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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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Jose’s return to Madrid; The Special Once Bitten, Twice Shy

There’s been talk lately of Jose Mourinho returning to the Bernabéu, in the wake of his dismissal by Chelsea F.C, when Real Madrid finally decide to do same to Rafa Benitez, as they always do to top managers. But as I read these stories something interesting struck me, these two managers have so far managed three clubs in common and of the three clubs two out of them have dismissed the manager that took over the job from the other.

In the summer of 2008 Internationale Milan appointed Jose Mourinho, the self-proclaimed special one as their manager replacing Roberto Mancini as manager of the club. He signed a three-year deal worth £8.3 million a year and spent two seasons with the Milan club. During his spell as manager he won the Scudetto and the Copa Italia in his maiden season and in his second season won the European treble (the Champions League, the Scudetto and the Copa Italia) the club had waited since its inception to win. Then the team from Spain came knocking to be precise Real Madrid, the Los Merengues, they made him their new manager after dismissing Chilean manager Manuel Pelegrini and while in Italy the club in Milan also chose a Spaniard in the name of Rafa Benitez to replace the special one, this move by the Milan club marked the beginning of the Rafa-Mourinho Curse.

After Jose Mourinho led Inter to the treble in 2010, Rafa Benitez took over

The Portuguese went on to win the Copa Del Rey by defeating their fiercest rival Barcelona F.C in the final and in his second season pipped the Catalan club to the La Liga with an impressive ……. Points the highest achieved by any club in league as at that time.

But in Italy Rafa Benitez didn't live to see out his first term even to talk two full seasons at the helm of the Italian club, he was sent packing by the clubs Hierarchy just six months into his first season after a loss in the UEFA Super Cup to Atletico Madrid and a poor start to the defense of their Scudetto title meant he left the club wining nothing. During his short reign Rafa made it clear the club needed new signing an idea the clubs Hierarchy disliked as the club had previously spent millions of euros on player acquisitions and felt there was no need to splash the cash on new signings. This made Rafa Benitez the first manager under the Moratti Hierarchy not to sign a single player.

Benitez is sacked after he takes over a club whose immediate past manager was the special one.

Fast Forward to 2012/2013 and Rafa Benitez is made interim manager of Chelsea F.C replacing Roberto Di Matteo after a not so good start to the season by the team in blue. The team fails to qualify to the knock out stage of the Champions League slipping into the UEFA Europa League. However, Rafa’s arrival sees them win the Europa League for the 2012/13 season and qualify for next seasons Champions League group stage.

In the summer of 2013 Jose Mourinho returns to the bridge for the second time and interestingly enough this time Mourinho takes over from Benitez the man he left Inter with only to be sacked six months later. As if Benitez was trying to punish Mourinho for what he did to him at inter, Benitez’s win of the Europa League meant Jose’s first official match for Chelsea will be the UEFA Super Cup, exactly the same situation Benitez faced when he took over from Mourinho at Inter. Similarly, Chelsea lost out to the then European Champions F.C Bayern Munich on penalties. Two seasons and five months down the line Mourinho is sacked by the team he took over charge from Rafa. A at least Mourinho managed to win the Premier League with Chelsea and spent more than season at helm of the club.

The special one is also sacked by Chelsea F.C a club which was

 previously managed by Rafa Benitez just before Mourinho took over.

Deducing from what happened at Inter and now at Chelsea I don’t think Mourinho will be naïve in taking over the job at Real Madrid after the Bernabéu club decide to axe Mr. Benitez and also given that Jose Mourinho choose to return to Chelsea the only club he has managed twice and I don’t believe Jose will thread on that same part as in the case of Real Madrid.

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The #BBC vs The #MSN: Who will prevail in the El Classico?

The El Classico, the most popular & the most watched club football match in the world with a viewer-ship of over 400 million worldwide will this season have a different & interesting twist to it as both clubs try to prove to the world on who has the best & deadliest striking partnership in European club football. In recent years the main attention & attraction has been drawn by two of the best players on the planet who feature in the El Classico coupled with a side attraction of whose new signing will get his name of the score sheet or will outperform the other, as it was seen in the Gareth Bale versus Neymar contest. But not this time round, the match will have for the first time in many years a fierce contest between @realmadrid’s #BBC and @FCBarcelona’s new formed and yet to be unleashed striking partnership the #MSN.

The BBC which needs no introduction was tauted as Europe’s best striking partnership by pundits last season,  their breath-taking pace and clinical finishing saw them tear teams apart from limb to limb and eventually helped @realmadrid win its historic tenth @ChampionsLeague trophy, the #LaDecima, after thirteen years of trying, they also scored a total of 28 goals between them in the competition and a mind-boggling 97 goals in all competitions last season. That said they also helped @realmadrid win the Copa Del Ray trophy last season beating their rivals @FCBarcelona 2-1 in the final. But the question remains, will they continue their dominance come this season or an even new deadly striking partnership will emerge from one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

On the other hand the @FCBarcelona seem to have put together a striking partnership of their own after the acquisition of @luis16suarez. The #MSN which is made up of Lionel Messi @luis16suarez and @neymarjr, an all South American affair as opposed to the #BBC which is an all European affair, will make this years El Classico a mouth-watering piece. The #MSN  combination which is yet to be seen in action will make its debut coincidentally in the El Classico against the #BBC, on October 26 exactly a day after @luis16suarez four-month ban handed to him by @FIFAcom, for biting Italian defender @chiellini at this years World Cup, comes to an end. The #MSN will be hoping to dethrone the @BBC as the deadliest striking partnership in Europe.

I honestly can’t wait for the day this two European heavyweights square-off and produce some mouth-watering, tasty, quality football. On who will prevail? your guess is as good as mine, though i tip the #BBC to urge past the #MSN in the first leg. Until then we wait patiently and see what unfolds on the 26th of October.

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