He starts....... I'm stunned

He starts....... I'm stunned

He was excellent today, played a good captains knock. right decision by Jose....again.

I was initially really irked that he was starting too, but fair play to both him and Jose, a great performance as captain.

He shut down Sanchez well. Knew when to foul.

He also got much better support from Fabregas and Pedro than he has recently.

He shut down Sanchez well. Knew when to foul.

He also got much better support from Fabregas and Pedro than he has recently.

I hate to say it but he also go more support from the centre backs than when Jt has played this season.

Whilst I was amongst those calling for him to be benched, he was really good today up against some top opposition. Saying that, I thought Fabregas actually put in one hell of a shift helping cover him.

Sanchez was absolutely useless though but fair play to Ivan. Marked him out the game.

Difficult to tell if Ivan was just that got or Sanchez continued to hide but I'll give the big man the benefit of the doubt.

I hope he's over the slump.

Sanchez was awful and has apparently been poor for the past few games so it was probably the right time for Ivan to face him.

 

I would still rather have Dave and Baba but it's a good start for Ivan, this will build up his confidence. 

I would still rather have Dave and Baba but it's a good start for Ivan, this will build up his confidence. 

 

Baba started the match on Wednesday and I'm pretty sure he will start the match next Wednesday as well.

Baba started the match on Wednesday and I'm pretty sure he will start the match next Wednesday as well.

I know, I wasn't expecting him to start today. I'm talking about in the near future once Baba has settled. 

I take it all back. I thought we were fantastic today. If Pedro had his shooting boots, we'd have romped it. I liked Pedro's defensive work, supporting Ivan

Somebody ate their Wheaties this morning.

José has took a hammering lately, so how about some praise. He has dropped jt, kept Ivanovic in to be his captain and backed him. This has paid of with an excellent display that kept Sanchez completely quiet.

Sanchez was pretty poor, ivan was clumsy in fouling him about 3 times in good freekick positions. He wasnt as bad as previous games, but arsenal were too stupid to really go at him, if they had he would have likely struggled again.

I thought Ivan looked sharper today, I also thought Fabregas and Pedro looked to be ready to help out more (as they should every game) and I think Sanchez lack of form shouldn't be used against Ivan as he returns to form.

 

There might be better options down the line or in certain games but I don't think Ivans finished as a RB quite yet.

Small step towards redemption today.

Well he just shut us all up.

He was better but I still want a younger, quicker more solid right back.

Noticeable that he hardly ventured forward at all until Arsenal went down to 10 men. Instead he sat deeper most of the time and wasn't exposed for his lack of pace by Sanchez.

He was better but I still want a younger, quicker more solid right back.

Noticeable that he hardly ventured forward at all until Arsenal went down to 10 men. Instead he sat deeper most of the time and wasn't exposed for his lack of pace by Sanchez.

If Ivanovic is going to continue to play RB then maybe sitting back instead of coming forward is something he is going to have to keep doing. When he is doing both attacking and defending it's clearly having a negative effect on his game. He doesn't really offer anything going forward anyway so he may as well just stay back, unless we have a corner that is.

He was great against Arsenal.

There's no doubt he's a scape goat target for people when we lose. People feel the need to blame something or someone and he represents the easy target in that sense.

He was great against Arsenal.

There's no doubt he's a scape goat target for people when we lose. People feel the need to blame something or someone and he represents the easy target in that sense.

He's not a scapegoat he has been very poor this season but he wasn't the only one. Hopefully we can all build on back to back wins

He was great against Arsenal.

There's no doubt he's a scape goat target for people when we lose. People feel the need to blame something or someone and he represents the easy target in that sense.

It's not scapegoating when someone is directly at fault though.

I thought he started shaky on Saturday but overall made a significant improvent of his recent form, let's hope it continues!

Was it just me who thought physically, he looked a little leaner? Maybe he had a week to do some intense fitness work.

He was pretty solid yesterday. Much better.

Edited September 20, 201510 yr by GhostOfDembaPast

I thought it was more to due to Sanchez is in a bad patch, rather than Ivanovic just got a lot better. Everytime Sanchez took on him, Ivanovic had to fault him. Even when they were down to 10, Sanchez somehow ran away from his marking, resulted in that dangerous FK outside the box. On another day it could have cost us. I remember in the dying stage even when playing against 9, somehow they broke through on Ivanovic's side again and almost scored. For me, the sooner we Baba is adapted to our team, the better.