3 home games. 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw. Worrying given Everton should be the best of those teams and they are rubbish at the mo.

For people who are slating conte are wrong. He tried something a bit different here and I for one applaud him for doing so. We dominated Arsenal for large parts of the game but they just defended very well. Something which is usually the other way round. I couldn't remember courtois making any saves the second half. 

On another day we beat them 1 or 2 nil. There are still plenty of positives to take from this. I particularly enjoyed the introduction of bakayoko and hope that conte plays him more regularly. 

"Where were you when you were sh*t" sang the Arsenal fans.

I have been browsing this site for a while but I made an account today because I wanted to comment on the match as well. 

I think Pedro/Willian have been slightly disappointing so far this season. It's still early days but too many sloppy passes and rustiness. Very frustrating to watch as Morata looks sharp but can't link up well if they keep losing the ball. 

Cahill may not have made any mistakes or affected the game directly with rushed tackles etc but whenever he is in the team we look vulnerable at the back. He leaves Alonso exposed, not to mention sloppy passes here too. 

Willian/Pedro especially need to improve their game. 

 

Fabregas is simply not energetic enough, very frustrating to watch. He is being misused by Conte in matches like these. 

 

This season with the added number of matches we need to play, I think we will struggle a bit. We need to add a couple of more attacking creative players to our squad next year alongside a wingback. Going forward this season we have looked abysmal against tougher opposition. 

A grittier defensive performance from Arsenal all over the pitch. Didn't turn up at Anfield- didn't want to let themselves down again so soon. Fair result. 

5 minutes ago, carrickblue said:

A grittier defensive performance from Arsenal all over the pitch. Didn't turn up at Anfield- didn't want to let themselves down again so soon. Fair result. 

Exactly. On the whole it wasn't a bad performance from us. People need to realise this. 

Id understand if we were playing against relegation fodder but a team like Arsenal will improve. 

When Arsenal have put up a 'gritty defensive display' you know something went horribly wrong.

3 minutes ago, Ash blue said:

Exactly. On the whole it wasn't a bad performance from us. People need to realise this. 

Id understand if we were playing against relegation fodder but a team like Arsenal will improve. 

We all try to be positive and say - well it's a draw against a big side in Arsenal.   But you can't honestly say that wasn't a bad performance from us when we wasted 35 mins of the 1st half.  Completely wasted them minutes with a wrong and weak formation.  Cesc fabregas looked lost and so this made our performance bad.  This ended up making Morata look lost as well cause he was isolated!  Then on the changes - at least we needed to show we wanted it more by taking out Cesc for Hazard instead of Willian.  The Arsenal defence was never really bothered as a result.  Cesc was aweful, Cahill did nothing to transition from defence to attack and also never really assisted Alonso against Bellerin.  We were aweful and hence we didn't win!

I also love Victor Moses and his energy, but I think he offers nothing extra than what Zappacosta can give.  We were poor on set pieces, throw ins, crosses.  Zappy is way better at crosses and I think would have pegged back Kolasinac.  We just needed to be ambitious and we would have beaten these f**kers!!!

Please oh Please - Start Bakayoko from now on!!!!!  He's tried and tested - he's done it in the champions league for f**ks sake!! 

Very disappointed by the final, because this Arsenal was beatable. Start the game with only Fabegras & Kante was a mistakes of Conte. It must be said. After Baka on, we clearly have to saw the difference between the firt half and the second half. More presence in middle and the game is totally different. Why Conte doesn't started with 3 in middle ?

However, we are only at 3points, with already 3 games vs the Top 7. Next game vs Stoke, will be hard, in a field hard... But with this draw we owe will absoluty win

that's three on the trot we have not beaten that bunch of clowns, they are suddenly turning out better for the games against chelsea and that is worrying, and to really make sure it was a bit worse than two points dropped is the fact we have now lost a player for 3 games when as far as i could see the first booking was not even a f**king foul !! refs are tucking chelsea up regulary in their own back yard now !!

funny gooners are upset w/ their performance too

one would think they would be happy not lose at Stamford Bridge for the first time in 6 years

I don't think 2 in the middle will work against the top 5. Switch to a 4-3-3 with Bakayoko & Kante providing some protection for Fabregas. Any top manager  knows that you put some pressure on Fabregas, and stop the ball getting to Fabregas neutralises us every time.

I wouldn’t put any blame on Fabregas, rather it was Conte that got it wrong. He is more than an impact sub, because without him our only outlet will be Hazard.

4 hours ago, Pendergast said:

It's unbelievable that you give credit to these sc*ms. The Losers will receive at least 4 goals against City, the same ammount they did only 2 weeks ago against another weak side - Liverpool. Just face the reality. Conte does now want to use the formula we've got to beat Arsenal. He wants to beat them on his way and this is why we struggle against them. I really thought his Ego was not that big as Joses and Pep's, but i was wrong. 

You forgot to work Emenalo into your rant calling him a c**t.  So only 5/10 for this one, points given for effort. Futile, but still an effort.

Our record against our fellow top 6 last season wasn't the greatest either.

spurs: 3 from 6, 

liverpool: 1 from 6

utd: 3 from 6

arsenal: 3 from 6

city: 6 from 6 and we were a bit lucky to win at emirates.

this season:

arsenal : 1 

spurs: 3

my point is that we won our title based on being superior against teams outside the top 6 and if it wasn't for the sending off against Burnley I'm confident we would've won. We've already easily beaten Everton and Leicester and I'm confident we will win against stoke next week. As long we keep smashing them we will always have a chance.

One thing though, Conte needs to decide his best 11 and stop tinkering. I understand we have more games and he wants to rotate but there was no need whatsoever for Rudiger, baka or hazard to start on the bench today. Tweak it slightly here and there but our best players need to be starting week in week out.

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 20178 yr by Drogbaholic

Hopefully Conte realises now that he has to go with 3 in the middle against any good sides.

Time for another 13 consecutive wins in the league!

Up the Chels

There's nothing to worry about if we look at the table, we're only 3 points behind the Manchesters. We should worry that both of them scored 16 goals already and conceded only 2. We've scored 8 and conceded 5, we're not deadly enough.

5 minutes ago, IliyaKrostin said:

There's nothing to worry about if we look at the table, we're only 3 points behind the Manchesters. We should worry that both of them scored 16 goals already and conceded only 2. We've scored 8 and conceded 5, we're not deadly enough.

We've also already played two teams in the top 6. City have only played a 10 man Liverpool and Utd have yet to play a single one. Anyway still early days like you said. I remember last season after a shocking September we were 10 points behind City.

I also agree on the poor set pieces. What is up with that? 

Another thing I've noticed is us playing out from the back. It's so slow and uninspiring when Tbo or Cahill take 15 seconds to decide where to pass and just stand there with the ball. Allowed time for Arsenal to regroup and there was no pace to our play/no 'umph' at the lack of finding a better word to describe it. It's all very lacklustre. It doesn't help when we barely win the headers when Tbo hoofs the ball up the pitch. It just feels all sloppy and mundane to me.  

Edited September 17, 20178 yr by zes

Sad from us & no creativity whatsoever.

Chelsea were forcing themselves against arsenal trying to beta them over again using the same methods.

Arsenal used to be Chelsea’s bitch , they have worked out all our ways of scoring against them including a Hazard dribble.

Arsene Wenger have done this to Conte many times by delaying action and playing on reaction i.e . they don’t take the initiative.

it is mind boggling that we havent added any attacking players for 2 years and actually it is 3 years because pedro was a last minute buy and hasnt really upgraded the team while we lost Oscar. We replaced costa with moratta and pedro for Willian. We cant keep on relying on Hazards magic, even Real and Barca who have Ronaldo and messi add attacking fire power. I honestly dont see us winning the league due to our squad depth and quality. We have a magical coach who made an ageing italian team look great at the euros but with champions league games added to the equation we shud have done better work in the transfer window. 

Boils my blood when we play those short passes from corners and end up passing all the way back to Tibo.. aswell as Cesc' floaty high paceless balls in very frustrating. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, dan_cfc said:

Boils my blood when we play those short passes from corners and end up passing all the way back to Tibo.. aswell as Cesc' floaty high paceless balls in very frustrating. 

 

 

Every corner was a short one today. Why can't we at least mix it up a bit.

Who knows, Leicester won it so anything can happen, but beyond improbability, I'd say say it's between City and United. United look unspectacular but designed to get points. City are attack overload. Ok, last year their defence was found wanting, but with 200 milion  quids worth of defenders, more midfielders and  attackers it's unimgiginable that they'll improve. We've without any shadow of a doubt tread water. And for me, that makes us outsiders to retain the title and in reality, a long shot. The excuse that City started well last year and faded carries no weight. As we know from 10 to 1st, last season's figures means sh*t.

I thought it was a good match. Frustrated with the result but either team could have won it. Agree with the people who say Bakayoko brought an extra dimension to our game but we didn't or couldn't break down Arsenal. We have four more points than this time last year!