Yaotzin

Everyone gets screwed sometimes in football. Wigan got screwed good and proper the other week against Chelsea. Barcelona got screwed against Inter. And Chelsea got screwed against Barcelona. sh*t happens, pointless dwelling on it.

Drogba's defending in the air is pretty much irrelevant against Barca.

Might want to read what I was responding to. I didn't say the FA Cup is nothing, I said I wouldn't take it over CL football, not right now when a new top 4 hegemony is forming.

Scholes plays deep, ala Alonso. When they played Cleverly and Anderson they were comically open, conceding 20+ shots every game. Obviously playing a formation with width when you have no wingers is less than ideal, but then your experiments with the diamond and similar narrow formations didn't exactly set the world alight. Ultimately that's a squad problem, not a formation one.

Losing out on CL football is catastrophic. See Liverpool. So no, I most certainly would not trade positions.

If it's the CL no, if it's the FA cup + 4th, no, if it's just the FA cup yes.

Duh, he doesn't make enough last ditch tackles, hollywood passes, or 30 yard screamers. Obviously he sucks! [/sarcasm] Very good player, though very one dimensional which is a bit of a problem now that he inevitably needs to wind things down.

Sure, but that's the past. This season Arsenal are better, and they've passed up numerous chances to bottle things. Very little reason to think they will suddenly. Well you've lost against supposedly lesser teams too. You were so sh*t you didn't just discuss sacking your manager, you did it. I'm not throwing stones - Arsenal have plenty of their own problems and aren't exactly amazing. They're just better than Chelsea right now, and have little reason to worry about playing them. Still a tough game, of course, but no source of worry.

Other than in extreme cases, formation is unrelated to how attacking/defensive you are. For example Real Madrid play 4-2-3-1 always, and they're incredibly attacking. Anyway, you need 2 holders because Mata doesn't defend. In modern football, you need 2 defensive (or at least deep) midfielders, or 3 rounded ones. It's either 2 holders or Mata wide.

Why would any Arsenal fan worry about Chelsea :? You've been poor all season and you lost already at home..

Good predictive powers lads. I hate Liverpool and follow Arsenal amongst the English teams. Spurs do indeed look like they might pull off the mother of all implosions, but you are too so hey.

It was always in that weekend, what got changed was making it on the 21st, so 3 days between each CL tie. It used to be 22nd, so would've been 2 days before the home leg.

Sorry for the realism, didn't realise this place was an echo chamber.

You need one of Arsenal/Spurs to implode spectaculary, while winning virtually all your games. Neither is going to happen. Newcastle overtaking you is much more likely.

If Sturridge doesn't lose the laziness/selfishness/arrogance and start playing like he's in a team, he'll end up as another Defoe at best. Presumably the coach isn't getting through to him about it, so maybe the fans will. Can't say I mind booing players who are being lazy tossers tbh. Players only deserve support if they're trying their best.

They're far too reliant on Silva for creativity since they have no wingers or other creative midfielders. Nasri aside anyway, but he's pretty hit and miss at best. Their season has gone the same as Silva's - started well and tailed off. Kompany being their only good defender is obviously a problem too. Too much dross in general in that squad - mostly Mark Hughes' awful buys.

Torres has never been one to hold the ball up and play virtually on his own like, well, Drogba. That's not his fault, it's just the kind of player he is. Chelsea's entire team is built around Drogba and doesn't work with a player like Torres. Any other similar player would be almost as useless in that team. Blame him for his awful misses and whatnot, not being unable to hold onto all the hoofballs. Messi doesn't provide physical presence or aerial threat either - if you had him and played him like you play Torres would you blame him for being crap?

Er, myself - same as everyone else on any forum. Calling me a Liverpool fan is a heinous insult, please apologise! Yup, true. But you weren't. It should have been comfortable; it wasn't. If Oliveira or whoever it was hadn't botched that great chance, you'd almost certainly have been out. The penalty was correct and Milan didn't have any good shouts that I recall. I guess you're talking about that Ibra one that no one replayed and no Milan players bothered asking for. The first leg? The game where Barcelona had 2 stonewall penalties not given..? Always amazes me how powerful confirmation bias is.

You were one botched attack from Benfica from going out. How on earth is that comfortable? Barcelona had 1 debateable decision - which was entirely correct by the laws. They didn't need it anyway, they won easily and were ripping Milan apart for fun for the last half hour. Only bad finishing stopped the game ending 5-1 or so.

Ovrebo was just a rubbish ref - he made a complete mess of Fiorentina v Bayern the next year, and hasn't been seen since. There have been many rubbish refereeing performances in football though, bringing it up all the time is a bit sad. Barca got screwed just as much against Inter, with Milito's offside goal and Bojan's winner ruled off wrongly. It happens. Anywho as for this game, Barcelona should win very comfortably. Chelsea have regressed alarmingly since the last meeting, while Barca are better - Messi in particular. Drogba etc could pull off one last good performance, but even that probably isn't enough if Barcelona don't have a very poor day. Then again it's football eh. The performance against Benfica certainly isn't promising. 49% possession against 10 men, oy vey.

It already has. Chelsea somehow winning the CL would be seen as a colossal implosion from both Barca and Madrid, and a last hurrah from the geriatrics of Chelsea. I'm normally pretty negative about the standard of English football, yet I've still been astonished at what a poor season this has been. It's like everyone made a pact to be bloody awful.

I'm sure the guy who got sacked from West Brom last year will do much better. Good luck finding any self respecting coach to go to Chelsea.

And circus goes on on on

Yeah but you have to remember the circumstances. Valencia had to win that game - Chelsea only needed a draw. So those tactics could work perfectly. In the league OTOH it's Chelsea who have to push for the win. It's not a coincidence that your best performances have come in the bigger games, where there's less pressure on you to push for the win, so you can defend deep and counter.

I'm afraid you retreated a while ago, it just isn't going very well :p You haven't tried to play a quick tempo passing & pressing game since...around the Valencia game?