Arsene: “We are not a team in transition”
Guys! No football for Chelsea this weekend. So I thought I’ll write about Arsenal as our reader joeblue wanted to discuss about Arsenal’s progress this season. I’m writing this after Arsenal & Graham Poll beat Tottenham 3-0. This is to say that today’s result has not changed my view of Arsenal this season. So, what’s hurting Arsenal and why are they doing so poorly this season that Fulham fans are singing “can we play you every week”. 10 reasons!
1. Arsene Wenger
The man who transformed Arsenal is now unfortunately the culprit. His every move and words are realised by the fans and critics as ridiculous – his signings, his team selection, the roles he assigns to players, his strategy and of course, his embarrasing post-match comments. Overall, he should take the blame for most of their problems. He does not have the guts to drop who performs poorly and he cannot tell Henry to give away his captaincy to a real leader in the team. Looking at his team’s lack lustre game time and again, I have to conclude that he is a poor motivator too. He can’t blame it on lack of money or whatever. It was their strategy to spend a billion pounds on the new stadium and still he had decent amount of money which he did not make best use of.
2. All pass – No shoot game
They play possession football (their fans call it beautiful football!). Their midfield keeps passing until they get 6 inches from the goal post. This works against those little teams that look at them in awe and allow them to play their game. They play this way also because, there are only 2 geniune goal scorers in Arsenal now – Henry and van Persie. The other players, even if they get a position where they can give it a shot, just tamely pass it to the goal scorers in poorer positions. No wingers in the team and full backs are not at their best as they aren’t sure whether the other players will trackback for defensive duties, if needed. This won’t work always.
3. It’s freakin predictable
From Watford to Chelsea, they all know how Arsenal plays. It is just going by Arsene’s script and he bloody never changes his script because he won this way some seasons back. Now, their runs, their movements, their triangle passes, their 1-2s, everything is completely predictable. They dont even counter-attack! If they get a break, they hold the ball aloowing the whole of the opposition eleven to crowd in the last third and scrap-defend somwhow. If you have seen the teams defending them this season, you can realise that they have read Arsenal’s game so well and they have never been disappointed. To all the league one and league two teams that might play Arsenal in any of the cup matches – If you dont plan to attack them, you won’t lose.
4. Thierry Henry
For all the drama on the night of Champions League final and his much-awaited decision of staying with Arsenal, he has not pulled a plant in this season. After his outburst against Barca players and their methods and his signing of a new contract with Arsenal, I thought he is gonna play with the fire in his belly to achieve something this season. But now, he looks hardly determined to take the ball to the box. He is a captain and only his armband will tell you this. Great players need not make good captains. He is not inspirational and this has a huge impact on the team when the team is a goal down or something. With two open play goals this season so far, he looks completely out of sorts.
5. Lack of experience
It was purely Arsene Wenger’s decision to leave out Vieira, Pires and the like and he could have either avoided it or timed it better or atleast need not have flushed them all in one season. It was his own strategy to buy ‘talented’ youngsters and improve them and now he cannot give this excuse of team being inexperienced. His scoutings and signings of the youngsters have been flops over the last two seasons and his youngsters have disappointed him – adebayor is blind, eboue inconsisent, with Song or Hoyte, you start a man down etc. While Arsene was hailed for bringing and developing young ‘talent’, he should also take the stick for the other consequences of a young team.
6. Lack of muscles
Like they say, Arsenal is now a light-weight team. Barring one or two, all others get easily outmuscled by the opponents. Their midfield players like Fabregas, Hleb, Flamini are all very light and in fact, against good defenders/midfielders, they are just pushovers. If you’re ready to tackle them hard, you’ll kill their game. Whenever they are hard tackled and outmuscled to win the ball, Arsenal players and manager feel that the opponents are playing dirty. As long as they think this way, any team in EPL would know how to negotiate them. Tackling hard is very much part of the game, if you dont know how to do it or how to handle it, it’s your fault.
7. No balls
Most of their matches so far this season (about 9, may be), they have conceded the goal early on and keep chasing the opposition. How many times have they come back and beaten the opponent – one against lowly Hamburg (19th in Bundesliga). No team spirit, no determination and no one has the burning desire to win. They dont show their reaction or response in a rousing manner. You can see smiling Arsenal faces after a bad defeat! They dont feel insulted when they lose. Simply put, no balls.
8. Cornered in Set Pieces
Their defending in corners have been the best joke of the season. Poor marking, no positional cognizance and running the other way round lol! Their attacking in corners has also been below par for a so-called top 4 team. Apart from a header from Adeb and Gallas, no impact at all. The opposition defenders can defend effortlessly as mostly the delivery will be crap. As their conversion ratio is so poor, this gives another avenue for the defence to clear the ball anywhere.
9. Headless game
This is an offshoot of their all pass-no shoot game. They are poor in the air. They’ll never win the 50-50 headers against decent teams. Barring Walcott, no one seems to be crossing to the head, they all just pass to the feet. So, the opposition defence can throw themselves on the 3-metre passing line and stop their flow. When the opponent plays in the air, crossing the ball, their timing goes wayward. With this kind of game, they’ll get killed in Europe, unless they wish to play crap ‘men-behind-ball’ like last season.
10. Deformation of 4-5-1
A defensive 4-5-1 did work for them in the Champions League. Henry looks lost in 4-5-1 and takes too much burden. With Henry as the 1 in 4-5-1, he is anyway over-marked by the defenders to nullify the only possible goal scorer in Arsenal. Even if he holds the ball, there is only one way of scoring goals now, that is from Henry, so defenders have an eagle eye on him. Adebayor is a waste of space if he is the 1 in the 4-5-1. I guess the opponent defenders would rejoice if the see the Arsenal team sheet that Adeb is the lone striker. And van Persie is also not a striker to play in 4-5-1, as he can’t hold the ball. So, a wrong formation for the current composition of this team.
My prediction for Arsenal this season is 5th place. I dont think I’ll see them in the Champions League next season. And in Champions league, well, let them finish Porto first!
[tags] Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Theirry henry, Wenger, Henry, Rosicky, Fabregas, van Persie, Premiership, Champions League [/tags]
57 Responses - Add your comment!
Mr. Blue******,You think yu are extremly wittty to talk about the great Arsene Wenger …Oh yeah I t seems you are new to football (2 yr old)and you not concerned about the Past record we have….
I agreee with some of your Comments but most of them are meaningless….
Oh i remember you watch chelsea ..spending millions …and play boring footballl…..hey its all about entertaining the fans (unfortunately blue fans don’t know a lot about football,they just want a victory no matter how they get it; just to saw see “we won it” ).
Your prediction It again is meaningless….
Prepare to lose ,oh yes, ask jose to prepare for for a reason to blame someone, that’s what he does when he loses a match…
Go GUNNERS bring them down……..
Oh You talked about ” Deformation ” What sheva and ballack did to your team “deformation”?
You talked about “deformation” what sheva and balllack did to
your team “deformation”…
this is not new to Chelsea spending millions(just for his reputation) and destroying a good player thereby realising “he is not fit to our team ” then send him on loan (VERON ,CRESPO ,DEL HORNO, to be added soon SHEVA )
This proves you have every right to talk about our transfer policies… HA…HA…HA…
You want me to list down wenger\’s failures in the transfer market. There are about a dozen flops bought by wenger. i hate wenger for killing the talents of good youngsters like fabregas and rosicky with his bad tactics. arse game is no way entertaining. as a neutral I find that damn boring and as a fan \’gun the blues\’, you\’re thrilled in the expectation of a goal than being entertained.
‘Chels’ stole it from my mouth. Thanks Chels.
I got no complaints on the Chelsea formation. After all we are No.2 in the table now with about 15 points ahead of the bunch from No.3 to No.8. And we have a goal difference of 17. I wonder how can you ever compare the Arsenal and Chelsea situation.
And atleast Jose had the balls to change the winning formula and arsene would never never never have done that. Tactically and strategically Jose is far superior.
And, I just love the way Chelsea plays football. Attack when you attack, defend when you have to defend, secure a win and dont play party trick soccer when not required in the name of beautiful soccer. The Chelsea players are far more talented and skilled than Arsenal players and the world knows this (not sure about yourself). They can certainly play your party trick football too but I’m glad they follow their genius manager’s instructions and ensure that they win.
@ ‘gun the blues’
And yes, as regards blaming after a loss, there is nothing funnier than blaming your new billion dollar stadium/ground. I was wondering what made arsene make this excuse! If this ground is new to you, it should be newer to your opponents! What a load of arsenal!
If I’m provoked to write more on Arsenal’s progress (?), I would bring in more perspectives from Arsenal fans (hope you believe them) who are following them for more years than your 2 years and who have been arsenal fans even before their unbeaten league, unlike you!
And please Chelsea’s millions is not the reason why we are winning. We are winning because we have the best manager and intelligent and disiplined players.
Point 1: Arsenal has lots of money. But they chose (Board/manager’s decision) to spend it on stadium than on their players, team and football. They valued gate receipts more (you’d have said ‘money-minded’ if Chelsea had done the same). Even in this season, had Arsene spent his money wisely instead of spending nonsense like about 30m on the attacking midfielders and forwards instead of defenders, he’d be better off. And the teams that are beating Arsenal and drawing with Arsenal are the teams with less money than them. Any explanations?
Point 2: Even if you didnt have much money, that’s not an excuse. Jose won the UEFA Champions League with an anonymous Porto team whose transfer budget was 10m or something. No other manager can do this. If you have less money than Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool, why dont you do well in the other 32 matches, that should get you more than 85 or 90 points.
Brilliant post mate! Any honest arsenal fan would agree. I dont know why people are tempered. If Chelsea is performing poorly, BC is gonna criticise us too.
Mr.Chels you would be the only one to say that wenger is “Killing” Fabregas and Rosicky…
Boy o Boy he gives them more freedom than ever , they are excellent ..
Mr.Blue****** I never said that you are winning the league with millions, i just said about your transfer failures, wasting millions ,and disrupting the players confidence …
You said that with porto he won the chapions league(With lesser money )..GOOD JOB.
Why can’t he do that with chelsea (More money )as yet???
Its just like that we had a bad day ,bad luck with some couple of occassions with clubs below par. We’ll improve.
We never complained about lack of funds ,we have a good ,young, energetic squad …you don’t invent anything…
Yeah, you see i have a reason too for Jose after losing to Arsenal for the first time at home “They play beautifull football ,how do you expect us to win?”(Include his accent).
Fabregas did say that the tactics are confusing not only for him but for his team members. Fabregas is not allowed to shoot so his accuracy will go. Rosicky was a good shooter before he came to Arsenal and he too is crap passing now. You can have any stategy as long as you win. But you’re losing here and that’s why we are having this discussion here! lol!
Hey Goner fan!
You have all the answers with you! I appreciate this fact! Still let me make you understand in detail.
1. Read your comments again. You started about Chelsea spending millions etc and now you retreat. Jose won CL with Porto/no money and has not won yet with Chelsea/lotsa money. This shows that money is not a matter to winning in football. So, please avoid taking about millions everytime you\’re in a Chelsea-related discussion. It is sick and boring.
2. You can have a bad day but a bad couple of seasons! lol! See, Arsene WAS a great manager. Now he is doing a bad job. He is not learnt from his mistakes of the past two seasons. You\’re talking as if Arsenal missed the title by 3 points.
3. I dont know if Jose really said that. I believe you. Even in that case it was 2004. I never said Arsenal has never played beautiful football. They were very good in 2004. Now they are crap. If you know Arsenal\’s history (which I doubt), Arsenal was a dirty playing team and were the first team in English Football history to be termed as BORING. The chant \”boring boring arsenal\” was a famous one in the 80\’s and 90\’s.
4. If you\’re talking about managing a young team, I salute Sir Alex for the way he has blended youth and experience in his team. That\’s how you do it and Sir Alex is a winner too.
5. With the players in the Arsenal team, Jose or Sir Alex would have taken them to atleast runner-up or may be, title. Dispute this. What about Arsenal being a \”no-balls\” team. If Chelsea loses and draws like Arsenal does now, Jose would whip and them and make them understand what it means.
And for God\’s sake, please explain what in your vocabulary means \”beautiful football\”. Describe it instead of giving some roundabout reply. Chelsea and Man Utd are playing beautiful football but I\’msure you\’d turn a blind eye to it.
good discussion. but the gooners cannot agree and admit that they are poor now for the above reasons, because they have this fucking superiority complex and think that they invented football.
What is this crap i read about Arsenel playing better football by some stunt who goes by the name GUN MY **** !!!!!
Have you seen your teams pathetic displays against Fulham ,Everton,Middlesbrough etc and not to mention being beaten by City and pulverized by Bolton lol or did you just “miss” these matches cuz in all the games you went down a goal first !!!!
Pathetic and Digraceful to sum up…….dont even try to compare your ‘Pass the ball into the net football’ with ours which is much more refined and polished!!!!!!
Unlike you we dont have to depend on some individual to save our asses getting gunned (Thierry ‘GOD’ Henry all the time) and if you have even an ounce of respect for your club dont post crap here unless you want us to bisect your tem!!!!!! LOL!!!
By the way,
What’s an Arsey fan doin in a blues blog ?
That itself is madness,crap.inelegant,and plain poop-headed.
I never go to other people’s blogs and start blabbing and babbling just coz I want to. Poor taste.
Well I fell asleep, while watching Venger and Boys, last night .And it was only 7:30 pm where I am at.
Why?
Coz it Vasn’t that intraysting nor beautifull ( insert some frenchy accent here)
Pass pass pass the ball and hope someone sticks it in the net . That’s it. God ,they do the same thing for 89 minutes.
The remaining 1min they try forever to lift the ball into the air for a corner
Lucky that it was wobbly and woe struck Spurs again
Well Goner whatever you’re called
We got a date on the 10 o’ dec
Don’t u forget that
Roman
But on the other hand ,drop in anytime at all for an Arse whipping
Are the news regarding Chelsea interest in dutch striker Huntellar true? ManU is also said to be interested…anyone having update on this front…..
Well, I suppose it’s time to say something; having waded through all the words above, why not add to the maelstrom that has become of this post? Seems like no self-restraint need be used, according to some of the other comments.
Arsenal is more like a team from Spain that got stuck in England and is sort of just figuring that out. I think they’d do quite well in La Liga playing against similarly fashioned teams week-in-and-week-out, but I guess they’re in the Premiership so they should probably get used to that. I like Arsenal’s football and while they were obviously much better circa 2004, they’re still nice to watch from time-to-time. In my opinion (which isn’t all that humble), they’re more fun to watch than Chelsea. ManU is getting to be pretty artistic and that’s nice, especially from a goalscoring point-of-view, but I still think Arsenal plays the most attractive football in the EPL. And I define, BC, beautiful football as passing football. Merely my definition of it. If you think longball is beautiful, well, I don’t like Picasso but he’s still in museums and I respect that. Just give me Dali any day.
I think Arsenal did well in the Champions League precisely because of Fabregas and Hleb last year, who were able to play a more open and attacking style which suits Arsenal very well. The EPL is full of hard-tackling maulers, which is certainly one way to play. What is a jovial foul in England is basically a straight red in Spain and that, I think, is more a question of the goals of a sport than anything. England seems to think of sporting “manliness” in the same way Americans do: might makes right. And that’s probably why I like Spanish soccer more than English soccer. [and yeah I said soccer cause I'm an American. What of it?]
I think the issue of money here is a double-edged one for Arsenal fans. Most Chelsea fans have accepted that they’ve got more money than God and they’re okay with that. But Arsenal saying that Chelsea buys everyone is like the Red Sox saying that to the Yankees. Teams like Watford can complain since their transfer kitty is like $16.35USD or something. They can buy a pair of Starburys while Chelsea can spend 30million pounds on a distraction for Drogba (that’s like $5.4 billionUSD or something by the current exchange rate, right?). Still, Arsenal are rich and they can buy whoever they want and train whoever they want. Oh no they got Baptista for Reyes. Oh no. I’ll cry now. (Like BC posted above, Arsenal spent money on Emirates Stadium instead of players; I assume next year they’ll buy defenders? But I think I’ve said that for three years running now so who knows…)
I still hate Chelsea because of the money and what I consider a boring style of play, but certainly I must respect them. They win games, after all, or so I’ve heard. And I also must respect Arsenal because I do believe they are currently in a slump which they’ll get out of soon enough and make a nice little run for 3rd. Shame that the EPL is a two-horse race already. For the neutral that always sucks. The Bundesliga is shaping up as a truly epic race, even if we all know it’s going to be Werder or Bayern in the end…
Roman, if Arsenal fans aren’t supposed to be reading a Blues blog, why is a Blues blog posting about Arsenal?
BluesChampion: how about this friendly wager? If Chelsea wins the EPL, I’ll write a nice long post about how great they are (including Mourinho) and if anyone other than the Blues wins, you write a nice long post about how great Arsene Wenger is. A fair bet, I think.
Hey BC great article awesome and accurate loved it !!!!
cheers
joeblue
Oh and Isaiah i agree mate Arsey play entertaining football but they gotta understand that now footy is a buisness and u gotta get results, no questions asked!!!
The problem with Arsey is definately not the way they play , u gotta admit they simply havent got the men to do the job ; yes Henry is the best striker in the world by a mile and yes Gallas and Toure are great , of course Cesc and Persie are great prospects but where are the midfield wizzards having enough experience and skill to match Chelsea or Manu?????
Wenger has to admit he has made mistakes and now should go about correcting them …….How long would Arsey remain a team in transition ? They are better than the scraping 3 they are surely ; and out of the race by Dec………that Sucks!!!!!!
And your point on why we are discussing Arsey well i surely would agree if Arsey fans wont be doing the same thing for Chelsea !!!!!
Its time for Arsenal to look within and surely come up with performances better than now………………………….and the title race is surely over but there is always the next season as Wenger reminds us season by season!!!!!!!!
Manish- all the big guns are trying their level best to catch this youngster but the frontrunners are Chelsea ,Manu and even Arsenal but Fergie is determined to get him to Trafford lets keep our fingers crossed that Jose pulls off this deal in the end!!!
@ Isaiah
To start, I certainly welcome fans of other clubs to visit this blog and leave their comments and Chelsea fan blog can also have articles on other clubs. After all, we are first of all, football fans, aren\’t we? Readers of this blog might have noticed that I try to be reasonable in my posts to be least biased by my club allegiance. I have criticised the Chelsea players and Jose whenever I felt there was a need. The opinion poll right now (on who should be dropped – Sheva or Ballack) is a good example. So, this piece on Arsenal was not meant to be a dig at them but only my honest criticism of their situation.
As you rightly pointed out, the term \’beautiful football\’ is subjective. In my view, the football thats entertaining to me is beautiful football. Sheva chesting Lampard\’s lob and blasting it in bottom right in the Community Shield was beautiful beautiful football. The spirited last minute equaliser in Camp Nou was beautiful too. Certainly, my definition is different. Will I prefer Chelsea team playing with Arsenal\’s strategy? NO. I want Chelsea to play like Chelsea. Just mix up everything, play multi-dimensional football and surprise the opponent (Geremi scoring a free kick ahead of Lampard, Ballack, Sheva and Drogba). Watching Arsenal go raid ofter raid to lose ball in front of the box is damn broing to me. It so predictable and that makes it boring. So, in my view, Arsenal plays most boring football now. May be, it lies in the eyes of the beholder.
And finally, that\’s an unfair bet Isaiah! I\’ll write a nice long post about the Champions – whoever it is – Chelsea or Man Utd or Arsenal or Watford. Because, becoming a league champion deserves praise as it can be achieved only through sheer hard work of the players and the manager.
Well, it wouldn’t be much of a bet if we were going to do it anyway, would it?
Obviously we disagree with what is beautiful football. Chelsea has moments of beauty, but for my money, the one-touch passing is much nicer the way Arsenal does it (which is still a knock-off version of what they were a few years ago and what Barcelona was so masterful at last year). This discussion, I feel, could go on for as long as either of us draw breath, so I’ll cut it off.
Perhaps your points about Arsenal are reasonable, but let’s not act like point 6 “No balls” is anything but a dig, not that I don’t mind a dig now and then myself, of course. You don’t like Arsene Wenger; your site, feel free to tell us all that. We can always just not come here to read it if we feel offended.
Roman says,
What’s a goner fan doin in a blues blog?
Whining and thrashing in the last throes of paralysis like his team
What’s a blues blog doin writing about Arsey?
Analyzing the opposition cause we had no match on the weekend and we’re a methodical bunch looking at the game from all angles.
And also
here’s my straight opinion of the Barca /Werder game .
I hope Barca don’t go thru
Why ?cause to win something in a game u got to look at it from all angles
When Chelsea was knocked out last year, didn’t it make it much easier for whoever to get the CL cup?
And its the kind of luck, call it what u want, that we need to win the CL apart from the gazillions that the owner has
On a partisan site we get to write what we want , Mr Isiah and we really don’t need to justify ourselves.
It’s called being a fan
Not a football reporter
At least we don’t swear at or insult people like u’ll have probably read on other football forums
But anyway I did enjoy the spat or discussion above
Now where’s my prawn sandwich?
Roman
Hey , who wrote this article , it is great.
who are you ?
would you please introduce yourself ?
Barca went thru Ha Ha
I’ll be sporting ,good game and congrats
Pretty football in the first half but certainly a tactical and calculating Barca in the second .
It was boring from a “neutral “point of view then sitting back and defending with counters everyone knew were coming.
Only them counters for a bit o titillation.
But the the first goal was got coz of a simulation by Ronny ,second one a clear offside . But Werder coulda done better too
So now we’ll just have to take care of them ourselves in finals if they get there.
Coz we got big balls and big game mentality, We win tooth or nail or we lose after a titanic struggle. Good opponents Barca I say , have been , are and will be for Chelsea.
But anyway Barca plays
great / pretty / patient/tactical /brave/entertaining
/ calculated / inspired / sometimes cheating dirty and boring
football throw in a lot of subjectivity for good measure.
I might be a blues fan but I will praise another team if they play like men most of the time .I forgive them for the play acting when they met CFC. They had to . Part and parcel of the game
And that’s a compliment
But Arsenal have to go some way to catch up to Barca’s class
Chelsea already has and we Chelsea fans kinda got used to going the Neu Camp now.
Let’s see how they Barca do on neutral ground against us
Roman
Anyone who wants to contact the author/editor/owner of this blog, please mail to blue.champions@yahoo.com
Arsenal does play some good football and I dont want them to stop doing that. Chelsea keep winning and I dont want that to stop either. That way I can have the comfort of knowing some beautiful football is still going on while the BEST team keeps winning…
i hate wenger for wat he is doing with god Henry.
Hey I know its hard to compete with someone who have so much money that he buys someone just to chat with him in russian..i m talkin abt 30 millions.
but arsene can do it.he just have to utilize Rosicky better.
Hey teerandaaz whatever the heck it is wastage of money???
Sheva???? apparently how about your own majestic 60000 seater stadium whats that for???? showing how a team calling itself one of the best in the world cant play at their own home on top of it u blame your stupid play on the stadium what did it cost………600mn$ talking about stupid spending just check your own team out before you start posting shit here!!!!
Anyways get ready for a mauling at the Bridge and then pheraps you can blame that one stupid fans like yourself!!!!!
Roman, I respect your views on Barcelona and it’s refreshing to see a partisan site offer up an honest opinion of a bitter opponent. Not exactly a rival yet, but another draw in next year’s CL would take whatever they have much closer to that status. I try to be fair in my criticisms of all teams on my site as well and I hope I succeed.
Funny that you say “boring from a neutral point of view” because I didn’t think it was all that boring. Just badly played. (and no, I’m not neutral when it comes to Barca) I thought Barcelona shouldn’t have retreated into their shell quite so much, but they certainly took advantage of some spotty decisions by the ref and linesman (the Gudjohnsen goal was very questionable under the new offsides rules, after all, since he wasn’t involved in the play until Giuly had controlled the ball and then Gudjohnsen found himself behind the ball and thus onside…I suppose it’s somewhat subjective and I, for one, thought they’d call him offside). Regardless, by the 22nd minute the game should have been 4-0 and then it was a little bit of luck and a lot of plucky defending by Puyol that got them through after a pretty crappy final 70 minutes.
If Barcelona play anywhere as well as they did in the first 20 minutes of the Bremen game for an entire 90 minutes, it is my opinion that there is no team on earth that can beat them. Obviously most Blues fans will think otherwise, but I don’t believe Chelsea could be a 100% Barcelona. The thing about it is that Chelsea play a consistently high level of football, like Barcelona was doing last year, meaning they don’t fail to show up for games like Barca seems to be doing this year. I’d be very, very surprised if Barca makes it to the semis at this rate, especially needing to play away in the second leg of the first round. Chelsea can get the job done matter-of-factly and their lack of injuries to major players is part of that. As you said, Roman, a bit of luck is required to win the CL and that might be enough for Chelsea, that their lineup is by-and-large fully intact. Barcelona had such a season last year, with only one major injury (Xavi) and fortunately for them they had a more-than-competent replacement (Iniesta). Chelsea are so deep that they won’t hurt very much if anyone other than Drogba or Terry gets injured — I consider those two players the lynchpins of Chelsea despite the obvious abilities of the other players. Barcelona have 4 lynchpins, which makes you question whether they’re really lynchpins, in Eto’o, Messi, Ronnie, and Puyol. Without the first two their attack loses a large amount of its bite, and that’s made the difference so far in the season.
Chelsea have the best shot of winning it all right now, I think, since no one else is looking like a side to beat. The names are big, of course, but the clubs are weaker than they’ve been in a while. I, personally, blame a lot of that on Chelsea for buying players left and right from around the world. It’s a crucial factor and from a neutral standpoint it’s pretty awful to watch an entire sport decline via the purchasing of players. That’s why a salary cap and spending limit should be introduced and forcefully imposed across the UEFA universe. And none of that luxury tax nonsense that the MLB allows. That is just asking for trouble, which Americans now know all about in the form of the Yankees and Red Sox.
We are tired of pple talking about a team that was once great but no longer is. U gooners suck! U shd know that even leeds and nottingharm have fans but they are quiet. Let the big boys talk.
Jose mourinho can manage the current Arse team and win the premier league with two or three weeks to spare.
And again did he buy the UEFa CL with porto.
Sucking Sucking arses.
Yo ,Isaiahand everyone , Hi there
The bit about CFC buying up all the quality footballers in the world is a bit too much , I think . C’mon man it’s more like Chelsea gets the player that the club and the manager want and need at a price that other clubs inflate as much as possible .
There are a lot of great players not on CFC’s payroll. We can’t really buy up more than 30 players at 30mill pds apiece Ha Ha Ha . Where are the rest of the players gonna go then ? Home? no, into opposing teams ,
If we look at the bright side of it the players are makin a lot more money and you never know maybe one day we’ll have a team owned by a former player rather than just businessmen
And as a former pitcher in a junior high baseball team I appreciate baseball but lost track of MLB thru the years but I think the popularity of baseball around the world is not as widespread as football. With all the equipment needed probably never will be .
So we really can’t force mentality or the rules and regulations governing the American sports leagues wholesale directly onto the Football world. No sir .
IT’s just another reality. The Glazer family and the West Ham bloke forgot his name are now in the EPL . But Do you know why there aren’t any buyers going the other way?
To me ,It kind of clear
The natural evolution processes of winning, losing, goliath against david, the battle of the giants and the law of the jungle stuff, brains against brawn clash of ego’s ,rules are made to be broken stuff ,let the best man win stuff that make the world infintely more intersting would wilt away with salary caps.
The world is not FIFa pro 07 on a PS2 where all teams just differ in uniform.
And also
We don’t want to be like the Cubans or Venezuelan players bred in MLB farms in South A , lining up trying to get entry into the
USA and hoping we don’t lose our capped salaries .
No NO NO the rest of the world wants to be like the Ronaldo’s Sheva’s , Drogba’s and Beckams .
Stars
Appreciated , valued and respected and very very well paid. That’s why many of them can afford to set up foundations with the money they earn. They are more than just clogs in a team that limit their right to earn as much as their worth. ( Yeah Yeah I know about the Red till I die, never gonna change teams type too , but they get paid the best at their clubs too. Just ask Gerrard or Puyol.
Roman
[...] If you are even a casual fan of the English Premier League you probably know by now that Chelsea is playing Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Always a big match, this one has heightened significance because former Gunner Ashley Cole will be suiting up for Chelsea. This has led to the predictable tabloid stories this week and the predictable revelations about Jens Lehmann’s reading habits. It has led Arsenal fans to come up with all kinds of ways to express their disdain for the one some call Cashley and for Chelsea fans to express their feelings about Arsenal. [...]
Mr watever u reallly suck as far as i know because u r criticising us on building a new stadium in way its rong but if chelsea canhave a good stadium although i dont think its good then why can we(rsenal).and yes maybe we pass a little bit 2 much u r rite there but are passing is unpredictable wen it comes 2 give and goes and stuff even terry wont be able 2 stop us ur comments r simply ridicoulous and ur calling arsene wenger an inexperienced fellow well u r very rong there sir wenger might have sold viera and pires because he knows these men wont be able 2 play after a while they will lose there touch.wenger invented hleb ,fabregas.ljunberg,henry,toure,pires,van persie,reyes who was silly 2 leave and allli can say that u have absolooutly no rite 2 criticize arsenal for all these things
This is to the poster of the post just above this one:
You are an illiterate. You really need to go back to your school and do all the grades all over again. I\’m so sorry that you cant read or write.
1. I did not criticise Arsenal for buildig a stadium. Show me where I have done that.
2. I never called Arsene Wenger as inexperienced fellow. If you think so, show me where I have.
3. Pires and Vieira are still playing well for their current clubs. Vieira, in fact, playeing great for Inter and he scoring goals too.
4. Arsene did not \’invent\’ those players. He only bought them. Pires came from Marseille and he was 25 then. Henry was in Juventus and he was 21 when he joined Arsenal. Hleb was playing for Stuttgart and he was 24 when he joined Arses. Ljunberg from Halmstad at 21. Toure – Mimosa at 21. Van Persie from Feyenoord at 21. So he did not \’invent\’ players as you said.
5. Only Fabregas was bought when he was 16. But he did not play in his first season. At least, Obi Mikel, who is also 16, is playing in his first season.
And please understand that I have given you sooooo much respect by responding to your illiiterate comment after deleting the abusive language which is very typicalof a \’Goner\’ fan. You have proved once again that it is impossible to have a reasonable discussion with a Goner fan without him restorting to abusive language. As you\’re an illiterate you may no be able to understand this also, but I\’m just venting my anger.
Cannot some authentic, well read, logical and suave Gunner fan who likes a good tussle ,post something that will get all our creative juices flowing?
Where are you ?
Are you all goons ?
I think not .
Answer me ! Gunner fans with cool reasoning!
Do thee not exist in this world ?
You see in my vocabulary ,polite Arsey fans might become Gunners without balls if no answer is forthcoming
While a rude one will always be a goon and and goner in my books
Show thyselves
Or are you praying like this :
Henry, Henry ! where art thou in your team’s time of need ?
Roman
(Now your swearing at me may commence)
I love the way Arsenal plays, but I do agree with some of the 10 reasons listed above. But don’t write off Arsenal just yet, any team will have their hard times, I’m sure Wenger and the young lads are learning their lessons, and will soon take off!
Chelsea is simply doing their job, not necessarily boring, but definitely not as entertaining as Arsenal did when they had their 49 games unbeaten record, beat that!
Go Gunners!!!
Good luck with the UEFA Cup. Goodbye!
Last chance before you’re banned and nuked. Good luck with your UEFA Cup!
Oops another bird-brained Arsey fan in the post above.
So many of them. The poop-headed ones must breed like rabbits.
Roman
Hey anonymous why not have a go at me???
Hah u nutters really think that u r better than us???
And u choose just the right day to post after ur teams beaten somebody convincingly for a change, and what do u keep on abt the money dud , do u know how much Pathetic Wenger pays and prays to keep ur God Henry here??? Or do u know what sort of a thief he is?? Smuggling 16 year old talented kids from other clubs with offers worth millions…
hah and u think u r great to watch??? Big misunderstanding dungboy, not only r u the most pathetic in front of goal but the worst while defending, look at ur players OLD duddo Lehmann i wld take Terry as my keeper instead anyday and a half fit overpaid Henry the god or r u threatening us with Adebayor ur topscorer hah not even Sunderland will take him even if he comes free the stupid tall git!!!!
Talk abt junk and u r the best exponent of it ,so bring it on boy but i dont think u r even worth a penny … go gun ur ass!!!
Guys! Relax about the Goner fan! He’s been nuked. And all his guises will be nuked. If he makes a reasonable, abuse-less comment, that will be published.
I love Chelsea to death, but I also love football, and I have to say Arsenal play fantastic football at times! However their football is not suited to win anything! Footie is more than just about playing pretty combinations.
Arsenal lacks the efficiency thats needed to win games! However there is kind of a trade off between playing an efficient style and playing flamboyant footie. Chelsea is easily the most efficient team in Europe, and that’s is probably why they are able to win so often.
Although this season’s team is a bit dodgy. The wingplay, with Lampard driving the attacks, and Mak & Essien doing the cleaning was the perfect balance. Perhaps this season our ambition which brought about the likes of Sheva and Ballack upset the balance that made us unstopable.
NO IM NOT GOING TO KEEP IT CLEAN CHELSEA ARE **** AND ARSENAL RULE, I BET U HAVE NEVER EVEN SEEN A ARSENAL GAME ALL CHELSEA ARE IS CASH, i used 2 respect chelsea but now since jose stink’ouriniho came he stunk the fu****g place up so please get a life and realize everything you said was false dude, we may have done those things but we are entertaining, the rapid pace in which we pass and score, at the moment we are scoring MORE Than chelsea sooo, and anyway i bet your a glory hunter who used to support arsenal or someone and now you dont cuz they arent champions…the other day i watched chelsea vs (carling cup semi) and they were crap…that is the score they come up with by playing league 2!!!!!!! arsenal vs liverpool, our young guns scored 6…
Onto the fact our team isnt strong…
Did you know we are(arsenal) are the most fair team in the prem, that means we go by the rules unlike CHELSEA, who are about 3rd…(cough)(cough) to be strong makes yo like chelsea which (HELLOoO) i think you get by now we dont wanna beeeeee.
And your manager was BALD for a bit
chelsea have big problems, they’ve spent millions and they are losing badly, they are being paid Hundreds of thousands, basically everything in money at stamford bridge, so all you chelsea fans go bathe in your f***in* money and buy the world so you dont have to play them…oh and ashley cole
ROT IN HELL
Man , the above guy musta be in really bad ways in the real world if he has to bash us in a Chelsea column. We did back Arsey the other day didn’t we?.
YES we, we were behind you 1100% and you won against Manure Thank you and please keep up that performance next year too
RomanHoliday
It sure looks like some Mental clinic has lost this Psycopath and all he wants to do is write crap , all these Gooner fans keep on repeating the same age old junk -Ugot money ,u got money ……
heck it seems like they hav no brains but they all hav a very long tongue , and why the hell is this nut so happy abt his team?
Havent they got enough problems already , they r not even garunteed 4 place and i find nothing exciting in battling Pompey , Bolton and Spurs , but it seems like its their habit these days to remain 4 and talk big , yes u guys beat Manurebut hey the win gives u only 3 points not 100 , so u better concentrate on ur own team rather than making such comments abt teams much better and stronger!!!!!!!
And it looks like this git talks in some ****** language only so pal go converse with people who talk like that , like u gooners and leave us alone!!!!!!
yeah, i hate Arsenal in last season. But now Chelsea are in real trouble. Now we can see Chelsea’s performances depend on Lampard’s performances. and when they lose Lampard they will cry like a baby. now even Drogba, and JT, cant do anything.
well you can s£$t bout arsenal all u lke bt who is top of da prem and on form and on the other hand who is seventh and lost their manager the so called special 1 if hes so special then y has he gone.
well oppisitions may not like our way of playin bt at the end of the day, we r top
Ha, this makes me chuckle. I m an arsenal fan and we are now at the start of december. your ‘10 reasons’ for arsenal being rubbish has taken us to the top of the league where we v won every premiership game and lost one game away to sevilla where he had qualified before hand. Coming from a chelsea fan, i d rather have Wenger than an Israeli jew. Chelsea play poor skanky football where Lampard only scores from deflections. i m looking forward to our encourter at the emirates. i think Wenger will show you how to actually play football
Chuckle Chuckle Loosers!
Arsenal is top of the table mr 10 reasons.
Mr.Goon! You can also see that this article was written on 3rd Dec 2006!!! This was written at a time, you lot were still crying about your team’s progress or the lack of it!
EXACTLY, Mr. “BLUE CHAMP” It just shows how shortsighted you lot are, and what a genius Arsene is, will always be!!!
Anyway, thanks a lot! it was a lot of fun to read it, esp after sundays’s match. It’s actually more relevant now, than it was a year ago, simply because it shows who can create a whole team out of nothing (the master arsene who knows just when to let a player go regardless) and who can afford a team that might, or might not win despite the fact that it has no footballing identity.
AND YES, ARSENAL STILL PLAY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FOOTBALL!!!
The fact remains that the ‘genius’ Arsene Wenger could never beat the minnow ‘Jose Mourinho’ for about 4 years! Give 10 years in a club and no pressure to win anything, there are a lot of good managers who can achieve whatever Arsene did or even more.
It’s about believing in a football philosophy, rather than herding ten players in their own half to defend and eventually win in whatever way possible. Yes, many managers, starting with jose, achieved more than arsene did. However, few will entertain and CREATE generations of believers in the beautiful game. Sorry for being a dreamer and a lover of football, the kind of football once upon a time zola blessed the pitch with wearing the blue shirt.
and by the way, shall i remind you of the way the genius arsene stopped you guys from winning at your own ground for a whole decade?
Mr. Anonymous! Get a name for yourself! Be brave.
And while you stopped us from winning at our ground, your genius Arsene lost to us at Highbury!!! What a joke!
funny how chelsea lost to arsenal
lol your pathetic
well wateva u blues say arsenal r top n deyll always will b in our eyes well y did u lose against arsenal if ure so gd wat happen 2 ure best goalie peter he couldnt save gallas header n u lot coudnt score either cumon face it b 4 u tlk or call another team losers look at ureself itll help