By Bulldog Drummond
If we take a look at the last 10 games between Arsenal and Chelsea this is what we find
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 25 April 2015 | Arsenal v Chelsea | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Aug 2015 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 1-0 | FA Community Shield |
| 19 Sep 2015 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 24 Jan 2016 | Arsenal v Chelsea | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Sep 2016 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 04 Feb 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 27 May 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 06 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 1-1 | FA Community Shield |
| 17 Sep 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 03 Jan 2018 | Arsenal v Chelsea | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 10 Jan 2018 | Chelsea v Arsenal | League Cup |
That gives us four wins, three draws and three defeats. The goal score is 10 goals for us and ten goals for them. So we can hardly say that of late Chelsea is some sort of bogey team for Arsenal.
Of all the games between the two sides, we have won 75, they have won 62 and there have been 56 draws. Our best time against them was in the era between the two world wars when they only won twice in 23 games. But that of course was in the days when the clubs existed on their gate money, not the money from a billionaire owner. Mind you even he looks a bit miffed these days when facing the sovereign wealth of the arab emirates. Which reminds me, what has happened to Chelsea’s new stadium plans?
But back to this match, there is something rather sad about the current range of copycat headlines hitting the bloggettas at the moment, encapsulated by for example by the headline from Gunners Town, “If you love us Arsene let us go – Save Arsenal and save your sanity.”
I don’t think I am particularly qualified to save anyone’s sanity, indeed I am sure many would argue I am the last person who should get involved in such matters, but the notion that bringing in a new manager will automatically make things better is so far away from reality that one begins to wonder about the sanity of the writers.
Yes we have a new support team in place or about to join to make the recruitment of players more efficient, but when Mr Wenger leaves and the new man takes over players will still be aware of the mass media and their coat tail followers, all with their relentless attacks on the club. And those players will naturally ask themselves, “is it really worth it?”
Especially when there is an offer to go to another club which the media and the fans give a much easier time to.
Anyway, the bloggettas are now posting that Arsenal’s new manager is about to be announced, (the Mail is utterly certain it is Carlo Ancelotti) and that there are half a dozen transfers in and out happening in the next 48 hours, including Ozil going to Man U on condition that they change managers, which is an interesting twist.
Anyway, the game tonight is one where we will have as much of the first team as we can muster, leaving out those who are injured, and that looks pretty much like…
Ospina,
Chambers, Mustafi, Holding,
Bellerin, Xhaka, Wilshere, Maitland-Niles,
Iwobi, Lacazette, Alexis
As I write this ReadArsenal has come up with their own line up which includes Ozil, but I do think he is injured (although maybe they have some better inside information than I do).
This line up leaves out Elneny and Welbeck who will presumably join Konstantinos Mavropanos who we are told is also on the beach with them and of course Macey as sub keeper, unless of course Mr Wenger doesn’t play Ospina in goal and goes for Cech.
That leaves three more spaces for players looking on and I would add Walcott, Willock and Nelson but it is pretty hard to guess. I am, for example, assuming that the Coquelin transfer that people are talking up as happening at any second is true, although Mr W indicated that nothing was going to happen now, so that would probably put Coquelin back on the beach.
We shall not only with this team, but with all the transfers in and out that we are told will happen by Friday.
Oh and don’t forget to watch out for the 100.6% accuracy level from the referee, that PGMO have promised. Walter, if you can do a post-match piece can you count any referee errors you spot as the game goes by. Because you know you should be seeing a negative number.
Chelsea v Arsenal; with one defeat in 10 Arsenal are in meltdown.
Chelsea v Arsenal in the League Cup. Is anyone fit and not in disgrace?
Chelsea v Arsenal Carabao Cup Semi-Final 1st leg Wed 10 January – Dawn of a new PGMO era?
Referees will be over 100% accurate in matches with VAR according to PGMO figures
Hopefully a new man will come in end May. I am getting
tired of Wenger being linked and signing under size players. I know Snachez is a gem but to continue
getting guys below 180cm is stupid.
The epl is power and muscled based league different from Spain where the fm gets his inspiration.
@ Wolfgang.
I wonder how you derived this >[Lesser than]HEIGHT:POWER = STUPID hypothesis. I guess you are entitled to your opinion…??!!. However, the likes of Sergio Agüero, Sadio Mané; Mohamed Salah; Philippe Coutinho; Raheem Sterling, [Clever People]; etc….might find this assumption a little bit far-fetched.
All things being equal for the Gunners in tonight Carabao Cup match encounter between Chelsea and Arsenal at the Bridge, Arsenal will beat Chelsea to consequently knocked them out from the competition this season.
Even if some top Gunners will not play in this match due the injuries they might be carrying on them. But irespective, Arsenal have enough top reserve of players in the rank and file of the Gunners who they can call upon to play in this match who if they are played, the seemingly absence from this match of some top Gunners will not be felt. For, the replacing Gunners will give a soaring account of themselves in the game and put the Blues to the guns absolutely.
Yeah i mean short fellas are not good at football…maradona messi cazorla aimar xavi cesc …..
wolfman…realise it please vieira is once in a lifetime player….or rather once in a century of lifetimes….
and how about this pathetic shitfest of a casino league here take some note from spain or german league..especially referees
i doubt in spain the allow getave or whatever to kick the shit out of barcelona without seeing 3 reds…but here you can do whatever you want to wenger players but if they dare kick back..oh dear..apocalypse.
fuck english football and premier league
Mr Wenger had set up his foundations for empire but the corrupt system here would not allow it….too good to be true.
Are we really gonna let the geek professor win it with his 19 yearolds when we have mr roman spenidng 1 billion in a decade? and the arabs another 1.5 ? over our dead bodies Arsene….. cheapskate who do you think you are? because you work better than the rest? WE HAVE MONEY and we will piss on you 🙂
Arsenal: Ospina, Chambers, Mustafi, Holding, Bellerin, Xhaka, Wilshere, Maitland-Niles, Welbeck, Iwobi, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Mavropanos, Mertesacker, Nelson, Elneny, Walcott, Sanchez
Whats happened to Arsenal, there is no creativeness in our play at all?
Don’t recall an attack where we had a shot at goal at all.
We look scared to attack, always playing back.
No one takes a run at goal, no one even tries to make something happen.
If we continue to play like this we will lose it.
Man, we have weak/poor/not good enough players in so many different positions, it really is quite worrying to think what we are going to look like after Sanchez and most probably Ozil leave. We are in need of some serious, serious reinforcements, as a lot of our players are just not good enough to be competing at the very top level.
The Guardian
And that’s that for a breezy but ultimately forgettable half of football. Arsenal will be much the happier side.
It’s the away leg by the way.
Perry Groves in the Arsenal studio is angry over the was the incident with Maitland-Niles possible penalty area. Referred to the video ref but decision seemingly not made by Atkinson this is not according to the rules.
Sorry auto correct made a right Horlicks of that last post.
Maitland-Niles was seemingly brought down in the penalty area. Atkinson seemingly asked the video ref for a review but didn’t go to look at the replays.
This was not in accordance with the rules
Seemingly they are making it up as they go along as per usual
There was no one for iwobi to pass to, the runner on the right just stopped. WTF?
What a shock that is
My comment about Atkinson and pigmob making it up to suit
Danny tripped himself but got a free kick, it cant get any worse.
Well, if this ois what VAR is about, guess we don’t need it.
In the Arsenal box, this was a sure fire penalty.
Guess Maintland-Niles should have rolled accross the boix like Hazard does it but he was genuinely playing it fair and sqaure and trying to get to the ball anyway…gues he knew no penalty was going to be given, so that was a fair effort.
But then, any team playing Arsenal does not have a box anyway.
Disgusting and so predictable.
Apart from that, at least so far we are holding ourselves…not so sure that Chelsea are having such a great night either – or is it our defence that is stronger then usual ?
Chelsea are just moving and making space for one another, Arsenal are static and not moving around, Chelsea are unlucky that their hard work did not pay off, Arsenal very lucky.
Maitland-Niles and Ospina are the only ones who kept their eye on the ball hence their performance all the others are watching the man and mostly coming up short.
Let us nick one goal now please in a brilliant move, please!
We can count ourselves lucky. Very lucky.
Sorry guys due to some visitors at my house I couldn’t write a match report. It would have been a bit unwelcome to my guests. We did sees the match. Satisfied with the result and the effort from the players. Unhappy with the injury of Jack. Just hope it was a precaution to take him off.
Para, Wolfgang and Jammy………..how old are you guys(gals?) anyway? You really do want to piss on your own parade don’t you! It wasn’t a world cup final BUT we got away with a fair result and can likely face them again at the Emirates with a full team(Giroud,Ozil, Ramsey,Monreal,Per, Jack, Cech, etc.) so not a bad result with all the injuries and bad press you lot adore! Sop whining about Wenger, the Board, the weather, Brexit and everything else that worries you and enjoy the Arsenal. IF you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen!
Didn’t watch, hearing we could have had a penalty? Sure had it been at the other end it would have been given no doubt, VAR or not. It just crossed my mind that the pgmob are really going for broke this season as they realise with VAR coming from next season on Arsenal will have a fighting chance? This might be their best year to get Wenger sacked.. seems they’re doing a good job of it.
omgarsenal 10:20pm
Lol. Couldn’t agree more with you.
Team defended well for a makeshift defense, well done. Hopefully, no more injuries and injured players come back soon.
It’s good to see VAR in action even though it’s in test mode.
Great result, especially as I have a ticket for the return leg. Should be exciting!
@ omgarsenal
I second that
omgarsenal 10:20pm You mah man are awesome made me LOL
You’re right Al something needs to be done or governed getting out of hand!
Four surgeons sit around discussing their favorite patients.
The first surgeon says, “I like operating on librarians. When you open them up, everything is in alphabetical order”.
The second surgeon says, “I like operating on accountants. When you open them up, everything is in numerical order”.
The third surgeon says, “I like operating on electricians. When you open them up, everything is color coded.”
The fourth surgeon says, “I like operating on politicians.”
The other three surgeons look at each other in disbelief.
The fourth surgeon continues, “Because they’re heartless, gutless, spineless, and the ass and head are interchangeable.”
But they all agreed that the least that like to operate on were the officials from footballing bodies such as FIFA , UEFA , the various FAs, and the PIGMOB.
For the were so crooked and bent, and so full of shit that no amount of corrective surgery could ever set them right and they tended to stink up the whole place !
omgarsenal
Come on, it’s silly to talk about “enjoying” Arsenals play atm.
Forcing yourself to enjoy a badly cooked meal or a sub standard product, i’m sure you would not do that, so why do so concerning Arsenal?
This is something i just cannot understand.
It’s OK to complain, no one is going to come and break your door down and take you away you know, at least not yet 🙂
Para, stop going to the restaurant then and go somewhere else. You’ve already done your review on trip advisor.
Interesting, but not surprising that media comment about VAR centres upon the 2 possible Chelsea penalties. No mention of the trip on Maitland-Niles, which was much more clear-cut a penalty than the recent one, which was “won” by Hazard. No doubt at all that Atkinson would have given it had it been in Chelsea’s box.
One positive observation concerning Welbeck’s perfectly timed and fair challenge on Fabregas is that Atkinson would have called it as a penalty if he hadn’t been conscious of the VAR scrutiny in the background.
A separate criticism must be reserved for the condescending and insulting comments from journalists about observing Arsene in the press-box, treating him as some kind of doddering but harmless eccentric. They are a disgusting bunch.
Just a thought if AMN doesn’t try to evade the tackle in the penalty area ( jump over Moses leg )he gets taken out so does intent come into it so it’s a penalty
Steve Vallins
I make you right.
A few years ago I recall Steven Gerrard being awarded a penalty when there was no contact, a similar situation to last night.
Concerning the AMN penalty shout, difficult to know what intent it was, for the ball or the man? How can you be sure either way. That didn’t look like a definite penalty to me. Chelsea had two shouts for penalties too and didn’t get either. Plus Chambers blatantly shoved a player over. If those things had happened to us many of you would have been livid.
Good result for us anyway, we need to break this cycle of draws with Chelsea, hopefully home advantage will serve us well.
Does it mean u guys were crying for VAR all along because you didn’t believe it will eventually be and you needed its absence to be used as an excuse for arsenals failings? Now its in use, instead of you to be excited, you want to discredit it so you can continue to use refereeing decisions as excuse…
Mick Hazel I think it was against Sheffield Utd , the problem we have Arsenal don’t get these type of decisions they’re too subjective
I think Andy in your two comments you are suffering a little from not having read much of what has been written on the site. You will see if you looked back we have written a lot about VAR before it started this week in England, and to summarise what has been quite a complicated and varied debate, there was one opinion that it would help Arsenal overcome some of the more outrageous activities against the team by referees – as for example the twice hit penalty against Forest. But also we noted it would totally in the hands of the ultra-secret PGMO who answer to no one but themselves, and that meant there could be further difficulties ahead.
@Rupert
I maybe wrong but a penalty cannot be given if the ball is not in play but Chambers could have been sent off maybe Walter could clarify
I wonder whether Atkinson was not under instruction to
avoid giving penalties unless they were as clear as day.
With all the hype about penalties in the last few matches, to give another one against us, after 4 in the last 3 games, 2 of which should not have been allowed at the very least, would have caused a real scandal.
As Chambers pushed away a Chelsea defender in the Chelsea penalty area it never could have been a penalty against Arsenal.
Furthermore when the ball is out of play you cannot give a penalty. As you normally can only give a penalty when the ball is in play.
what the ref could have done was give cards. But as it was clear that Chambers pushed away the Chelsea defender because that defender was trying to grab him with his arms the most sensible thing is do what Atkinson did: call them over and tell them to stop it. Or give a yellow card to both.
The push was more a “push for freedom” than a violent push, so no red card.
@Walter
Thanks for confirming what I thought was right regarding penalties being given when the ball is out of play
I don’t disagree with Walter, but I recall a penalty against Jens at WHL when waiting for a corner to be taken.
Perhaps it was just the “except where an Arsenal player is concerned” rule.
jeez. you have VAR which we have been longing for and you guys can’t stop moaning. I cannot count the number of time we made strategic fouls which the ref overlooked, morata and hazard were the most fouled players on the field. we simple manned up and gave them hell but we’d have murdered someone if morata was our player as he was fouled countless times. Arsene and his boys had a good match, the ref was fair too so stop this “victim mentality”. this is a very unique blog but you need to stop the hypocrisy.
John L
The rules/laws of football change when Arsenal play
The ref can restart a game from a free kick or corner while the infringement is taking place and make a decision he deems fit
I think maybe love you haven’t looked at the statistical data we have accumulated over the past ten years.
omgarsenal – You need to realise that not everyone that says a bad word about Arsenal is a Wenger hating, aaa moron. And then to insinuate that the only reason I said that is because you think that I’m young. What an extremely narrow mind you have.
omgarsenal – Literally nothing that you said in your comment applies to me, showing that you clearly don’t read/remember any of my comments, so how about you stop trying to categorise people off of 2 lines of text. I hope that the grammar and spelling was okay in these two comments, as I know how much you love to belittle people if they get it wrong.