Originally posted by vanpeebles
View Post
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Chelsea Thread
Collapse
X
-
I thought it was an interesting game as in effect Inter 'out-chelseaed' Chelsea, they did to them what they always do to Arsenal and just suffocated the life out of them.
Ironic that what they lacked last night was a bit of Arsenal fancy-dan ponceyness to break down such organised and determined opponents.
Don't think Chelsea can complain as other than a few mins at the end of the 1st half Inter were far the better team.
Hope Arsenal can avoid them in the draw
Comment
-
It showed up our current weaknesses in the squad really.
Zhirkov isn't even half the player Ashley Cole is. If we had him playing and making runs down the left rather than forcing the ball right everytime, I think we would've made more chances.
Joe Cole is not good enough since he came back. He did zilch when he came on. Ballack isn't putting the work in.
I think we've no choice but to sign a couple of big players next season our squad is aging and we've players not pulling their weight. Hopefully next year will see Kakuta strong enough for regular first team football, he looks something special)
Comment
-
it really did show weaknesses I agree, that high energy closing pressure game isn't really suited to a squad that's been described as ageing for a while now.
when you look at AC who were succesful with older players they didn't try to play that way all the time.
last night showed the lack of guile or trickery in the current line up, its still good enough to power past most prem teams but at the highest level as it has before, it always come up a little short.
be interesting to see how it goes as I was reading in 4-4-2 how Ancelloti has bought over the famous Milan lab doctors in an effort to extend the careers of the older players, can't see Roman having the patience for that though, we'll see if he has the liquid cash available for a splurge in summer but he's up against people with deeper pockets now at City.
Comment
-
I think the manager got the tactics horribly wrong.
We were standing off a bit and not chasing loose balls. We played balls to players with three people surrounding them all too often. When you have a team marking that tightly you spread your own players out more so they're the ones doing all the running around.
We were playing so close together our own players were getting in each other's way.
That said, Ashley Cole and Essien being out has a biiiiiig impact on our squad as it changes the shape of our team.
For all the criticism we get about splashing the cash around, we haven't bought any quality first team players for something like 3 years now whereas Man U have been steadily buying doing big or important signings as required and Arsenal are constantly refreshing their squad.
Kakuta and Sturridge are really exciting prospects but they're both forwards.
We need cover for Ashley Cole and replacements for Ballack and Joe Cole (unless he really gets his act together).
Comment
-
Originally posted by abigsmurf View PostFor all the criticism we get about splashing the cash around, we haven't bought any quality first team players for something like 3 years now whereas Man U have been steadily buying doing big or important signings as required and Arsenal are constantly refreshing their squad.
Grouping Arsenal with United, Chelsea and Man City is a bit of a stretch.
Comment
-
Regardless of how much it cost and if there was a profit made, Arsenal still have refreshed their squad much more than Chelsea have. Aside from Anelka , we haven't really bought any players who are anything more than cover for existing players in the last few seasons.
On a side note, it's amusing/bemusing reading and hearing all these pundits talk about how wonderful Jose is. When he was managing Chelsea they took every chance they could to slag him off. His negative press was likely one of the reasons he got sacked. Just another example of how two faced our press is.
Comment
-
Because our week isn't bad enough!
Terry accidentally hit a security guard last night after his car was mobbed by paparazzi it seems. More stuff for the tabloids to latch onto.
This thing seems to be surprisingly common nowadays but it always seems to be the security guards who get hurt, not the scum that are paparazzi.
*edit*
Seems the guard only had minor bruising rather than a broken leg as it was first reported. Not a major story.Last edited by abigsmurf; 17-03-2010, 12:34.
Comment
Comment