PL: Chelsea v Arsenal | August 18, 2018 17:30 BST | BT Sport

[KrissKringle]

All it took was one game

And Musti as his victim. What a guy Shkodran is. Making favors for someone in dire need of goals.

 

[Slartibartfast]

 

[say yes]

Our defence ****ed the first half.

Sorry to say that Emery ****ed the second.

More gutted than I normally am after a game at Stamford Bridge because we should have won that comfortably. ****s sake.

 

[ksarp]

Yes, it’s Emery’s fault that we missed so many clear cut chances. He should get his aim right ffs

Strategy and mindset.. that is what a manager brings. Execution is the domain of the players!

 

[al-Ustaadh]

Sarri looks like he's wearing a moo moo dress.

 

[celestis]

Guendouzi is exciting to me. Torreira is better on the ball than I expected.

Not gonna draw anything much from last two games

People hoping for a revolution in Mustafi under Emery are going to be disappointed

At the same time we know he can keep it tight for half a season he done that before .

 

[Gooner Zig]

When was the last time we've won at the Bridge?

Van Persie hatty. One of the more satisfying wins I've seen.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Interesting , pretty sure we created double that in one match against United .

The stat @OnlyOne was referring to was for away games against the top 6.

 

[celestis]

Van Persie hatty. One of the more satisfying wins I've seen.

Fat Andre's best performance too.

 

[OnlyOne]

The stat @OnlyOne was referring to was for away games against the top 6.

I thought it might be, again not sure how true it is.

 

[boyinneedofhumor]

Our defence ****ed the first half.

Sorry to say that Emery ****ed the second.

More gutted than I normally am after a game at Stamford Bridge because we should have won that comfortably. ****s sake.

Agree with your 1st sentence but not the 2nd. I would change it to Lacazette instead of Emery.
Having said that, it is not witch hunting.

By the way, you/we are gutted because we believe we have a chance to grab all 3 points. If this was any of the past few seasons I doubt we would have the same optimism.
So the performance isnt entirely sh*t.

Our missed chances (i.e. wayward shooting) however...

 

[Jackie_Treehorn]

One thing is for sure looking at the amount of clear-cut chances we can create...we will absolutely destroy at least one big team this season. I hope it’s United.

Like the 3 goals in first 20 min October 2015. Can’t wait.

 

[vijay]

how many games more till its reasonable to start judging Emery performance/ability/impact?

 

[pacstud]

how many games more till its reasonable to start judging Emery performance/ability/impact?

I've believed from the start that the quickest way to judge him will be our performance against teams OUTSIDE the Big 6. Can we handle our business as professionals or will we continue to rise and fall with the level of our competition.

Home to Man City and road to Chelsea is tough, we want points, but still tough sledding.

West Ham is his first major test imo.

 

[dashsnow17]

What's also encouraging is the position on the pitch that the goal came from. Nothing through the centre, it's come from out wide, as did our first goal.

We worry because we don't have any really natural wingers and we'll suffer from a lack of incision from out wide, but both our goals came from interplay between our fullbacks and "wide forwards" down the flanks. First it was Iwobi to Monreal to put in Mkhi, then it was Bellerin and Mkhi to put in Iwobi.

Obviously it'd still be handy to have a winger, someone like Hazard, but it's encouraging nonetheless.

 

[Slartibartfast]

I've believed from the start that the quickest way to judge him will be our performance against teams OUTSIDE the Big 6. Can we handle our business as professionals or will we continue to rise and fall with the level of our competition.

Home to Man City and road to Chelsea is tough, we want points, but still tough sledding.

West Ham is his first major test imo.

Here's an easy test: Take a look at how Arsenal does against all the teams they dropped points to last year that finished outside the top 10 (or in the case of Swansea, Stoke and West Brom, the teams that replaced them). That was Arsenal's downfall last year, especially in games played away from home.

Arsenal lost 10 points to the bottom 4 teams last year. They dropped 13 to teams that finished with 40 points or less. That would have been enough to overtake Liverpool for 4th. They dropped 19 points to teams that finished with 44 points or less. That's enough to take them past Manchester United into 2nd place.

Of course every team is going to have some slip ups, but when you drop that many points to teams in the bottom half of the table, it's a killer.

 

[BobP]

Still shattered.

Squandered opportunity.

Chances weren't even difficult, basic skill errors.

 

[FreakySami]

I think the team still has a lot to learn. There is a huge difference in learning to play different styles and tweaking a few styles of play. One of the differences is that you have to learn something each week and it's very taxing mentally. However usually you can cluster different tactics for different teams. Do not misunderstand, it still requires a lot of learning and that cannot take 5-8 weeks. I would saw it takes 6 months excluding the big games which require special attention.

As for the game yesterday, we didn't play very well but we had very well prepared sequences of play ( 2nd goal and your numerous changes missed first half). Since we do not impose a style yet, we rely heavily on on our fitness to be really high, which is okay for a start of a session but it's still hasn't peaked.

It was obvious for me that although lacazette was at fault for the passback, I sincerely believe that koscielny would have taken care of that as he did many Times before. Also torreia should have done better in that sequence. People crap on xhaka a lot but he does well inside our penalty area in terms of positioning.

I can see a good team even after this loss but like years gone by, we cannot afford to bash or players and manager. I think we lost a bit of technicality but added athlétism which is good.

Also I think people are giving bellerin too much crap. Guy sets up perfect passes to 2-3 players and gets slated. Hazard, one of the best dribblers in the Epl passes him and lays it to a unmarked Alonso and people blame him. Come on now.

Xhaka, I've always said lacks mobility but he has a Brain, and he picks good passes.i think he was subbed off after getting the first yellow and Emery thought we might get exposed in the middle if he has to defend against a dribbler which Chelsea has plenty of.

Anyways lots to do in terms of points but not much in terms of physical fitness. In to the next one!!

 

[yorch44]

I think we should be playing lije this

CF -Laca
LW-PEA ...CAM-Özil ... RW- Iwobi
CM Guendonzzi/Torreira CM Xhaka/Torreira

And at this moment i prefer Leichstainer to play instead of Monreal. But my main question is who sit for Torreira, Xhaka or the crazy bambino

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Still shattered.

Squandered opportunity.

Chances weren't even difficult, basic skill errors.

Yeah before the game I was not too bothered by the prospect of losing considering it's still such early days with the new manager, but the way it played out made it hard to take.