By Bulldog Drummond
- Have Arsenal improved or declined in relation to last season?
- Chelsea v Arsenal: Tackles, fouls and yellow cards
- Chelsea v Arsenal: a ray of hope in the recent home and away figures
We know that Chelsea have a few injury problems, with Mateo Kovacic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell all out.
Alexandre Lacazette has or had covid, although if Arsenal want him back the club could always invoke the Liverpool Protocol and claim that the test result was a false positive.
In terms of the match facts we won 1-0 away last May as part of a very jolly run to finish off the season which took in five games…
| Date | Match | Res | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 May 2021 | Newcastle United v Arsenal | W | 0-2 |
| 9 May 2021 | Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion | W | 3-1 |
| 12 May 2021 | Chelsea v Arsenal | W | 0-1 |
| 19 May 2021 | Crystal Palace v Arsenal | W | 1-3 |
| 23 May 2021 | Arsenal v Brighton and Hove Albion | W | 2-0 |
We could do with a run like that now! But that win against Chelsea was our first win in nine at Stamford Bridge. Although given recent results Chelsea find themselves in the position of possibly losing three consecutive home matches for the first time since November 1993. The final game in that sequence was a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal…
Indeed that whole run looks rather jolly from our point of view…
| Date | Match | Res | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Oct 1993 | Chelsea v Norwich City | L | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 23 Oct 1993 | Aston Villa v Chelsea | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Oct 1993 | Manchester City v Chelsea | L | 1-0 | League Cup |
| 30 Oct 1993 | Chelsea v Oldham Athletic | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 6 Nov 1993 | Leeds United v Chelsea | L | 4-1 | Premier League |
| 20 Nov 1993 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 22 Nov 1993 | Chelsea v Manchester City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 27 Nov 1993 | Sheffield United v Chelsea | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 5 Dec 1993 | Blackburn Rovers v Chelsea | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 11 Dec 1993 | Chelsea v Ipswich Town | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
| 27 Dec 1993 | Southampton v Chelsea | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
Ah those were the days. The only thing that reminds us now of such jolly old times is the fact that Thiago Silva, if he plays, will become the oldest outfield player to play for Chelsea in the Premier League having reached the age of 37 years and 210 days.
Meanwhile, Arsenal are still waiting to be the third club to record 250 Premier League away wins, following on from Manchester United and, would you believe, Chelsea.
But the thing to look out for is the fact that when we concede first we normally lose (eight out of nine times that is). However here is a positive from the BBC. “Bukayo Saka is the only English player to have registered at least 50 shots and created a minimum of 50 chances in the top flight in 2021-22.
So what about a team?
The funny ol’ Evening Standard won’t tell us a team prediction for Arsenal although they do for Chelsea, and they do tell us the Head to Head may be abbreviated to h2h. I’m sure we wanted to know.
The Independent does give us a team however and suggests…
Ramsdale;
Cedric, White, Gabriel, Tavares;
Xhaka, Lokonga;
Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe;
Martinelli
The Daily Record has exactly the same line up. As does SportsMole So I guess everyone is going down the same route. So that’s probably what everyone is going to say.
Fingers crossed!
the idea of not changing anything (4-2-3-1 setup, cedric RB, young sambi having to deal with (take your pick) kovacic-jorginho-loftuscheek- kanté …) fills me with dread
i’m secretly hoping for (3-4-3):
ramsdale
white- HOLDING-gabriel
tavares (RWB, yes he can)-elneny-xkaka-saka
pépé-nketiah-smithrowe
(i may be the only one, but i think emil is a better football player than marti – who can come off the bench and wreak havoc in the last 20 minutes or so, though)
COYG
I’ve been wondering why we are not using Holding and Elneny during this time of crisis and suddenly here they both are. The only question is “Why did we wait for so long?”
Ramsdale
White, Gabriel, Holding, Tavares,
Xhaka, Elneny
Saka, Odegaard SmithRowe
Eddie
Well done LE GALL, spot on apart from Pepe/Odegaard.
Hale End rocks, Hale End rules
If you prick up your ear, you can almost hear (RIP) steve rowley chuckle
We are looking much better in an attacking point of view. Referee still a complete waste of skin and VAR a complete disgrace as usual.
Chelsea are leaving a foot in a lot and not getting penalised , Xhaka would have been yellow carded if he done what Mount done on Tavares
what a thrilling game of football, even though moss’s doing all he can to ruin it
we’ll see how it ends – they’re such a dangerous side, those westerners; i fear mount in particular, what a player that boy is, but what’s done is done and that was great
a game to enjoy, not to analyse; just can’t help thinking that growing up in the europa league, not in the champions’, would be a blessing in disguise for this young, (very) unpredictable bunch
come on boys, keep “floating like butterflies, stinging like bees”
eddie!!!
how’s that for poachin’? i just love that kind of goal
the killer’s on the loose; he’s not marlo stanfield’s spitting image for nothin’, is he?
mount might as well machine-gun down our whole team, neither moss nor the VAR would have any problem with it anyway
Get in there 2-4. Eddie on form oh yes just when we needed you ☺️
Typical moss Le Gall
well, an easter wednesday if ever there was one …
thank you, gentlemen
What a performance! There’s a team there! Brilliant!
Much more like it tonight. At the end even Moss and VAR had to wward the penalty which was excellently put away by Saka
Now need to repeat that performance in the remaining games
Now that is a great result. That is a great performance.
Despite only 32% possession we managed 66% the amount of dangerous attacks that they had, and 13 shots (not counting the penalty) compared to their 11.
So the stats tell the story. We may of had much less of the ball than they did but we made much better use of it.
One thing again though, from those 13 shots we only managed 3 on target. That’s under 1 in 4 again. The difference this time being of course all of our shots on target went in, as did Chelseas for that matter. Luckily for us their finishing was even worse than ours with just those 2 shots on target out of their 11 efforts at goal.
That must be a rare stat actually: 6 shots on target for 6 goals. Not a single save.
However it happened it happened and that puts us right back in the mix.
@Zedsaunt guess some players needed play time to gel
@Yeah like Chelseas second goal foul beforehand onwards and upwards Brentford to kick Spurs arse Saka to terrorise macquire
Surprising that Moss gave the penalty after so many typically poor decisions throughout the game. Even VAR couldn’t invent a reason not to confirm it.
How could Chelsea players complain about it?
Will they be in trouble for instigating yet another brawl on the pitch? I doubt it.
How did Mount manage to stay on the pitch. He should have had 3 yellow cards.
Listening to Tuchel complaining about the state of the pitch was enlightening. Are Chelsea starting to unravel?
This also improves our win ratio vs. the Top 4 or Big 6, if you prefer.
Eddie has scored the same number of PL Goals at Stamford Bridge this season as Havertz, Pulisic and Werner. They cost £177 million.
Eddie has only played one match there.
Just watching MOTD
I love the way Sheerer says, when watching Brighton defend against Man City, how Liverpool would never of allowed him to run through like that, suggesting he would of been fouled by player X Y or Z if it had been Liverpool.
Well of course they would because they know they’ll get away with it.
It happened twice in their match against United.
I will start by saying that Liverpool were not dirty, but they were caught out wide on the break a couple of times. The first time the United player was cynically body checked into the side lines. A definite yellow but not even a word from referee or commentator alike.
Similar again in the second half except this time a cynical shirt pull. Again nothing.
So yes Sheerer, Liverpool would of committed the necessary cynical fouls because they know they will get away with it more often than not.
We all know what would of happened had it be a certain Granite Xhaka.
On Twitter, the Tottenham fans are less than happy 🤬
Excellent performance and result, such a young team, against cynical Euro Champs.
They should take a lot of confidence from that, especially the players lacking minutes.
Why doesn’t the world realise how good Xhaka actually is?
I think most people know how good Xhaka is. It’s just the noisy ones that don’t.
@seismic
Spot on mate
Every Arsenal player did a great job, never mind the occasional shaky moments. Credit to Holding, Elneny, and Tavaris.
Cedric played his part also. Eddie, Emile and Bukayo superb. Xhaka very good.
I loved the way that Lacazette celebrated with Eddie.
I shall be able to sleep tonight. We weren’t perfect but we were better than the other side. I am not convinced that the penalty should have been awarded…having said that, usually they go against us.
Finally ! WOO HOO , HOO ! A great present for all Arsenal fans .
Well done guys . Scoring 4 goals away was really a treat. Thanks . And more of the same .
Please ?
Up the Gunners !