• The Arsenal

  • Arsenal vs Chelsea - Premier League - SUN 22 Aug 2021

Tactics wrote:

Think Tierney has been hung out to dry by the team and is thus getting unfair flak on here IMO

Yup, I'm mot sure where the breakdown happened exactly - I think Xhaka was being sucked too far over constantly -but no doubt Pablo Mari and Saka were part of the failure also, but Tierney was the end point after the mistakes were made and the damage had already been done. He was fucked whatever he did.

Gazza M wrote:

again zero pressure or momentum when chasing a home game. arteta has excuses loaded in for the last 2 games, what with the covid. ho-hum. he'd better hope we best Norwich convincingly

This has been the weirdest thing about the post-Wenger era for me because it was the same under Emery. Never have I watched us losing so often and the just reaching the the final whistle without something, ANYTHING, happening before it's all over.

As much as it pains me to say the loss was to be expected despite us being the Home side, the manner of it and the performance simply cannot be tolerated, let alone excused.

The first goal was a clear tactical failure, with players not adjusting for Saka switching sides and Xhaka switched off. Second goal I can't remember as clearly but same issue with defensive structure there. We were much better when Tierney wasn't trying to mark his forward. This was a good adjustment by Arteta but he needed to have noticed it and done it mid-first half.

I liked that second half performance, a lot more spunk and a lot more ideas, but nobody on our team seems to be able to set themselves up properly for a shot.

It was amateur. He tried to man mark every Chelsea forward but just simply got out tactic and they shifted our defence around easily.


Cedric Holding Mari all man marked their player closely.

Clrnc wrote:

It was amateur. He tried to man mark every Chelsea forward but just simply got out tactic and they shifted our defence around easily.


Cedric Holding Mari all man marked their player closely.

Yeah but to be honest, that picture just shows what a clusterfuck the defensive scheme was.

Whoever Tierney man marked, a massive hole would have appeared. With such a blatant overload the midfielders should have slid into covering one of the free players, but they never did.

We were bad. Just relook at the entire sequence when Lukaku headed off the bar in the second half. See where the players are. We can't attack. I get it. Arteta isn't very good getting players to play fluid football. We need to be better at the other end of the pitch though.

there's a noticable change in tone in the media around arteta. much more questioning of his tactical choices and the ROI on his recruitment spend. the pressure on him will only ramp up now

Holding and Cedric watching 3 players. 3 Arsenal players ball watching, no one closing down the cross and Mari completely out of position.

There was a moment in the second half when we had the ball on the right side of our defensive third. There were 3 arsenal players being pressed by 5-6 Chelsea players. I thought- oh, good, there must be an overload on the attacking side of the pitch, all we need to do is find the open players. I think it was Leno who booted the ball to the left side of the pitch near half-way line, lo and behold there were 2 Arsenal players surrounded by 4-5 Chelsea players. It was like we're playing with 7-8 players against 11. I just cannot fathom how shit this team is. Absolutely useless when it comes to both defending and attacking. Can't pass, can't move, no shape, no ideas. Mind-boggling how Arteta is still in charge. We beat Chelsea 3-0 under a year ago and now there's such a gulf in class- shows you that a proper manager doesn't need to replace every single player in the squad and waste 3 years to improve the team.

Mari is out of position for the entire match. I don't know what he is doing at all.

Mari is a disaster. How the fuck does this guy start games for Arsenal?

mari had almost convinced me he was a decent veteran, but he's looked horrid throughout preseason and in both games thus far. tbh there's not 1 player who's really shone since march. everyone is dragging on the low confidence shown at the end of last season

est wrote:

There was a moment in the second half when we had the ball on the right side of our defensive third. There were 3 arsenal players being pressed by 5-6 Chelsea players. I thought- oh, good, there must be an overload on the attacking side of the pitch, all we need to do is find the open players. I think it was Leno who booted the ball to the left side of the pitch near half-way line, lo and behold there were 2 Arsenal players surrounded by 4-5 Chelsea players. It was like we're playing with 7-8 players against 11. I just cannot fathom how shit this team is. Absolutely useless when it comes to both defending and attacking. Can't pass, can't move, no shape, no ideas. Mind-boggling how Arteta is still in charge. We beat Chelsea 3-0 under a year ago and now there's such a gulf in class- shows you that a proper manager doesn't need to replace every single player in the squad and waste 3 years to improve the team.

Spot on.

We looked like we were down by three players.

Everywhere were Chelsea players, and ours could be seen.

To be fair, our last league game against them I thought was similar. Out working and pressing us all over the park.

To think I thought Arteta would bring pressing and intensity to the side 😆

The spending issue us not even an issue. Hasn't even been able to really play any of the big purchases yet. The biggest problem is the players are not working, not closing down, not pressing, not making runs, not scoring. It's annoying that they can't muster anything from within - they're a bunch of pampered privileged turds - but Arteta isn't getting through whatever he's trying to say. That his disciple Tierney had such a pathetic game says it all for me. Time for a change of some magnitude.

Gazza M wrote:

mari had almost convinced me he was a decent veteran, but he's looked horrid throughout preseason and in both games thus far. tbh there's not 1 player who's really shone since march. everyone is dragging on the low confidence shown at the end of last season

Likewise. He has been horrible so far.

Coombs wrote:

It's annoying that they can't muster anything from within - they're a bunch of pampered privileged turds

Football doesn't really work that way. When your confidence is shot you think twice about the easiest things, when you have a micro managing coach on the sidelines banishing you to the bench when you don't follow orders you do it even more.

Also if I'm not allowed to call Arteta a dickhead you can't call them privileged turds.

Fair enough. I still think it's wrong that football "doesn't work that way". Why do we have such expectations of coaches, who aren't the ones actually out there playing football, but almost none of these players, stinking it up week after week? Confidence isn't an excuse I can use when I fuck up at work. Fuck their confidence. It should be a struggle, and they're just not up for it because they demand too much comfort.

Because its the job of a coach to get the team playing, to get them motivated and to get them winning. The players out there are nobodies without a coach. He is exactly there to tell them what is required to win and give them confidence.

That is also why a terribly demoralised squad playing shit football can immediately play superb football and pass/move with confidence despite having average players most of the time as shown by clubs changing coaches.