Chelsea (2) – (0) Arsenal
Stamford Bridge, London

Well that is Arsenal’s title challenge officially over for yet another season.

Before going into the games against Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool we were still in contention, but now, even before the Liverpool game, we find ourselves 9 points behind Chelsea. Ever since we threw away the FA Cup our form and confidence has collapsed and we’ve draw one and lost two.

Arsenal have suffered defeat 6 times this season, twice to United, twice to Chelsea and once to Manchester City. If anything confirmed the fact that we were a Top 3/4 side then that was it.

Strangely, both the away and home games against United and Chelsea followed the same

At The Emirates, both Manchester United and Chelsea dominated their games against us and completely deserved their victories. We were simply outplayed and tactically they were superior. We had no answer to anything they threw at us and our defensive frailties were exposed.

But today was similar to the match at Old Trafford. We dominated possession, passed the ball well but couldn’t take advantage, and in the end, the clinical finishing (combined with naive defending) was our undoing.

It was the same old story. Lots of pretty passing, decent possession but lacking that killer instinct in the final third. Too many times we were in fantastic attacking positions but the final ball was lacking. With a better final pass, we could have scored 2 or 3 against Chelsea. If you play poorly then you can hold your hands up and admit the other team was better but today was particularly frustrating to watch – a decent performance but in the end the fact is we are just not good enough.

We might as well go through the goals.

Didier Drogba is dangerous at the best of times but to gift him two goals was… I don’t know, ridiculous? naive? amateurish? sloppy? I realise that Arsene doesn’t teach defending and quite honestly when they scored the goals they did I wasn’t disappointed like I usually was, I saw it coming. We concede the same kind of goals time and time again and it’s just frustrating that we don’t learn from it.

Gael Clichy is clearly targeted and almost every attack (in both the United and Chelsea games) went down their right hand side. And why not? Wenger doesn’t change things so once you see a team like United use a particular game plan then all you really have to do is emulate it. So how many Arsenal fans were shocked when the first goal was a set-piece and the second was on the counter attack?

The fact was that Chelsea didn’t even step out of first gear. Their win over us today was easy. We know they can defend so all they had to do was pick us off whenever they could be bothered. In the first half they punished us but in the second they just sat back and strolled to the final whistle. They forced us wide and we had to resort to crossing into the box, which never works for us, and they can cope with easily. John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho can defend crosses in their sleep.

Anyway, the first goal was from a corner. Malouda crossed from the left and John Terry won the header after he lost Vermaelen and the ball fell to the far post where Drogba tapped in from two yards. Drogba was amazingly unmarked (Song lost him) and we gifted Chelsea a simple goal.

I would like to know why we didn’t have a man on the far post though.

Then the second was on the break. Arsenal (like against United) had possession on the edge of the Chelsea box and Chelsea won the ball, played 2 simple passes through and Drogba waltzed into the area and smashed the ball into the net.

22 minutes, and the game was over.

After that, we threatened here and there but never really looked like scoring. There were a few skirmishes but you felt that if Arsenal had somehow miraculously managed to get a goal then Chelsea would just step it up a gear and kill off the game. In all fairness, it was a walk in the park for Chelsea.

There were some positive performances, from Diaby, Song, Vermaelen, Gallas and substitutes Eboue and Bendtner, but that’s not enough. Cesc was trying his hardest to make something happen and he carved out 2 or 3 real opportunities only for his team mates to waste them. Andrei Arshavin had a massive chance at 1-0 to equalise but once again, he let us down.

Arshavin doesn’t really give a shit anymore, and he wants to leave. Partly because he’s being played out of position, and partly because he doesn’t think Arsenal are real title contenders. You can see it in his body language, we strolls around and doesn’t care. Can you blame him? Maybe not, but I expect 110% from anyone who puts on an Arsenal shirt. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who hasn’t been performing.

There’s the argument that the vast majority of the squad are overpaid and pampered kids who are being rewarded without having won anything. I personally don’t think that’s the main reason why we’re once again not challenging for the title, because players like Song and Diaby have really stepped up this season. The fact is we’re just not good enough.

And that is down to Arsene Wenger. The squad isn’t strong enough. I’ve never been one to shout about buying players (mainly because I don’t ever expect Wenger to spend any money) but unless we strengthen in key areas then we’ll always be also rans.

We don’t need a complete overhaul of the team, we just need to get rid of dead wood like Almunia, Clichy, Walcott and Bendtner. I don’t have anything personal against them (and I’ll always support them if they’re in an Arsenal shirt) but I just don’t think they’re good enough. They are all players who have been at the club for 5 years plus and not improved. Bendtner was okay today but Van Persie is the top quality striker we need.

I am pissed off with today’s game? Not really, we all knew winning at Stamford Bridge would take a miracle. I was hoping something special could happen, but we Arsenal fans watch the game week after week and know what to expect.

I just hope Arsene gets his act together and looks at defending more seriously because we won’t get far in the Champions League with defensive performances like that.

Arsenal (1) – (3) Manchester United
Vermaelen (79′)
The Emirates Stadium, London

What a shambles.

Manchester United will not have an easier game all season. It was a walk over, and extremely difficult to watch. Men against boys? You’re not far off.

The match was effectively over by half time, and Park completely killed off the game as a contest on 53 minutes.

There were a lot of positives going into the game. Wes Brown and Jonny Evans were starting in central defence for only the 4th time this season, with Vidic injured and Ferdinand suspended. In 3 previous games together this season, the partnership of Brown and Evans had failed to win, losing twice and drawing once. So surely an attacking team like Arsenal could expose the same frailties Burnley did?

The sad fact was our biggest attacking threats were Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas, and that in itself tells its own story. And massive defensive errors cost us dearly.

Credit to Manchester United however, they turned up to the Emirates and had exactly the same gameplan that worked so well when they visited us in the Champions League game last season. United were technically and tactically far superior today. They showed intelligence in their play and confirmed that The Premier League is a two-horse race.

It’s a shame we didn’t adapt our game considering they did exactly the same to us less than 9 months ago. If it was a one off performance from United you’d understand but it’s the fact they’ve done this before which is the most disappointing thing.

I might as well have watched last years Champions League tie.

Anyway, if we lose to Chelsea next weekend, we’ll be 8 points behind and they will have a game in hand. Which would effectively put us 11 points behind the league leaders.

The simple fact is however it wasn’t the defeats to Chelsea and Manchester United that did the most damage, it was the needless draws to teams like West Ham, Burnley, Everton and Aston Villa. We’ve simply dropped too many points lower in the league.

Back to today though, and the first opening 10 minutes looked promising as the game was end to end. Andrei Arshavin came close a couple of times and so did United. The problem with Arshavin was that he was clearly not interesting in passing or playing in a team mate, but kept putting his head down and trying to shoot. That didn’t bode well as the game went on because our passing game completely deteriorated. Players like Fabregas, Rosicky and Nasri just didn’t provide the support as the match progressed because they knew the little Russian wasn’t going to pass.

The goals we conceded were a disgrace, but we’ve seen it all before.

Last season it was the Ronaldo show but this time Nani’s pace and invention ripped us apart. Arsenal are predictable and Alex Ferguson knows this – he persists in starting Rooney with Nani and Park in support despite the fact they’ve hardly scored this season. Why? Because pace rips our team apart. We can’t cope with it.

It’s better to analyse the goals individually to find our shortcomings:

Goal 1

Nani had the ball on the right hand side with Clichy and Nasri seemingly giving him nowhere to go. A simple (but nice) piece of skill takes them both completely out of the game and he waltzed passed Fabregas, gets the byline and chips the ball into the middle, only for Almunia to palm the ball into his own net.

In Almunia’s defence, it looked like Rooney and Park were both unmarked at the far post so they probably would have finished off the move anyway. But the question I ask is why didn’t he palm the ball away from goal? He obviously tried to push it over the bar but unfortunately he failed miserably.

Poor defending all round but United will love the skill involved from Nani.

Goal 2

As Arsenal were pushing for the equalising goal (with Arshavin and Gallas trying to be too clever) United win the ball back and it breaks to Wayne Rooney. He plays in Nani who goes on a 60 yard slalom run completely unchallenged, and then picks out Rooney who coolly lashes the ball into the bottom corner.

The problem I have with this goal is United only had 3 players involved in the attack (Rooney, Nani and Park) while Arsenal had 6 players chasing back. Nani wasn’t even put under any pressure and the fact Rooney’s run wasn’t tracked was a complete disgrace, and shows a complete lack of defensive understanding. We had 6 players chasing back yet Rooney (in the middle of them all) finds space and scores. Both Denilson and Nasri were next to Rooney when he scored but failed to pick him up. All one of them had to do was track Rooney but they switched off. Totally shambolic and Rooney won’t have scored an easier goal.

Goal 3

Another goal from a break.

Clichy was exposed with two men (Park and Nani) running at him but instead of giving Park something to think about he stay between the two United runners and let Park stroll in and slot the ball passed Almunia for their third.

I understand that you have a responsibility to block off the square pass but Park (like Nani for their second goal) literally ran 60 yards unchallenged. At least if you make him think about the pass it puts him under pressure, but as it transpired he walked into the area and had an easy decision to make.

So 3 amateurish goals to concede.

With United’s injury problems and the fact we were at The Emirates, you would expect today’s game to be the one more likely to win with Chelsea coming up next week.

Player Performances

I’m not going to bother with individual player ratings today, but the only people in an Arsenal shirt would can be even remotely happy with their performance today were William Gallas, Thomas Vermaelen and Alex Song. Everyone else was a disgrace.

Andrei Arshavin had a chance to really hurt Manchester United but didn’t take it. His selfishness in the opening 20 minutes really set the tone for our attacking play and the passing and fluidity we usually have wasn’t there. We really had 2 or 3 real openings in the first 15 minutes and some vision for the final ball could have made this a different game.

Denilson was the worst I’ve seen him this season. He gave the ball away so many times and I did think for the moment he should be wearing a Manchester United shirt. His passing, positioning and all round play was well off the pace and the way he gave away the ball from United’s third goal summed up his performance. Should have been taken off well earlier (at half time) and replaced by Ramsey, or made Rosicky or Nasri drop deeper.

Update: Just watching MOTD2 and also forgot to mention that Denilson almost scored an own goal from a United corner, and he was the one who let Nani stroll passed him for the first goal.

Rosicky, Fabregas and Nasri were all on the periphery of the game.

United defended well so they never really got into the game. Fabregas had moments of skill but couldn’t make anything happen. Rosicky and Nasri we ineffective and in all truth, Song and Vermaelen were Arsenal’s biggest threats.

Song and Vermaelen played well but were sorely let down by those around them. Song had 2 or 3 half chances and did well to get into those positions – but when you’re relying on your defensive midfielder to score goals then you are getting desperate. Vermaelen once again had that desire and scored with a left footed volley, and came close with a header. Gallas also had a glorious chance to get a second goal with 4 minutes remaining which really would have made the final minutes interesting.

Arsenal’s best chance of getting anything from the game was just after Vermaelen scored on 79 minutes. For a good 5 minutes Arsenal went for it and put United under the most pressure they’d experienced throughout the whole game. We had 1 or 2 half chances but just as Arsenal were getting some kind of momentum Almunia’s inability to deal with a simple pass back effectively killed off any hope of a miraculous comeback as United had the perfect chance to kill time and the game.

And that summed us up really.