Chelsea vs Arsenal 11.11.2024 - KO: 16:00

[HCZ_Reborn]

It’s pretty dispiriting that a few weeks ago I assumed that we would be challenging for the title, and the disappointing failure to beat Liverpool along with the utterly blunt result against Newcastle seems to have ended that ambition. It’s not to say we definitely won’t challenge, we have a fairly good run of fixtures between now and the end of the year, but simply don’t know where the goals are coming from. The run at the beginning of the year was largely attributable to Saka, Trossard and Havertz who scored over half the goals in that run between them.

Havertz has gone off the boil with goals, and Trossard has gone off the boil in general. Whilst Odegaard of course allows us to create more chances, it’s more the failure to have more attacking players in general causing our chickens to come home to roost rather than Odegaard’s injury that caused this form.


We weren’t massively missing Odegaard when we won five out of the seven games in the period between September and early October. And there’s plenty of games where he’s been in the team and we’ve been utterly blunt. I think one of the other main factors is Merino, at least when we had just Rice and Partey in midfield we were creating chances, but I think Merino limits our attacking potential…honestly he shouldn’t be starting games…not a terrible player but should be no more than a squad player

Anyway I don’t know what will happen here, unbeaten against this scumbag club at their place in the last five. It’s touch and go whether Palmer is available, I don’t think his presence will really determine whether we win, lose or draw. Our defending isn’t the issue…it’s the bluntness of our attack.

If we go three games away from home without a goal, we are truly in deep shit

[Marc Overmars]

Not looking forward to this.

2-2

[HCZ_Reborn]

Not looking forward to this.

2-2

I’d take a Desmond right now tbh

[McNamara That Ghost...]

International break after this so a defeat here will be particularly awful.

[Mac76]

3-0 Jackson hatter

[Mac76]

It’s pretty dispiriting that a few weeks ago I assumed that we would be challenging for the title, and the disappointing failure to beat Liverpool along with the utterly blunt result against Newcastle seems to have ended that ambition.

I gave up after the way we failed to try to win the Brighton game, it spoke volumes about our defensive approach and attitude, which isn't that of a title-winning team

[HCZ_Reborn]

I gave up after the way we failed to try to win the Brighton game, it spoke volumes about our defensive approach and attitude, which isn't that of a title-winning team

Then again I don’t think we were guilty of not showing ambition against Inter, we just didn’t have the quality in attack to break them down. Therefore I think that had we gone for it against Brighton it’s far more likely that we would have lost rather than won, and in those circumstances I prefer a draw to a defeat.

What Arteta’s decision suggested to me was an admission that our attack was not good enough to win us the game with ten men (I agreed then and I agree now) but it’s a damning indictment on him for spending so much on defenders when that money could have been used on attacking players

[Mac76]

and in those circumstances I prefer a draw to a defeat.

That's the thing, I get a lot of people woudld disagree with me but a point at home to Brighton (and yes at time of writing they are winning against Citeh) is worth gambling away for the sake of getting two points

at the very least Arteta should have left the structure the same instead of bringing on an extra defensive player, which he'd been planning to do when we were 1-0 up but he still did it when we conceded

[HCZ_Reborn]

That's the thing, I get a lot of people woudld disagree with me but a point at home to Brighton (and yes at time of writing they are winning against Citeh) is worth gambling away for the sake of getting two points

at the very least Arteta should have left the structure the same instead of bringing on an extra defensive player, which he'd been planning to do when we were 1-0 up but he still did it when we conceded

The thing is, I would agree with you if we had more and better options in attack. On the face of it, I think at home you do want to try and assert dominance even with less men. I just think considering we leave ourselves vulnerable to the counter when playing 11 vs 11 because we don’t really have a prolific marksman, it wouldn’t have ended well.

I don’t like us being negative unless we are playing away from home against a big team

[Letters]

Not looking forward to this.

2-2

I wasn’t anyway, but City slipping again makes it feel like an absolute must win. Almost more than if they’d won in a way.