Premiership: Chelsea 1 - 1 Arsenal

Hi...I think you got 90% of your analysis spot on, but naturally being a part of the Russin Franchise, you were one sided re; your teams non football activities.

I have been a Gunner for 57 years since going at the age of seven with my Dad who was a Pensioner all his life. from what I saw yesterday and a few other games recently I think my old Dad would be ashamed of this current manager & his army.

Your manager is the most un gracious and infantile I have ever seen running a big club, and the obviously choreographed hounding of all refs, plus the non stop diving and now the cheating has taken that once great name of Chelsea into a different area which will take decades to put right.

Yes you will win more than any othe UK club for years to come or until the Liverpool lot splash their Billions, but you will never again be admired or respected. Sad but true to say all the Chelsea fans I know will be quite happy to accept this forecast as the future, and that shows just how low things have got.

I would only ask that your management takes hold of your cheats, and you know who they are, and instructs them to cut it out. Yeah and bacon is flying past the window.

GunnerPete

From an Arsenal fan that is one of the most hilarious posts I have ever read - surely tongue in cheek?

Either you dont watch Arsenal very often, have no knowledge of their history, or are insane.

Was gutted yesterday but feeling more positive about the game today. We really needed to win and if only Mourinho had been a bit more ballsy from the start the result could have been very different. Robben must play more. I understand the rationale behind the diamond away to Barcelona and Bolton, but at home to a severely weakened and physically suspect Arsenal team when the three points are imperative?

We have put ourselves in a position where every game for the forseeable is must win. We can do it, but the forwards need to start firing again and Cole (when fit) and/or Robben need to be on the pitch from the start. I suspect that the latter will leave in the summer anyway, I can't think of a big game he has started this season and JM is clealry unhappy with him.

Looking forward to Weds and an opportunity to pin back the Mancs' lead.

Come on Chelsea!

GunnerPete, perhaps you should put your own house in order before whinging about ours. Has the graceful and mature Arsene tried to punch out any of his rivals in the last week, or does he just leave that to Jens?

As for the rest, Anthony sums it up well. I still like the diamond, but am starting to lose patience with Shev.

GunnerPete - Does the idiom 'pot calling the kettle black' mean anything to you? Get real.

The 442 versus the 433 debate - I trust Mourinho's decisions. He's certainly not playing Shevchenko and Ballack because he has to, because Abramovich says so. I have a feeling he will 'rest' Shevchenko on Wednesday. The 442 has begun to look more effective recently.

I would personally like to see 4-3-3 with Sheva up front and Drogba rested. The latter has played 90 minutes in almost every game this season and could do with a break before the busy Christmas period, and tough away trips to Wigan and Everton.

Would suit Shevchenko as well to spearhead the attack whilst also hopefullly being provided with some chances in front of goal from two wingers. Newcastle are there for the taking (defensively they are pretty poor) and I think we should really go for them and try and catch up United's goal difference, and hopefully their points difference too!

To all Arse fans...

To call our manager childish when Wenger tried to fight Pardew and the fouth official is a goodun'.

We were unlucky not to get a few more goals along with all the points against the goons, but that is football. Arsenal didn't play well and didn't deserve a point as the talking out of your ARSEblog suggests.

DROP SHEVCHENKO and play with wingers in my opinion, i think with our improved form over the last few weeks we would be putting games beyond reach of opposition in the first half. I hope he's on the bench for Weds game against the toons, maybe it will make him angry and play extra well when brought on or when next starting a match. Look what a scare did for Drogba!

CHELSEA BLOG is the best!
i've been reading Manure FC, Piddlepool FC & arseblog. They are all very negative and don't seem to analyse games as much as oposition tactics and bringing up petrulent points. Maybe because they haven't a hope in hell of winning the Prem this season and maybe confined to the Uefa Cup next season they are bitter.

Thanks to the man who does the Chelsea Blog; I look forward to it after every game.

Merry Christmas

Come you Blues!!!

GunnerPete,

This is a Chelsea blog so there is inevitably going to be some 'blue-tinged spectacles' stuff. I think the other responses to your points have said it all though - don't go believing everything you read in the Sun old boy! Try looking at the reality of what our manager says and reading between the lines of spin in the press/media and think for yourself. You may find it refreshing!

Regarding the formation issue, Essien may have dug himself a hole by being too damned good at right back. He may end up playing there! Maybe he could be used in a wingback role in some situations. I would still like to see us play at home, however, with 2 wingers and 2 strikers. Yes we would be more vulnerable in midfield, but I really think we would blow most teams away. I would play Sheva & Drogs up front with Robben, SWP or Kalou or Joey Cole, Lamps and Essien, and the usual back line. Or you could play Essien wide right if you want to play Maka or Ballack in the centre. Maybe it's one to try when Maka or Ballack need a rest.

Let's hope Newcastle take a hiding on Wednesday.

With regards being 8 points behind Utd (hopefully only 5 by Wednesday night!), it is a serious amount of points these days. However, I still think the Christmas period will be our way back into it, as we have won all 8 Xmas fixtures under JM. Hopefully Man Utd's less strength in depth will cost them points there before they are able to strengthen in January. Should be an exciting finish!

Jose knows that the players are very comfortable with 433. He want improvements, and thats why we are playing and improving our 442 for 75% of a game and if we need to, goto 433 to grab the win.

When we are as comfortable with the 442 as the 433, no team will be able to play against us - no matter what kind of style they play.
I wouldn't want to Start trying to play 442 in the final of the CL.

Common Jose, you made the players versatile, now lets make the Team versatile.

Gunner Pete
Dementia is a terrible thing, I wish you and your family all the best in the coming years.

For two seasons no-one has been able to live with Chelsea's 4-3-3 (in the premiership at least) so why oh why is Jose now insisting on 4-4-bloody-2?!

If it's not at Abramovich's insistence so Sheva can be accommodated, then I can only assume Jose's lost it.

At the very least we should be following Anthony's suggestion and employing Sheva at the sharp end of a 4-3-3 but personally, I think Jose should bin him - at least for a couple of games in a row. Maybe then he'll finally get his act together.

Now is not the time to continue buggering about with a system that, while our players are good enough to adapt to in the long term, is nowhere near as potent as the 4-3-3.

By the time the 1st XI really get to grips with it, Manure will be 16 points ahead and the rest will be too close for comfort.

3 league titles in a row would beat one lousy european 'lottery' cup!

Last night was a great game, though it quite clearly fell short of Chelsea’s usual lethal finishing. I have been a fan of Chelsea for a long time, but I feel that the spoke is starting to come off the wheel. While I understand the frustration with formation choice, I believe this misses the real problem. The central issue here deals with player selection, from which formation choice will follow naturally. I think currently, Chelsea’s best 11 are: Cudicin, Geremi, Carvalho, Terry, Cole, Essien, Lampard, Makalelel, Robben, Drogba, and Shevchenko. This would imply a 4-4-2 formation with Lampard on the right, and Essien as left CM.
Why Lampard on the right? I believe that he (Essien) is a far better all around midfielder, who does the simple things exceptionally well- pass, tackle, defend, shoot. Lampard’s game is one dimensional, and far too often, he plays the role of the “third” striker to the detriment of the strikers. With Essien in his natural position, I believe fluidity will be restored in the Chelsea midfield as he is tactically and technically astute. As a Ghanaian, I have seen him do much more than what Lampard is capable of doing in the “Lampard” role. I also think its great injustice to the player’s potential for him to be consistently played out of position for so long? Why in the world would Mourinho play Essien as a RB, LB, CB, RM, LM, sometimes all of these positions in the same game???!! With all the money available, can Chelsea not get a suitable player for the defensive positions?
Furthermore, Essien can supply the passes that the world class Shevchenko needs to shine. Any suggestions that he has lost his touch, is ridiculous. The problem is he lacks quality service- Essien can provide this.
With regards to Ballack, the less said the better. It is him and/or Lampard that are preventing JC and AR from playing regularly. Tactically, I don’t think he brings anything new to the team that Lampard does not already provide. Unlike many teams, Chelsea suffers from too many quality players and superstars. Unfortunately, as Real Madrid found out, this does not necessarily produce the best team or cups.

hope u enjoyed the gme...hope u enjoyed how a squad assembled for 400 million couldn't beat what was virtually a reserve side..and were systematically torn apart at will..just imagine what we would have done with King Kolo, Billy G, Super Tom and Thierry and just imagine how you would have played without terry,carvahlo, lampard and one of your 'worldclass strikers' despite all that money..pretty sad eh..its seems that in a few years your 2 prems will be a mere footnote in history while our invincibles will live on forever as will the squad that is currently being masterfully assembled

'systematically torn apart at will'? christ, where do these idiots come from?

The goal was a typical Arsenal move..the likes of which you could only dream of conjurring..while the chance that followed your goal was an example of a defence that was indeed systematically torn apart at will

Run along Gooner, you're talking to grown-ups now.

shame you weren't playing grown-ups yesterday...

As for 4-3-3, I don't entirely buy the notion that nobody could live with it for two years - by the end of last season it had been sussed, people were putting the squeeze on Maka, there was too much pressure on Lamps and not enough support for Drogba. It's failure was evident in the defeat at Barca and in the semi v Liverpool. Hence the change. We now have the ball for much greater periods of time, and are creating - in my opinion - more chances. We just need to start putting those chances away.

to all the chelski boys, from a gooner i think that ballack and sheva have done...not awful...but not great. Basically since watchin you play this season i always felt we could get a result at the bridge, okay not in those circumstances with those players out and that many chances. But i actualy think your more vulnerable with this 4-4-2 which with the players you've signed you HAVE to play so mourinho can show his transfer market expertise. Personally, sounded dangerous when you signed them, but ineffective so far. We all wondered didn't we, how will he play this? For me your 4-3-3 was MUCH more effective and harder to defend against, it was the perfect balance, but this 4-4-2 is NOT. Mourinho or kenyon or whoever should've made shrewd signings not getting sucked into the big name players in a real madrid style. BUT whats done is done lads. up the gunners!! still big game players you cant deny!! points out of our biggest games!!

Oh dear where do these idiots get these figures from, £400 million on players. Must have been some very creative accounting.
Run along now Anon and post where it's more suitable to your intellect like, the 606 boards

Not a good performance. Last 2 years at Highbury we have dominated in midfield and terrified them and the rest of the league on the break.

When push came to shove yesterday Shevchenko looked too slow and too selfish, and Ballack was invisible--especially in the last few minutes when the rest of the team poured it on.

Essien looks good at right back, but unless I'm really missing something he doesn't do much in midfield and gives the ball away too much. He looks better running on from the right back spot, and it was from there that he scored a fantastic goal.

The bottom line is that we are not as good without at least one of Robben or Joe Cole on the pitch (whether SWP ever gets into form is debatable, but I'm prepared to say sayonara to him).

But we don't looks as good as last year primarily because the two big stars are not adding much, and we've taken out the two most skillful attacking players to accommodate them.

To my mind Ballack/Lampard/Gerrard are all one type of player and there's only room for one in any midfield. Right now Lampard is playing well, so's Makelele. Essien is better at right back; Ballack should be left out so that Robben can start.

LINK

Gilberto who ???

I think the major bad point was Hilario. Admittedly seasons are very rarely decided by one moment, but his pathetic, limp-wristed pat of the ball was absurd. With no definite return date for Cech, we can only hope Cudicini is back soon as we cant afford any more goal-keeping nightmares.

I didn't think the defence looked particularly comfortable against Adebayor, mainly due to the fact half the time he didnt know where his feet were going.

I would whole-heartedly support a return to 4-3-3 tomorrow, had SWP not had a minor nightmare - the amount of times he lost the ball was criminal, particularly in the last few minutes when we were running the Gooners ragged. If Drogba's out, I'd stick Sheva up front on his own, with two wide men.

Come January, maybe find an actual RB who isn't your best midfielder re-located. And maybe someone to help our goals 'for' look a bit healthier. It would be a travesty if the season was decided on goal difference, we can keep them out, but we're not scoring enough.

As an observation, the quality of "Arsenal Banter" demonstrated by some of the gooners posting here is woefully poor. It has about as much cutting edge as their attack possed on Snday afternoon..

My feelings after the game were that (cue Cliché) football was the winner. The gooners had a degree of controll in the first half, mostly down to our chronic lack of width. It must have been as obvious to the Mourihno as it was to those of us in the stands. With the exit of Geremi and the ineffective Schechenko during the second half everything changed only for us to get caught with a classic succer punch. Michael Essiens equal;iser was so stunning (not least because from our angle it looked to be going 3 yards wide) it took a split second to realise it had actually gone in and had one overexcited punter behind me claiming Essien was the best player ever to where a Chelsea Shirt (Steady on!!).

A cracking afternoon left me buzzing for the rest of the day. Yes it wasn't the result we were after but who cares it was fantastic entertainment. Couple of downsides; Some pundits seem to think Ballack was annonymous. Obviously they were either watching a different game or have very little basic understanding of football.

Secondly Wright-Phillips. I'm sorry but it isn't working. The only reason the boss tollerates him is becasue he bought him. He makes the Old Joe Cole (prior to the critisism from the boss) look like genius. He was a liability - gave the ball away in key areas and was 100% ineffective. Above all else in this kind of match possesion is everything and he squandered it with such carelessness I was left thinking he is either stupid or wants to be sold.

boltyboy

Completely agree although I think Essien has been superb in midfield and to use him at right back would be a dreadful waste of his talent. I undertsand the desire to play him there to alter the shape of a game, but not from the start. Talking of misuse of talent please can we give the ball to Sheva twenty yards out facing goal?

When he has been in that position he nearly always hits the target and more often than not scores. For example, against levski he had the ball twice in scoring positions, scored one and worked the keeper with another.

Against Arsenal he kept finding himself on the wing. I really feel he is being completley mismanaged. Once we have wingers in the side who can create chances Shevchenko and Drogba will score a hatful.

Looks like Robben will start tomorrow and the Drog may even be out. If we play 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 with genuine wingers in the team Sheva will score.

A mate just pointed out that Zola would really shine in this midfield, which is pretty similar to the classic Petrescu, Wise, DiMatt, Poyet quartet when you think about it. (Although we're also missing an obvious Petrescu clone - Joe Cole perhaps?).

I agree with my namesake on Ballack. He does a superb job linking play, like a Makalele further forward.

SWP - his Chelsea career was summed up when he came on against Barca last season (when JM really should have been trying to close the game down), promptly gave the ball away and failed to hack down the Barca player, leading directly to their equaliser. He's just not got it up there.

Shevchenko should be grounded for sometime and probably we should move back to 4:3:3 system to bring back width of our wingers.
I know that some supporters do not share my view. However, let me express myself. At the age of 30 move from Italy to UK is not difficult I think it is almost impossible. On this website I have seen that supporters make analogy between Drogba and Sheva. Guys even when Drogba does not score he works hard for the team!!! This is I think the most important part of it. Shevchenko simply can not get into it he is not in the team, I afraid. I hope time will prove me wrong, but I think he has not got lot of time with blues and rightly so. Last year Mourinho said, if Abramovich starts to help me with football we shall be last place in the table, if I start to help him with business he will be bankrupt. It looks like first time of this sentence works.

To be honest, I was happy with the 433. Drogba in the middle with Robben and Joey Cole on the wings and I was perfectly happy. It's been winning us trophies for the past two years, and teams found it hard to combat.

Stick Lamps, Essien and Maka/Ballack in the middle.

That said, I think we've been extremely unlucky this season. If Joe was fit, our midfield and Shevchenko were in goal scoring form, and we didn't keep getting into extremely unlucky situations where the ball half crosses the line but never actually goes in e.g. Spurs away, Villa home, Sunday, then we'd be at least a few points clear of United by now.

Cool match reports. I like how you linked only reputable sources, not some crap like The Sun. Eww.

Funny real funny...

Let me recount the events yesterday. Chelsea had possession of 58:42 by Half time. More shots on target and held Arsenals midfield - which was not depleted in check. The same midfield that knocked ManU out at OT...442 443...Jokes man real jokers.

JM was outclassing Arsenal and you want him to change the format of play? Rubbish whom they put on the field...it is the ability to play a format that counts.

Sheva may still be finding his boots...All credit to Arsenal for preventing forward thrust fro the "Chelsea Machine"... It was simply not our game. Nothing wrong with the format if the goals go in eh? Silly cows.

I am dissappointed about the refeering in England whenever Chelsea is playing... Hand balls were all favoured to Arsenal, Fouls on Drogba no longer count...come on people had this been ManU this toos would not have happened at OT....

Flamini comes and scores a goal against the run of play... It was a lucky bloody goal...How many does he have this season...I would bet against him doing it again...

Ash had a bad game and I think JM was not fair in playing him yesterday. WB should have started with Ash coming on as an impact player...

Why we played a 442 agaist 1 striker..still beats me.. We did not revert to 433 it was a 343 formation. Essien filling the right back does not make him remain a left back rather a mobile midfielder. I personally love that change (but please not SWP) because the threat of Robben on the left will always pull more players to cover that wing giving Essien more room. And for those who think Essien can play lampards role must have something seriously wrong with them. two different styled players. Lampard does not have Essiens drive but Essien does not have the biggest attribute of Lampards game - positional play.

Just 17 played well the season is 38 matches. It will even be sweeter coming from the back.

Hang-on I think Peter's got the solution. Let's sign GFZ in January and play him up front next to Drogba!

And I'm not entirely joking! He's only been out of top class football as long as Hedman and he's the same age as Sheringham!

if its not broken don't fix it. Now you have a better squad, but a worse league position to last year.

While I'm not quite ready to sell Sheva back to Italy, I couldn't help but be impressed with Robben's contribution to the game. JM will have to choose carefully when to play what formation for the rest of the season. It must be hell for opposing managers because they can never be certain which Chelsea they will face or which player will be the biggest threat to score.