I really hope that Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal players do not spend this week preparing for the top of the table clash with Chelsea assuming that Chelsea will come to the Emirates stadium ripe for the plucking because of the striker crisis currently affecting the Blues, because that way lies disaster.
To be honest, I don´t think they will. For one thing, the Arsenal boss would not believe Jose Mourinho if the Chelsea boss told the Frenchman that grass was green so he will probably expect Diego Costa to make a `miraculous´ recovery, which he might. But on the face of it, Chelsea will be without their thuggish Spain international and without Didier Drogba as well, while Loic Remy is rated as having just over 50 percent chance of playing according to an ESPN report.
Even assuming that Chelsea´s three strikers are out of action though, it does not mean that the Gunners will have an easy task on Sunday as it will make Mourinho even more negative than usual and that means a massive blue bus and plenty of gamesmanship is heading to north London.
We must be patient and not leave ourselves exposed to the counter attack like Man United did on Sunday. But with a bit of luck and a decent referee, Arsenal should have the keys to unlock the Chelsea defence and give Wenger a long awaited victory over his arch rival.
An experienced bus driver > Costa
Jose is LYING. Drogba and Remy are fit. I don’t know why you people believe one single word from that puke.
Play Arteta and Coqueline we have got enough talent and pace in front of them to score goals.
Not gonna happen is it Andrew but not sure why the thumbs down avalanche – maybe a fit Arteta and the game being at the Bridge would see it make more sense. Wenger should put out the following 4-1-4-1 team to take the piss out of Mourinho and their fans and we can have a 90min Mexican stand-off and agree before hand to share the points:
Ospina
Debuchy Merts Kos Monreal
Coq
Bellerin Arteta Flamini Gibbs
Alexis
Subs: Szcez, Martinez, Chambers, Hayden, Gabriel, Giroud
After all, Mourinho is the brave tactical genius who put Pepe in midfield for an El Classico.
Watching Barcelona and Bayern has just highlighted how far away in terms of quality are Arsenal and other english clubs from the great european clubs,the premier league is the best league in the world but the best teams in europe are Bayern,Barcelona and Real Madrid
no doubt, bayern was not worried down 3-1, they just put it into another gear, score 5, Barca is off the hook amazing, neymar, messi and suarez up front? insane, how to defend? at least barca have comp in la liga, bayern season is boring… EPL is best, 6 very good squads, every match counts big…
This get back to an earlier article about Paolo Dybala and if we are interested, my point then is the same now, we cannot rely on Giroud to be our only target man, we need another quality stiker and why not Dybala?? he ‘s being touted and a future top notch player so why should we not develop him into that Akpom is NOT ready and is a way off and OG has been brilliant but I still remember him missing several sitters against Monaco at home and what happens if he’s injured? we are back to square one. You mention Barca and Naymar, Suarez and Messi, should w not take a chance and aspit to have the future Naymar’s and Messi’s in our team or is our lack of real ambition showing through the smokescreen of laying well only very recently?
The only English club able to compete in money terms with Bayern, Barca and Real is Manchester United. That should change soon with the new TV deal though. An extra 2 billon in revenue for English clubs will give us a lot more firepower. And that’s just the additional money from domestic TV rights. The international rights haven’t been sold yet. We’re the only league in the world that gets more money from international rights than domestic too, and the Premier League is growing even faster internationally, so expect an even bigger increase in TV revenue.
Barca and Real are only ahead of English clubs as they sell their own TV rights, whereas the Premier League gives equal amounts to all clubs to try and maintain fairness. Thats why La Liga is so skewed. As they’ve been out in front because of that, they’ve gained reputation and sponsorship money as a result. Once their TV advantage goes, they’ll struggle.
As for Bayern Munich, for the life of me I can’t understand how they make so much money. They get very little by comparison in TV money. They have extremely low ticket prices so don’t gain much revenue there. They just make a colossal amount from commercial deals. But why do they make so much? They make more than any other club, so why are Bayern such an attractive team to sponsor? They don’t play in a hugely watched league like the PL, so there’s less brand exposure. They get far in the CL, but so do Barcelona, why do they get more than them? I can’t quite understand it.
Anyways back to the core message of my post. With the additional money, English clubs like us will be able to afford the best players around, so we’ll be in a better position to compete. We’re on the up.
well said, don’t expect mourinho not to pack extra buses on emiratea ground
To get past the blue bus:
Firstly corners for Mertesacker/Gabriel or Giroud to score. Secondly Giroud holds up play to pass to Sanchez who can dribble and score in tight situations. Thirdly crosses for Giroud headers. Fourthly Ramsey type scoring from the edge of the box.
We can get past a parked bus. Arsenal to win!!!
Chelsea’s biggest danger since Christmas has been Hazard. Chelsea have 2 options of play still if he’s on the pitch – the fast counter (they could stick any one of Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Cuadrado up there to do that job) or the wing attack with a false (Oscar/Fabregas). Them not having a striker only removes that long ball hold up play to get out of tough situations but we would be ok with that most of the time. It’s Hazard who is the danger in that team right now so damn it our wing backs need to play. Think that’s why Bellerin got a rest – keep him fresh for the fight.
Don’t be fooled by all that rubbish i guarantee come sun costa will be fit to start and remy and drogba will also be available mark my words!!
Think it’s safe to say that we just flat out need the WIN. The league is out of reach IMO but this win means so much more then that. We’ve turned slit of things around this season that have basically become the norm:
-Losing to city
-Losing to United
-Lack of consistency
-Choking in big games
-Being bullied out of the game
All of these things we’ve put right this season and it just feels like a win vs Jose is that last little thing we need to completely clean out our closet. I truly feel a win vs Chelsea will feel ALMOST as good as winning that title…….almost 🙂
@ljmos
We beat them on Sun and it gives those struggling teams who have to play them afterwards hope of doing the same. Which makes it tougher on Chelsea.
@ ijmos
Well said mate,
I think your comment is one of the best we have read so far.
Couldn’t of said it better
we will rip apart chelsea, they have very little spark right now, 4-1, they were unbeatable in September thru December, built a nice lead, Drogba? really?
Forget the bus, forget the strikers what will determine that game is how we tame Hazard, at this point I wish we still had Sagna,he knows how to do that perfectly..
Its gonna be a choice between a Debuchy that isn’t 100% matchfit or an inexperienced Bellerin.
I’ll go for the former.
We must not start Per but it should be Gabriel.
And either Alexis plays RW or we start Walcott.. We need to stretch chelsea’s defense to create space for our middle players.
slightly related i really dont see the fuss about either cavani or martinez…both are overrated and massively overpriced..dont add much to the giroud wellbeck options we need a different kind of attacking option….and guardiola will be a free agent at end of next season we should start planning now
Whatever happens we’re going to need a few more of those ozil passes to Sanchez, you know the one for the first goal vs reading, over the top. We’re are not going to go past them on ground passes. Just that little gap between keeper and back four is what we have to target.
We need to get a proper midfield driver in the side in the summer for when things are not going to plan, someone who can dribble down the middle of the park when its least obvious, this would surprise some of our opponents on occasions.
I consider Drogba as dangerous as Hazard if not more whenever he plays against us, he has a good history of scoring goals against us. Chelsea have 3 top strikers in the persons of Costa, Remi and Drogba. With the former 2 able to score when they are played. They also have 2 leading mid fielders who can score or give the assist to score, in the players of Fabrigas and Hazard. Wait a minute, would the Gooners use their booing weapon to boo a Blue continuously out of the game. A continuous booing could demoralized him. And force Jose to sub him early in the game. Notwithstanding the possible Blues attacking prowess on the day, Arsenal will still beat Chelsea as the boss will unlock Jose Mourinho’s app game data plan and disterbiliized it. Both the Jose’s locked data game plan and the Key for the boss to unlock it are fully available. But let’s first wait for the boss press conference and his Gunners update before revealing it.
Im not sure who should partner koscielny against Chelsea.
Mertsacker has the experience but he looked really slow against Reading and maybe Gabriel would be better faster
Also, who will play RB and Box2box?
I don’t want Ramsey to play RB again
I’d prefer Alexis and either Welbeck/Walcott on wings with Ramsey or Cazorla box2box
With Ozil, Coquelin playing either Ramsey or Cazorla needs to be on the bench
I would play Gabriel and Bellerin our fast players will win the game for us.
Without doubt The Greater Portuguese Gob is the most odious person in world football.He is also so thick he would treat that as a compliment. True. Please thrash him Sunday, please.
the fans shall decide who should be playing
According to the thumbs down on my first comment I haven’t got a chance 🙂
PS the reason why I said play Arteta and Coqueline, it would allow Monreal and Bellerin to go forward and mix it up.
Let dem bring on their best strikers we kept him at bay even at stamford if not for the penalty and defensive mistake Costa won’t be on d scoresheet. Am more aware of hazard than Costa n Remy.. at drogba…hmm hmm that punk.