Match Preview: Arsenal v Chelsea; EPL Match Day 10
If there ever was moment for Arsenal to let its fans and the league know it is not going to wind up some mid-table wreck, this is the match for it. The resurgent Gunners visit Stamford Bridge with their biggest acid test since they’ve begun to turn things around. But it won’t be easy, the last time Arsenal won at the bridge was a 2-1 win with goals by Van Persie.
Arsenal are on a run of 7 wins in their last 8 matches and that run has given Gooners a ray of hope that this lot aren’t as wayward as it seemed a month ago. Still, given our past performances at the Bridge we will have to be on our utmost best Saturday to continue that run. No, I am not saying a loss. Maybe a few weeks ago yes. But right now with Chelsea doing their own implosion early this year, right now could be a good time to snatch a point or three. But I am ever the realist and I would be happy of leaving this fixture with one point in tow.
With the exception of the long-term injured, Jenkinson and Benayoun, Arsenal are healthy. They add to their improving defence, their steal rod – Thomas Vermaelen made his return in the midweek in the match against Bolton. And even though he was taken off in the closing minutes with a thigh strain, he pronounced he is ready to go. That means we go to the bridge with our best defenders available for quite some time. Mertesacker continues to improve and Koscielny who himself has become a presence will likely move to the RB slot to make room for Vermaelen. Andre Santos fills out the spot at LB. It is in my opinion one of our best groupings of defenders in 2 years. And they are good. There is a concern of adding TV5 to an outfit that is gelling but you have to put your best defender out there regardless of the other players. For once its nice to have a CB selection issue.
The worry defencively is the speed of Torres versus the mammoth plodding of Mertesacker. Merte is a positional defender, he relies on his ability to read the play and adjust to make his tackles. If he is caught in a foot race against Torres, he will simply lose. He needs to be selective in his chances going forward and leave that to Vermaelen who can get back with good pace.
Overall though, what I want to see us commit to is that same pressing style we played with at the Emirates last season. Why we won that game was simple – we just didn’t allow Chelsea to get comfortable on the ball. It was really one of the only times I would say Arsenal seemed Barcelona-esque. We were hungry to get the ball back when we lost and when we went for it, it caused Chelsea problems. The other thing is that it was a total team commitment to defence. That is what it takes. Anything less will open the doors to the usual result at the Bridge.
Attack wise I am all for giving Arshavin a chance as the starter here over Walcott. Walcott needs to sit for a while in my opinion. He simply hasn’t been good enough, even with his speed. Arshavin while inconsistent at least offers more creatively and a better first touch than Walcott does. Also I’ve noticed that he and Andre Santos have formed a nice little pairing on that left hand side. It’s a risk. Walcott’s speed was one of the reasons we had such a good match against Chelsea at the Emirates. He was able to close down on the ball and force mistakes that led to goals. But his recent form I think (at least) warrants giving a creative specialist a chance.
Obviously Van Persie is critical to our success. In the calendar year 2011 Robin Van Persie has scored I believe 25 goals in 26 matches. He is arguably the best striker in the premier league right now and in the top 5 of Europe. He is the Gunners go to man. He is forming a nice partnership with Gervinho who seems to love getting down in the box and passing in to the Captain. It was deadly last week and I would wager that Ger has more pace than any of the defenders that Chelsea has got. Even an aging Ashley Cole. Offencively you beat Chelsea with speed. And their defence has been suspect. Even though they’ve been going about their business quietly (compared to those noisy Manchester clubs) they’ve not been air tight defencively. They’ve not had only one clean sheet in their last 8 home matches. The bridge is no longer as well defended as is use to be.
It comes down to an aging core of defenders and the man we lovingly refer to as Sideshow David (Luiz), not knowing whether or not he is a defender or a forward. I thought Koscielny made some bone-headed mistakes, he’s an amateur compared to Sideshow. Alot of people were lamenting we didn’t get him last season. I wasn’t one of them. And this is why.
Another bit of welcome news for Arsenal players and fans alike is that arch nemisis, Didier Drogba will not be allowed to play in light of the fact that poor Didier decided to go studs up in on a tackle last week. Thankfully we won’t have to deal with wonder shots going in and us all scratching our heads going “how’d that go in?” Still, this is Chelsea and they have talent.
The player I most wanted last season seems to becoming something of a Bridge legend – Juan Mata seems to like the EPL just fine. Damn! And maybe that is why the £50 million flop is starting to find his form. An in form Torres is a major threat to Arsenal. The Torres who missed to wide open goals at United, not so much. We can all hope that Torres’ return to form is temporary. (He’s shown he has no class – ask Liverpool fans)
They are at home and are going to be a threat. That much is certain. A win – well -that’s gravy isn’t it? A win puts back in the hunt for the top 4 for sure. It would put us only 3 points off of 3rd. It is a 6 point swing game at that. Well, what is it Arsenal? Is this really an Arsenal rememergence or was it merely a false spring? Its all up to you.
How the Match Should Play Out:
Arsenal are going to have to endure some early pressure from Chelsea. The blue Londoners want nothing better than to put the travesty of Loftus road behind them. An early goal would help do that. If Arsenal can go into the half either up 1-0 or even at 0-0 I put the likely hood of a positive outcome as better than 60%. I fully expect Arsenal to play their pressing game the key will be the defenders staying home and wise not to get caught if Chelsea can get around the pressing. Still, since neither club has exactly been stellar this season, I think it winds up being a drawn out slugfest ending in a draw.
Players to Watch:
Arsenal. Thomas Vermaelen. He’s back. Arguably our best defender (when healthy). Coming off a new contract signing, look for him to be out to prove something.
Chelsea. Juan Mata. The Juan that got away (sorry I couldn’t resist). He has settled in nicely to the Bridge and is going to be a star in this league if Chelsea don’t implode on itself and drive him away.
Probable Starting XI:
Injuries and Suspensions:
Arsenal: Wilshere (ankle), Sagna (ankle) Gibbs (stomach), Jenkinson (knee) Benayoun (ineligble)
Chelsea: Drogba (suspended-3) Essien (knee) Hilario (flu) Turnbull (suspended -1)
Leading Scorers:
Arsenal: Van Persie 10 (7 league)
Chelsea: Lampard 4 (4 league)
Last Meeting (EPL):
Arsenal: 3
Chelsea: 1
Goals For:
Arsenal (away): 1.5
Chelsea (home): 3
Goals Against:
Arsenal (away): 3.5
Chelsea: (home): 1.5
Last Five:
Arsenal: WWLWL
Chelsea: LWWWL
Goal Difference:
Arsenal: -3
Chelsea: 10
Match Official:
Referee: Andre Marriner (Matches 4, R0 Y14)
Broadcast Information:
US: ESPN2 (ESPN3.com) 0745 AM EST
UK: Sky Sports 2 1245 BST
GAMEDAY CHAT: It’s Open!!!!!!
www.youaremyarsenal.com/gamedaychat
YAMA Prediction:
Arsenal: 1
Chelsea: 1
The Final Word:
In case you didn’t hear -this past Thursday was our club’s Annual General Meeting. It was the first time our new owner – he of the silent type Stan Kroneke – was present at the club since he took over controlling interest. To summarize the whole AGM into one fell swoop = nothing is changing. After much speculation by some papers that Kroneke would set out his vision for the club, it didn’t happen. Basically, he supports Wenger, the board and will be around for a long time. So much for a vision eh?
Peter Hill Wood was the biggest target for criticism as a share holder from the floor asked him to resign and the board to reinstate David Dein. It was contentious to say the least. And when PHW noticingly did NOT answer some of the questions directly, he was shouted (not sure if that is the right description) to just answer the question.
The biggest surprise I thought was the greeting Wenger got. From all reports it seemed his was the biggest and warmest greeting maybe signifying that there is still a large part of Arsenal supporters who are still on board with Wenger. He gave what was described was an impassioned speech. And I give it you here below courtesy of the Mirror:
Good afternoon – thank you for your welcome.
I am happy to have the opportunity to speak to you. Usually I speak to you through the media and they do not always reflect what I say.
I am happy as well to be part of the fact the club celebrates 125 years of existence and my dream is one day a manager will stand in font of you and say 1,000 years – don’t worry it will not be me. You may not be here as well!
Personally, I have the privilege to be in charge of this club for 15 years and I am very grateful that you place such a high confidence in me for such a long time.I know that I am at a special club. If I have one merit, I think I have been loyal to this club and committed. I do not say I was always right. I knew always it was always a privilege to be at this club because I always had the support of people and the freedom to work the way I want.
I hope as well that in many years, people will look at this period and think that we have put the club on the right track and defended the right values and think that together we were not too stupid.
I believe that the values we defend are highly defendable because we want to do things with class. We want of course to be very ambitious. We want to be very brave. I believe that this club has always been very brave in its decisions. The courage is a quality I admire because it is a highly needed quality in the modern world.
I can see a lot of fear and discontent among you and I can understand that because we live in a world where we fight with people who have extremely high resources.
The way we can compete is to try to be intelligent but as well to be united because it is very difficult to be consistent in football. We have been more consistent than anybody else in the world in the last 15 years. To stay at the top, top level, we have to be united.
That doesn’t mean I am not to be criticised. I accept that is part of my job and that the board has been criticised but to the outside we have to show we are united because that is the only way to survive at the top. It is difficult enough if you are united. If you are not united, you have no chance.
We defend values as well that at the time are questioned – the self-sufficient model. Do we want to change that or not? I believe, and I take full responsibility for this, that we can be competitive the way we run the club.
The players that we bought – I heard we lost two world class, I agree with you and we lost even more – but do not judge the players we bought too quickly because I think they are top, top level.
And I would remind that some world class players arrived in August and not played before September or November, some of them, and became world class players after that. We had a very difficult start and a very difficult environment at the start of the season and we were under tremendous pressure.
I would just like to come back on last season. Because last season was the season I must tell you maybe the most difficult to accept with its end result.
Somewhere some days I thought maybe it was completely my fault because I convinced the players we can go for all the four competitions, and that we can win every single trophy.
I believe overall we had a very good season performance wise, yet it finished very badly. We were competitive in all competitions. We lost unfortunately in the last minute of the Carling Cup final, we went out of Europe in the last minute against Barcelona, and I believe at home against Barcelona we played the best game Arsenal Football Club has ever played against a team.
We lost in the last minute of Liverpool the [chance of the] championship. After, everything was judged in a negative way. But the overall performance the team has put in last year was much better than the credit we got in the end.
We had a problem to get over the line, and in the end it was disappointment after disappointment, and it was very difficult.
We played 27 games in November, December and January. We paid for it in March and April, when we lacked a bit petrol to get over the line. Fabregas played I think 19 games in the Championship, and van Persie 17.
We were also not very lucky with the injuries we had. The overall performance was not as bad as it had been judged. We managed to get over the line and qualify again for the Champions League.
We also had some positives like the emergence of world-class players like Wilshere who has shown at international level how good he is.
We have a very good basic situation. I was under a lot of pressure to buy goalkeepers and we were faithful to the keepers we had – everybody would agree we have sorted the problems out.
The basis of our team and its potential is right. If you take the young players we have and manage to come back and compete at the top level again, I am much more positive than people are.
In the media, we do not get credit we deserve. The team is on the right way, it has a fantastic attitude and spirit. We are capable of competition and we will.
Where we will finish at the end of the season? Frankly, I don’t know. I know just one thing: that these players we have at the moment are ready for a fight, because I see them every day and they are ready to have a go.
Not many people at the moment are behind us, but I believe we can be a positive surprise. Let’s stand behind this season. We started at the Emirates with a very difficult environment because people were very sceptical, but they understood two things – if they do not get behind the team, we have no chance and secondly people realise this team has the right attitude and spirit.
Even during the difficult periods in the last few home games, the fans have been absolutely fantastic behind the team, what we had not seen at the end of the season.
It is time to realise that yes, times are more difficult, but yes we can still be successful under one condition, that we all stand behind the team, and are united.
At the end of the season, we will see where we stand. Then if we give absolutely everything and do fight together for every single game in every single competition we can still look back at the end of the season and be proud of our attitude and what we have achieved.
I am personally convinced that we have a chance to qualify again [for the Champions League] and I know as well that in the modern world the ticket pricing is a problem. We spoke about that a lot at the board before that decision has been made.
But just to keep the players we have to put our wages up so high that the financial situation becomes more and more difficult for us.
That’s why I can understand that you feel punished by that, but it is not a decision that we made for that, it is just a decision that gives us a chance to keep our players and unfortunately it is the real situation we face at the moment.
I know I have been talking too much already. I would just like personally to turn round the scepticism that is surrounding this club at the moment. For me it is too high. And if I just would like to achieve one thing today it is: trust us, this team has qualities, this team will fight.
And if you help us to do that I think we will have a successful season.
