustrated by a lack of movement and concentration by some of our senior players and I expect that to be addressed against Chelsea. Despite their position on the table The Blues are far from unbeatable on their travels and have in fact lost two of their last three away games. Additionally we have won all five of our Premier League games at home as well as two Champions League games and I expect the boys to give it their all to maintain that perfect record.
We spurned a number of chances at Sunderland and against Liege and the likes of Eduardo, Fabregas and Arshavin need to make the most of the opportunities we create. Chelsea’s defence is once against their strongest part of the team and it’s important that take our chances, particularly early on. Eduardo has been uncharacteristically wayward in front of goal recently and a big game against Chelsea will give him the perfect opportunity to turn things around.
After a week of negativity and worry I am genuinely excited about the opportunity that Sunday provides for us. The boys are yet to win a really big game since ending Chelsea’s unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge last season and despite our injury concerns I think we’re a huge chance to win this match. Regardless of the result, every single Gooner and the planet will want to see a performance full of passion and commitment and I sincerely hope our team provides that on Sunday.
It doesn’t get much bigger than this and I’ll leave you my favourite recent Arsenal v Chelsea memory.
COME ON ARSENAL!!!
Have your say on Arsenal’s big clash with Chelsea by leaving a comment.
Vela is gonna be worse?? no way to break chelsea like this, we need fast running attack to break chelsea down, i dont know guys but this just a disaster
Its terrible, the Chelskum are just too defensive
WALCOTT should be in the middle instead. This is my take
@ANDY – What say you about the free kick?
I’m sure MANNONE would’ve done better
out of chelsea’s 4 good attacks, they ve csored 2 goals, we ve attacked more than 7 times and we only had 2 shot on target, one man attacking from chelsea agst 3 arsenal defenders, i saw this happening like this Andy and you ve not been negative but WE REALLY LACK STRENGTH, AND ITS DESAPOINTING TO SEE DROGBA SCORING THE 3RD GOAL AGAIN, WE CANT JUST ATTACK THEM, and today was our chance to prove that we can do it, but we just dont have the depth and strength, its desapointing,
Yep, manone woul have done better, easiest free kick ive ever seen, we cant attack and we cant defend, what in the world is this???
We have to admit that we are just too light weight. Our top player go missing in big games and that is not good at all. We can’t be just one man team. Everyone is getting his chance and can’t or not capable of taking it. That’s as bad as it gets for us.
This is not even about individuals, but the team as whole. Terrible!
That has not been a derby to me,we played very poorly today like a 2nd division team, iam so so desapointed,Our boys just let themslf beatten without a fight. IIIT is freaking desapointing, let me just watch barca agst real.
WENGER has this all over his face…..why cant this guy ever be shrewd in his placements?
He knew how he wanted to start the match and yet kept WALCOTT on the bench.
He saw DUDU was not sharp enough at getting to the ball first, why not bring in WALCOTT there instead….cos SHEVA would’ve done a better job at the right.
Awfully shameful
Wat the f*** hapend out ther??
We didnt even keep the ball in the second half… run,run nd then give them the ball!! And ne idea y dat goal was disallowed??
During pre-season, when everyone was shouting for a DM, I said we should rather get a top class finisher with all that money.
SHAMBO even suggested we should get GIVEN when he offered himself.
Now we look like a leafless tree, no GOALS in two matches….top striker injured for 3 or 4 months AGAINNNNNN.
ANDY said we’ve RVP, BENTNER, WALCOTT, EDUARDO, VELA who could do that job and that we rather needed a DM, otherwise we were fine.
WENGER seemed to echo the same sentiments, now where are we for the 5th season running? Trusting in the players is one thing, another is being objective. For sure, WENGER isn’t.
no guts no determination,men against boys…..again.absolutely no progress has been made since the last time we played them and they thumped us at home,it was the very same,all this passing with no end product and then they get the ball and anelka,cole,drogba and lampard hav the freedom of the emirates to counter attack because so many of our players refuse to put in the gut busting defense work that is required
poor defending for the first but the kind of finish we cud only dream of today,2nd goal was sunday league hung over stuff and like the diaby 1 i lay little blame with the def….any keeper worth his salt is roaring his head off there and taking ball,man and anythin else in the way and the free kick was laughable,why set up a wall and then commit urself to that side?????if the player is good enough to get it up and down its a great freekick and u hold ur hands up but to concede that way again is needless…anyway even if we handnt conceded we still never looked like scoring.denilson,dudu,vela,nasri and in particular the ‘impact sub’ walcott wer shocking.the better and stronger team won no doubt and its very hard to defend anything from the manager and tactics to the individual performances
No shooting outside the 18yard box, no good attempts on goal….Why does he keep on taking off EDUARDO for goodness sake? Why not shift him to the left instead? DUDU is far better than VELA, this was not a carling cup game.
Its gotta be all in his face now. I’m livid
Can someone tell us nothings wrong with SONG? Cos I don’t still know why he was subbed?
MANNONE would’ve never conceeded like that.
Must we continue supporting ALMUNIA when it is obvious it has a lot to do with sentiments?
Must he be our first choice?
Can we look at our team a bit more objectively ANDY?
I just dunno what is wrong with Wenger. This time the guy should just resign. Either Arsenal has to be bought first for this guy to know that we need titles especially the EPL or we need to fire him. Just why in the world did he buy Silvestre am sure there is no way in hell Silvestre would be as bad as that kid Traore. He was out muscled on the ball everytime. Cole setup two goals…the first one i gotta blame the defence but the second where was the Communication between the G.K en the defenders?? I keep yelling on rooftops that Almunia sucks like hell but everyone says am mas and a hater. Imagine or dream even for one minute how ballistic Lehman would have been if dat ball had gone in. The third goal was absolute bollox…i mean u gat yo wall covering one area of the goal but chose just when the striker is gonna shoot to start walking towards the side that yo wall is covering…the striker being smart notices this en scores an eassssyyyy goal. And Almunia is Arsenal’s first choice G.K …makes me wanna puke. Vito was doing just fine but he was benched for making a small mistake not even letting the ball in but playing the ball back in play but Almunia lets them in anyways. I dunno where this team is headed..I was told by Andrew the blogger of this blog that to him it’s better the team plays entertaining soccer rather than win matches ..he considers entertainment above winning. Maybe i misquoted the guy but did you see how not even half empty the stadium was ten minutes to the end of the game??? Seems most Gooners agree with me..This was a match of men against boys en like Wenger said it was time they grew up. They didn’t maybe it’s time he accepts his kid’s experiment has backfired. Man this is so infuriating. En that’s just the tip of te Iceberg..imagine the Carling Cup how Adebayor will rub it in?? That will be the final straw…
hi lads, ive just got back from the game. Very very very disappointing although, like i said yesterday Wenger would be very very content with a draw. From the moment Chelsea walked onto the pitch I couldn’t help thinking that they were more than ready for the fight. They have far to much muscle and punch for Arsenal. They looked like super middle weight boxers and Arsenal look like bantom weight. And there lies the main difference. Arsenal can not afford to get within punching range of Chelsea so they stay on the periphery of the ring. I have been going on about this for so long now even im getting board. The ‘invincibles’, god bless them had that weight. Shambo what do you think. Why wont Wenger see that.
Why was EBOUE not preferred to TRAORE? Why did WALCOTT not start?
He knew what CHELSEA can do, but pretended we were playing a second division team.
Its quite clear i dont have any answers
Almunia sucks. Period.
Its going to be a struggle without RVP. We will probably sign someone in January.
If you think its time for Wenger to go, you are insane. Not directed at any individuals but there is absolutely nobody that can et as much from our group of guys as Wenger. Bring in a real GK and a CF. Possible a CB for cover and we will be fine.
Dont forget this was without our best player- RVP.
Also Rosicky should ALWAYS start if he is fit enough.
Walcott im not so sure about. He only does well against teams that are velocity challenged…
No physical presence…all babies….well said ICE
wel ice your dead rite mate but i dont wanna say too much til i calm down becos wel get labelled as usual…am seriously gutted tho
No one was running into the box. Can anyone tell me why there was no one in the box when we have the ball? A couple of time we were in we had shout for penalty. For me, all the players had chances to show us if they are good enough, but no one stepped up. It is not even the size, because look at the little men at Barca, no one push them of the ball.
You know, I was pissed off that Eboue went and had that ESPN interview claiming that Chelsea is just too strong to beat. Is that what we need before our important game? It is bad enough that critics and opponents alike have no believe in Arsenal. There is nothing worst than losing belief in yourselves. And I really thought, half way into the game, the players have lost belief in their ability. I feel sorry for Verm. He was doing what he was supposed to be. Others should look themselves in the mirror and ask if they were good enough on this day!
Sorry but i’d do with someone who would win me titles en Wenger seems to be deluded right now. It’s now obvious even to a blind man that Wenger can’t win the title this season. Am not sure if next season he will achieve the feat cuz if you believe the rumours going around that Chelsea are gonna make Ribbery top priority of their spending spree then you know they aren’t reinforcing with kids. Already they showed potential today and ave so far beaten two of the top four so called teams…i don’t see Liverpool beating them. Those are men …you could notice the difference right there on the pitch but then just when you think about it..you go ask yoself how a defence of Evans and Brown can contain Drogba but one of Gallas and Vermaelen can’t. You look at the next match playing on T.V en it’s Barca playing Madrid the men are short but can’t be beat to the ball…then you loo at Arsenal and ask yoself what’s going wrong here?? How then do you start blaming the players? The only player in the Arsenal team that deserves the criticism he’s getting is Almunia cuz seriuosly he’s not Arsenal material otherwise the rest of the players can do much better with the right manager to instill the winning mentality and character in them cuz clearly Arsenal has no character when they go down a goal especially in big games. Just look at the character Manure has or Chelsea..
GetGunMN, the players did the best they could. Arsenal are a high tempo fast moving nippy passing team. Unfortunately the body can not always perform at the level. And when Arsenal cant they, have no other way of playing because most of the players are very simular. Yes and how much money is the Barca team worth and cost. The spanish league is no way as physical as the prem. Was Eboue being honnest about what he said and why do you think that is. I would be fascinated to know. You also asked about players being in the box. Wenger hates out and out strikers. I get so infuriated with that when the ball goes across the six yard box all players stand outside the penalty area waiting for a cut back. They get taught that way in the u14s acadmey team. Wenger is the best manager for Arsenal but he is so so stuborn and hard headed. He just needs to twig it a little but he wont because other people are saying it. Will there be money to replace RVP in the Jan sales. Any accountants out there. What is the balance sheet looking like or the profet and loss.
Sorry,PROFIT AND LOSS OR P&L earnings statement.
Shambo Gunner who labelled u?? cuz they labelled me like a thousand names when i told them the reality that their facing right now..Am past gutted now cuz this today was meaningless..it dun make sense to lose to Sunderland and come win against Chelsea…i mean seriously!
Martin maybe the character in Manure & Chelsea come from the pounds sterling that is spent on them.
the fact is you need to spend big to win the title,quality players all over th pitch who are physically and mentally strong,big game players who are exactly that players for a big game who take the game by the scruff of the neck and run the show,players who impose themselves when required and can win a game single handedly,apart from cesc arsenal dont posses those type of players and i am including arshavin who has been very disappointing this season,traore is simply not good enough and almunia is a liability an accident waiting to happen every time he enters the pitch again today no communication with his defence for the 2nd goal and so there are just a few reasons why its going to be another season without winning a trophy and its time for a reality check guys we aint good enough and never will be with the squad we have at present.
I still believe that Wenger doesn’t need to spend really big money. Just please Wenger buy some powerpacked players to aid the silk and skill. Surely you can find 2 or 3 for 8-10mil. You can always improve their technique even if they are donkeys, but get them in.
one other observation from today,s match was that song didn,t come out for the 2nd half if he was injured then fair enough but if it was tactical wenger has lost the plot thinking denilson could do a better job in the dm role than song against a physical team like chelski.
@icy tell me a team in recent times who has won the league with out spending substantial funds?? now days you wont get a top quality player for less than 15/20 million we either haven,t or wont spend that so will remain on the outside looking in until we do.
The supporters behind me went nuts when they realised it. Some of them were calling Wenger some coulouful names. It was really out of order and uncalled for. It belonged in the gutter. I was also surprised how quiet you lot were. There were nowhere near enough people singing. No atmosphere at all. After the second goal i almost left because of the vial intensity. There were Arsenal boys from undr 9 to undr 15 with their parents.
what do u expect 4 balance of the season. go all out 4 champ league or FA cup? If u get past us dat is!
nite all.
Another season wtout a silver ware..
mancity kicks arsenal out of carln cup,
westham kicks arsenal out of F.A.
Chelsea kicks U guys out of C.L.
u guyz ‘ll be fifth on E.P.L table come may…
Take my word 4 it.
Looks like the Almunia bashers are out in force. Not much he could do about all three goals. The problem was that Arsenal did not shoot enough on target enough. No height up forward, and no one holding up the ball. Arshavin looked the best, but still wasn’t great. Frustrating.
It’s going to be a fun write-up today.
I thought we were lucky, Chelsea didn’t even hit top gear. They purposely let us pass the ball, as if they knew that their defence will stop us and well terry and co did just that.
Wenger comments about referee decision is a tad bit embarassing, I think deep down inside he knew the power of Chelsea highlighted the gulf in strength between us and them.
Oh well its only december, cheer up mates.
Almunia was absolutely at fault for the third goal. And the second goal was a communication mixup that could have been sorted out if he was talking to his defenders…
Wenger is a big fool. Fuck him and his policies. can we start all over again. New coach new owner
That fucker of little kids says the title race is not over. Wenger pls go. Fucking bastard
Men against boys. Does wenger fuck these guys. Fucking bastard. Useless coach.
@ anonymous,you so stupid,so really stupid!
Calm down guys.
We are still in cl
still in FA cup
Engli9sh league cup
and the league
1 striker would solve all problems
A Torres type player
Also could you imagine how much Arsenal would terrerise other teams if Henry came back1!!!
Arshavin and Henry
That would be magic!
Chamakh
Gunna shah no doubt i am stupid but no doubt that arsene fucking bullocks wenger has cost us too much loss. U guys count what we achieve like it is too big for other teams. How has the goals diffrence made us better, spuds scored 9 past wigan did we? We moved to our new stadium spuds have submitted their plan so what arsenal. we never buy players, van persie is out paul merson said we can never win the league without him. He is so fucking right. Arsene in his french ego does not want to buy any quality player. Look at the chelsea team which individual player cost above 20 million? None but they buy quality and substance. U call vela, theo, eboue, diaby, denilson quality players. Fuck u fans that keep repeating arsene is the best coach we ever had. Note the word ever simply because he makes profit for the shareholders. What the fuck is football about? Winning morones. In Arsene we trust. Look at the team we used to win the title. Kewon, adams, sol, lauren. Which of these guys can drobs bully. Pause!!!!! All hail drogba i am african and i am proud of what he has done to my club at least i didnt loose both ways.Midfield viera,petit,pires, gilberto or edu.Compare them to fab, denilson, song and nasri. Hhahahahahaha hohohoo and you say in Arsene u trust. Who is stupid yu or me. we have declined in comparing with other clubs. I am not pissed Gunna shah that we lost to chelsea its why did we loose to west ham and sunderland. this game would have being sooo irrelevant. Buy chamakah the idiot said he is too expensive now that rat bent-idiot is injured and u say in arsene wenger u trust.Let arsene go bring in mourihno.Fab leave to barca this club has no ambition
pls go to our website where a certain idiot by the name of wenger says money cannot guaranty success. Is that guy an idiot or what? Chelsea, Barca, Inter, United? Money or buys of cheap talent (Arsenal)?