The new Arsenal number one Petr Cech was clearly trying to lift his dejected team mates after the final whistle blew on the Premier League match against Chelsea on Sunday. That sort of ability to look for any positives and to move on from a disappointment is a very important part of what the Czech Republic international brings to the team and perhaps that is what he was doing when he glossed over the part that Per Mertesacker played in the loss to our London rivals.
We hardly need to be told that going down to 10 men so early in a crucial game like that was not helpful to the cause but even so, Cech’s post match comments reported on the Arsenal website were very easy on the German centre back. In fact he seems to absolve Mertesacker of much of the responsibility and put more onus on the fact that we could not convert our very positive play after they scored into a goal or any really clear cut chances.
Cech also feels that the Gunners might well have got something from the game had we only been able to keep the visitors from scoring so soon after the red card. That goal from Costa gave Chelsea the perfect platform to defend their lead rather than pushing forward and keeping the open game that would have suited Walcott´s counter attacking threat much more.
The keeper said, “We are disappointed because we lost a game at home. We wanted to compete, we wanted to take advantage of playing at home, but unfortunately the decisive moment came quite early on in the game. Unfortunately Chelsea took advantage of that and scored. From there, they tried to control the game and playing 11 against 10 for 70 minutes is always an advantage [for Chelsea]. I thought that, even with 10 men, we came back very strongly in the second half. We could have actually scored the equaliser but we were missing a little bit of the last touch inside the box and around the box. There were always moments where we almost got there, but we didn’t find a real opportunity to put the ball in the net.
“The referee was very close. He had a clear view of the situation and he decided straight away to give a red card. There was no hesitation from anyone. We just had to deal with the fact. You just go on. He can’t change the decision anyway by protesting for three minutes. We had to regroup, we had to make sure that we reorganised and try to continue with 10 men. Unfortunately we conceded too early after the sending off.
“I thought for 70 minutes we were brilliant, in terms of the team effort and the organisation. We were not far from getting something out of the game. When you play against the champions and are down to 10 men for such a long time… we are only three points off the lead and have Leicester and Southampton at home coming up. They are difficult games but if we can keep winning our games, we can go back to the top.
“Well, they took advantage of it [their man advantage] quite early, and I think that was the decisive moment in the game. They could sit back, they could control the game, keep possession and wait for their opportunities. We had to sit a bit deeper and wait for our opportunities to counter-attack. In the second half, we were more aggressive. We tried to search for the equaliser and I thought we did really well. In the first half, we had a few tight offsides and some chances where we maybe missed a little bit of the quality to score. We knew at half-time that we would have another chance to equalise. We had some half chances and there were some moments where we were close but we couldn’t find the equaliser.”
In light of these comments do you think that more of the blame for our loss should go to the players that failed to core than on Mertesacker?
You could tell mertesacker was going to cause us problems right from the pass.
Before the red card, he made a rash pass to kolcieny under pressure and kept giving the ball to the opposition.
Ramsey / wilshere can only become a great CM for teams like Sunderland and Aston villa. The two of them simply lack the intelligence/ discipline to win titles playing that position at the highest level.
Many times, you see the defenders or flamini looking for outlet to pass the ball or get the ball out of our box. At those times, you will find Ramsey in the striker’s position or deep in the midfield.
This did not start today. I remember when Alex Song combined his role as the DM with that of a CM because Ramsey and Wilshere were simply dogshitt and we’re not creating anything. He created most of the chances for van piersie and yet, tribal arsenal fans were on his back.
Likewise against Stokes, Joel Campbell played the role of a CM better than Ramsey despite being stuck on the wings.
Against Tottenham last season, Ramsey misplaced 19 passes in the CM position. 19 freaking passes.
For me d Coach owns d whole blame. For a coach who has nt seen anythn bad in Per Mertersacker slowness nd hav no reason for nt keeping him in bench for a crucial match like ds. 2ndly, I failed to undrstnd why he wld sign a player who he has nt gotten 100% convindence in or prefared to kept on bench. Abii wht on earth will Arsene has sign Mohammed Elneny for dt he kept keeping him on bench? Wht’s also keeping him wait to get a game changing player, if nt a point man? I thnk Wenger is more of a gambler than dt of an ambitious coach. These are many more are my view
agrid offa
Wenger is fully to blame,he doesn’t buy the quality players we need to win the title then we are stuck with the likes of Arteta,Mertesacker,Flamini
For me its as simple as
– £10m for Maherz or Ox (plus £5)
– £10-15 for Wanyama
This is the best chance we have to win this BPL #gooners
Petr wrong. It was 10 against 11. One moment followed by another. Costa intended to dive to make Per send off in order to make Arsenal weaker. Per made no contact with him, he acted like had been shot in the legs. Clatenburg fooled by his acting. This was even easier than at the Bridge.
Five minutes later, Costa ran with his “wounded” legs and scored winning goal. Nothing wrong with the goal except that the unready Gabriel failed to deal with him.
In other side, I thought Arsene should pulled off Theo over Giroud, because Theo’s pace won’t work against well sitting Chelsea and we were going to have big numbers of corner kick specially at second half.
Overall, this was about 10 against eleven.
But seriousyl Wenger should know Chelsea have a history of getting away with cheating tactics, it’s up to him to make sure the players don’t fall for rookie mistakes like making late challenges, seriously where has he been these past 20 years ??! No one plays with honour in the modern day, he should pull his thumb out his backside and realize players will do anything to beat us
If El Nieny comes good immediately, simply buy Ighalo and we will win this thing.
But I doubt they are going to buy anybody. Kroenke has mortgaged Arsenal.
Wenger is to blame for everything…he is disgracing the club more and more, making the club and its fans ridIculed everywhere..
There is nothing I will say now,that have not been said already…
Just an advice guys;pls we should just reduce the level of emotion we attach to this club,it can affect us also..Am ashamed to say this, I deliberately failed to watch our last 3 games cos I know we may disappoint..2points out of 9games???? That’s very bad..buh at the end,it is only a game…
Infact, I get the feeling that we are more concerned even than the players and the coach…Pls do you guys really think these professionals go home and start thinking the way we do? Yet,they make all the money…Ozil even said he doesn’t think about football @ home..let’s be careful with health too, and hope for the best while we support reasonably..that’s all we can do..football is business…
I read comments where people say Flamini shouldn’t have started, buh we all know if Coq is fit flamini won’t play..
So if not flamini who else? Surely,it can’t be Elneny for obvious reasons…am sure Elneny will play against Burnley.
That said, I am not sure we would have beaten Chelsea even with 11 men…cos there is a way we play against chelsea that I can’t explain…maybe we would have drawn..Something is really wrong
I ask this question not in anger or hate buh confusion…
Pls why do we keep seeing the same thing EVERY SEASON at Arsenal for the past 10years
Especially the injuries…
And UCL elimination in round of 16..
Good first half of the season and bad second half and vice versa…
And then some players work hard and some just don’t add anything to the team..the only change is winning the FA cup..
People are now more disappointed cos we failed to beat ‘this’ chelsea @ home…Hiddink have not won any match this season, buh his first win was against us…it happens like that..God help Arsenal