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ARSENAL FC vs CHELSEA FC

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Same Old Story Just a Different Day

The stage was set on what many had described as the title deciding match and it couldn’t have been anywhere better than the plush Emirates stadium. The struggling champions against the inform soon to be champions. Going into this match history was against Arsenal but the form was in their favour and to add to that they had the likes of Alexis Sanchez and the in-form Mesut Ozil returning after some time on the side-lines. Having lost just once and winning the rest out of three to their top 4 opposition this season, as opposed to previous seasons, Arsenal were for once proving to be the real deal. But as usual this was a derby and form is no decider as history teaches us.

Arsenal kicked off with Ozil and Giroud and straight away made their intentions clear of going for the kill but unlike in the games against Man City and Man United the aggression was missing and soon Chelsea begun to grow into the game and the rest is as what we know has been happening for the past five or six years depending on which stat you are interested in but, the main point is Arsenal lost the game again to their London rivals again, and failing to score a goal for a record sixth consecutive time.

Also what is important to note is out of the four London derbies Arsenal have played this season prior to this match Arsenal had won only one, lost two and drew the rest thus collecting a total of 4 out of a possible 12 points.

The Picture Says It All

Arsenal Playing with a Man Less; Per Metersacker’s Red Card

Per Metersacker became the 48th player to be sent off in a match involving these two sides. He got his marching orders in the 18 minute after being adjudged the last man when he brought down Diego Costa. This all surfaced when Willian played in a through ball to Diego Costa which the Arsenal back line, Koscielny in particular did nothing to cut it out leaving Per one on one with Diego Costa and struggling for pace to catch up with the Chelsea striker. Per took the best decision in my opinion for the team since Diego Costa would have been through on goal and besides it wasn’t in the 18-yard box. A critical look at the incident raises a lot of questions on the decision of ref and the positioning of Laurent Koscielny. But I will like to dwell on Laurent Koscielny in this case.

Laurent Koscielny was clueless to begin with, he had no idea of what to do when Willian was racing down on the Arsenal goal and instead of stepping up to close down Willian, he rather decided to fall back giving Willian time and space to make a good decision, and as the pass was played in Koscielny again did absolutely nothing to cut out the pass. He could have slide in to try and stop the pass before it got to Diego Costa and as much I put the majority of the blame at the doorstep of Laurent, Metersacker should also take a share of the blame for not been able to read the situation really well, as it happens to be his best asset, to salvage the situation.

Diego Costa Goes Down After Metersacker's Challenge

Going A Goal Behind After Being a Man Down

Five minutes after letting Arsenal play with a man less, as if he hadn’t caused Arsenal enough trouble Diego Costa pops up at the near post of Arsenal’s goal to slot home the only goal of the game from Branislav Ivanovic’s cross. The question again is what were the Arsenal defenders doing. This was a three versus one situation, three Arsenal defenders against Diego Costa, but somehow someway Diego was the first to the ball. Not to put any special pressure on Koscielny but here again he was at fault gravely. For one I know for a fact a defender’s primary duty when dealing with a cross into the box is first and foremost to block or prevent the opponent from playing the ball across the face of the goal, this is so because, such balls are difficult to defend once the travel across the face of goal. All it needs is a touch to result in a (own) goal. But with all the praises of Arsene Wenger and all years of experience Koscielny didn’t choose any day but this very one to let his team mates and manager down. Koscielny positioning here again was suspicious leaving yards of space between him and the bar line for Ivanovic to whip in a cross. Again he fails to make any attempt to block the cross before it reaches Costa.  To sum up he was “caught ball watching” as its popularly called.

Koscielny And Co. look On As Costa Scores

Moving Forward; Ozil and Walcott Failed to Impress

On the attacking front Arsenal created enough to at least salvage a draw but for either one reason or the other they failed to make anything good out of the decent chances. Ozil was left upfront on his own and I must admit he did a pretty good job playing upfront for majority of the game after Giroud was taken off to make way for Gabriel. Having missed the goalless draw away to Stoke it was obvious his services were going to be needed. But Ozil struggled to impress as his early touches were a little bit uncharacteristic of him this meant, Arsenal struggled trying to play through their coveted playmaker. Ozil and Walcott were the leaders after Giroud’s departure, as the former struggled the story for the latter wasn’t any different. Lacking composure when on the ball and giving it away so easily on many occasions, not timing his few runs well and lacking confidence in front of goal was the story of Walcott. He was given the captains armband for his loyalty (a decade of playing for Arsenal) but that wasn’t enough bring out the best in Theo.

The Positives; Arsenals Fighting Spirit

It wasn’t all bad if that’s the picture I’ve painted so far, on the encouraging side Arsenal stayed in the game till the end. They didn’t give up despite the huge and seemingly impossible task. Created a few chances of their own including a goal mouth scrabble towards the end of the game which in my opinion they should have scored from since chances were hard to carve out. The assurance provided by Cech, solidarity and fighting spirit of the team as already highlighted by Arsene Wenger was impressive.

Conclusion

Arsenal suffered yet another defeat at the hands of their London rivals and it was down to same old problem that has plagued them for years and that’s “naivety”, committing basic defensive errors. But the desire to come out of the match with something was commendable but not enough. And for the rest of the season Arsenal will have to avoid these mistakes against even difficult opponents with the likes of Spurs at White Hart Lane, Man City at the Etihad and United at Old Trafford still to come.

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