Before that Calum Chambers was unlucky to put the ball into his own net from a Chadli cross. I thought Chambers had his best game for a while. I was a little concerned about his suitability with Mertesacker but both performed fairly well and we did not give away too many chances. Mathieu Debuchy at right back wasn't quite so good and looks short of his real level but staying
In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Mike Dean is in dreamland once more as he steals the show with some of the worst refereeing you will likely to see this season. James (@GoonerFanatic49) reclaims his seat alongside Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and Elliot (@YankeeGunner) to talk about what happened at Stamford Bridge as Arsenal were defeated by 2 goals to 0.
Alexis Sanchez always has an eye for a goal, and a knack of arriving in the right place at the right time. Santi Cazorla usually plays well against us, and Theo Walcott's pace will be tough to defend against. Having said that, both teams will probably put out reserves and none of the above will feature. If we are mentally in the right place I don’t fear any of your players. Giroud occasionally scores against us, Ozil has the potential to do something other than disappearing, but honestly the days of fearing Henry, Pires, Ljunberg and co have long gone. You aren’t a scary team anymore which can be seen in how defensively you tried to set up against us last year, and how you played vs Chelsea when you had 11 men on Saturday
Regardless our form in recent matches and regardless of our opponents we are playing in a tournament that has always and will always be the last in a list of priorities. We played on Saturday 12th September against Stoke City then four days later we faced Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia. Arsène had made a few changes in that game because we only had three days before we had to play Chelsea which was also away from home. Not only all of that but we had to pla
That is what I should have been writing, that is what I would have been writing had the laws of the game been applied correctly. If Arsenal would have gone into half time 11vs11, that would have still left a sour taste in the mouth but for Arsenal to go into the half a man down is astonishing. Gabriel played some part in the dismissal, it wouldn't be right to ignore that. Had he kept his cool as Koscielny had then we would not have had a player sent off, even if the flick of the foot was far less aggressive than Costa's left and right combination minutes earlier. But I agree that we need to remain in control, especially when big calls like this go against us so frequently. On that subject, I have read a lot of confused opinions. Some of the same folk are saying that we need a player like Costa,
In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Mike Dean is in dreamland once more as he steals the show with some of the worst refereeing you will likely to see this season. James (@GoonerFanatic49) reclaims his seat alongside Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and Elliot (@YankeeGunner) to talk about what happened at Stamford Bridge as Arsenal were defeated by 2 goals to 0.
I think if Dean saw both of Costa's assaults on Koscielny, then there is no excuse for NOT giving Costa a red card. It was great to see Gabriel stand up to Costa at first, but after both were booked there was no need to remain so close to him. After the yellow, Gabriel's attitude was a childish and got himself sent off in the dumbest of ways. He completely felt for Costa's game, he was too innocent. Although I'm not exactly sure what it was Mike Dean saw for Gabriel's red, it couldn't have been worse than either of Costa's attacks on Koscielny
As expected Arsene has selected the same team that defeated Stoke City last weekend. Hector Bellerin and Aaron Ramsey missed the midweek defeat in the CL but have been restored to the line up in place of Mathieu Debuchy and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. It looks to be a ding dong battle in midfield so it is great to see both Aaron and Francis Coquelin back in the side. It should be an interesting match, let us hope we can take the points this time.
The victory in the Community shield was very enjoyable, the goal from Ox was top quality and the way we shut them out was classy and professional but in the middle of all the post much high fiving I found myself wishing it was at Stamford Bridge because this is where it matters. Unfortunately Jose Mourinho will probably be drumming that into his players heads. They are fully aware that victory against us will more than likely kick start their season and surely if you are a good human being, you cannot want that. We have all been enjoying and smirking at the Special ones, special results of late. That continuing is just a good thing for the rest of the world but as we know, good things don't always happen and we would be beyond foolish to expect them to approach this game any
In today's Arsenal Vision Post Match Podcast: Arsenal shuffle the pack and end up on the losing side in Croatia during week 1 of the CL group stage games. James (@GoonerFanatic49) is off this week so the conversation is left to Paul (@PoznanInMyPants) and Elliot (@YankeeGunner) to look over what happened on Wednesday night.