Country: England
I feel the need to post something spontaneous before we all pick the bones out of tonight, as we will, over the coming hours and days.
We can be sure every pundit, every neutral and every damn manure and spuds fan will have a theory about this game. Most of them will involve Arsenal bottling it. Wenger getting it all wrong. Tales of arrogance, underperformance and woe. Talk of punishment and retribution.
But I have a theory that you just have to trust your gut reaction to any given situation.
We didn't lose the game thanks to any of the above. In fact we deserved to bury Chelsea in the first half. Reyes, Pires & Vieira were all superb.
So to my gut reaction painful as it may be, namely that Chelsea were simply fantastic and better, to a man, in the second half. No two ways about it. They had staying power, legs, call it what you will. Ranieri finally cast off the "tinkerman" moniker. He used his squad and when we tired, as Raniri thought we might, they were there to pick up the pieces. They won the game, on merit, because we didn't do the job "early doors". Simple as that. The players did it for Ranieri. And if Roman and his minions don't give the guy a long term contract, tommorrow, there's no justice in the footballing world.
I want to be angry about this. I want to say Wenger screwed it up, as perhaps he did in the FA Cup game by starting with Aliadiere instead of Reyes. I'd like to make some trite observation to the effect that Henry, say, has now failed as a big game player, although in truth it's obvious now that Wenger's been masking an injury he's picked up of late. Either that or he's plain knackered. I'd like to blame it on Lehman, for spilling that ball, although and in truth it was a great strike by Makalele.
But I can't.
I've never liked Chelsea. I don't much like their fans either, let alone their board. But I do like Ranieri.
So well done mate.
I can end on a high(ish) note; Arsenal will win the league. Chelsea put everything in to tonght. Arsenal can, sadly, concentrate on the one trophy now and Chelsea won't have the experience to go on the run they need to outstrip us. In fact I think they'll drop points this weekend. Thankfully Manure who are more than capable, are so distant as not to be a concern. Four points from the next two games will be enough to set us up for it though I do wonder what the players will be thinking as they cart it round Highbury.
We can be sure every pundit, every neutral and every damn manure and spuds fan will have a theory about this game. Most of them will involve Arsenal bottling it. Wenger getting it all wrong. Tales of arrogance, underperformance and woe. Talk of punishment and retribution.
But I have a theory that you just have to trust your gut reaction to any given situation.
We didn't lose the game thanks to any of the above. In fact we deserved to bury Chelsea in the first half. Reyes, Pires & Vieira were all superb.
So to my gut reaction painful as it may be, namely that Chelsea were simply fantastic and better, to a man, in the second half. No two ways about it. They had staying power, legs, call it what you will. Ranieri finally cast off the "tinkerman" moniker. He used his squad and when we tired, as Raniri thought we might, they were there to pick up the pieces. They won the game, on merit, because we didn't do the job "early doors". Simple as that. The players did it for Ranieri. And if Roman and his minions don't give the guy a long term contract, tommorrow, there's no justice in the footballing world.
I want to be angry about this. I want to say Wenger screwed it up, as perhaps he did in the FA Cup game by starting with Aliadiere instead of Reyes. I'd like to make some trite observation to the effect that Henry, say, has now failed as a big game player, although in truth it's obvious now that Wenger's been masking an injury he's picked up of late. Either that or he's plain knackered. I'd like to blame it on Lehman, for spilling that ball, although and in truth it was a great strike by Makalele.
But I can't.
I've never liked Chelsea. I don't much like their fans either, let alone their board. But I do like Ranieri.
So well done mate.
I can end on a high(ish) note; Arsenal will win the league. Chelsea put everything in to tonght. Arsenal can, sadly, concentrate on the one trophy now and Chelsea won't have the experience to go on the run they need to outstrip us. In fact I think they'll drop points this weekend. Thankfully Manure who are more than capable, are so distant as not to be a concern. Four points from the next two games will be enough to set us up for it though I do wonder what the players will be thinking as they cart it round Highbury.
