Well that was certainly a game of two halves!

Liverpool had a game plan and executed it fantastically well for the first 60 odd minutes. Disciplined, focused and well drilled, Liverpool could have scored 3 or 4 in the first half and I wouldn’t have complained. Suarez and Sturridge were causing all kinds of problems for our back four and goalkeeper, who seemed hell bent on making stupid mistake after stupid mistake.

The first goal Liverpool scored was shambolic and that gave Liverpool the confidence they needed. They sat back, absorbed the feeble Arsenal “pressure” and caught us on the break – and every time they went forward they looked dangerous.

Their goals were a combination of ambitious forward play and shockingly poor defending.

For the first goal, Sagna slipped, Vermaelen tried to clear the ball with his wrong foot and Liverpool capitalised. Then minutes later, Szczesny tried to do a Cruyff turn on Daniel Sturridge and almost paid the price.

And the second was poor defending, especially from Santos, who is one of the players I can’t believe makes a living from playing football. There are players you see now and then, and you wonder to yourself how the hell did they become professional footballers? And he is definitely one of them.

But Henderson’s goal seemed to kick Arsenal into life, and within 8 minutes we found ourselves at 2-2 and in with a real shout of winning the game.

On 64 minutes, Jack Wilshere, who was once again our best player by a country mile, floated in a fantastic cross for Giroud to head home. Our tails were up at that point and our attacking pressure told as Theo lashed a fantastic shot past the helpless Reina.

That gave us a good 25 minutes to nick the winner and we gave it a good go – but the frustration wasn’t so much the effort but the quality.

In times gone by, we would have made the pressure count but for all of our attacking play in the last third of the match we couldn’t find the breakthrough. Giroud had a decent chance from a corner but put his free header well over, and Podolski played him in for a guilt-edged chance from only 4 yards out but the Frenchman fluffed his lines.

But it is hard to criticise a player that obviously gives 100% and is still finding his feet in the Premier League.

In terms of performances, our defending was diabolical in the first half and there’s no getting away from that. And when Santos replaced Gibbs, we looked even worse. Fortunately in the second half when we were doing all the attacking that didn’t matter as much.

The game could have gone either way and I suppose both sets of supporters will feel frustrated as a draw wasn’t really what each side needed. A win for either team would have been a big boost but it wasn’t to be.

After that game the overriding feeling was that Chelsea were there for the taking.

The second half showed that when put under pressure, Chelsea got nervous and we had some good openings after half time.

But why didn’t we perform like that in the first half?

The first half was a shambles, from ourselves and the referee. Coquelin was clearly fouled on route to Chelsea’s first goal and the referee was conned for the penalty decision. Replays showed Ramires left his foot in and there was no contact, get the penalty was given. So both goals were avoidable from our point of view and we can be aggrieved about the referee.

But that doesn’t excuse our poor first half performance. Sagna and Diaby were particularly bad, with Sagna looking uninterested in being on the pitch, and Diaby was well off the pace. Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin were left to drive Arsenal forward almost single-handedly and defensively we were all over the place.

I said at half time that Wenger had to give the team a right bollocking at half time and take off Sagna and Diaby. He didn’t do the latter but it seems like he had stern words at the interval because Arsenal got their act together and started playing like a team.

Chelsea, who had the 2-2 draw against Southampton still in their minds were content of protecting the lead and this gave us more possession, and we scored a well made goal through Theo Walcott. After that, we pushed and pushed for the equaliser and gave Chelsea a lot of problems.

But in the end we fell short.

I’m not sure how to feel after that game. Disappointed with the toothless first half or proud of the second half performance?

It was definitely a game of two halves and a draw, on reflection, would have been a fair result. But ultimately, we gave ourselves too much of a mountain to climb after an atrocious opening 45 minutes.

Arsene Wenger was livid at the final whistle and with some justification, but we can take some positives from the second half.

Before the game, I couldn’t see Arsenal losing this one. Against Arsenal, Roberto Mancini reverts to type and plays completely negative. In the last home game against them last season, they had no interest in winning that match and even in the away game earlier this season, we were the better side.

Mancini is clearly scared of Arsenal and sets up his side to catch us on the break. Against us, he is typically Italian.

We had the potential to see a great game this afternoon but on 8 minutes, that all changed.

With Dzeko about to latch onto the loose ball, Koscielny pulled him down. The decision to give a penalty and send off the defender isn’t as black a white as everyone makes out.

Was it a foul? Definitely, there’s no doubt whatsoever. It was stupid from Koscielny because Dzeko probably wouldn’t have converted it. And was it a penalty? Yes, it was a stone wall penalty.

But the red card? I’m sorry, I can’t agree with that.

Surely a yellow card and a penalty is punishment enough? I couldn’t help thinking that if that was at Old Trafford, the penalty probably wouldn’t have been given, never mind a red card. Would a referee have the balls to send off a Manchester United defender? It would have been a penalty and yellow card at most.

Dzeko showed his prowess by missing the penalty and scoring a scorcher from 2 yards but with 10 men the game was over. Arsenal really should have tried to batten down the hatches until half time and then tried to regroup after half time. After all, the pressure was on Manchester City to win so we could have slowed the game down.

But once City scored it was over. If there’s anything City know what to do it’s defend and I had to laugh when I think it was Jamie “Literally” Redknapp that was baffled and couldn’t explain why with all their attacking talent, Manchester City had a very poor goalscoring record against Arsenal at The Emirates. It’s because Mancini plays negatively against Arsenal, even Stevie Wonder can see that Jamie.

The bottom line is the referee gifted the game to City with the big decision. Even with the Manchester City freekick that Milner scored from, the referee let City take it quickly while when Arsenal had free kicks, he said wait for the whistle and signalled that we had to wait until City set up their wall.

Without Arteta and a completely fit Giroud we were going to struggle but with 10 men it’s a massive ask.

And we’re mentally not strong enough. In the past, in the Bergkamp, Vieira and Henry era, going down to 10 men didn’t matter. We won countless games with 10 men in those days but this current Arsenal squad are extremely fragile. You just knew with 10 men it would affect us far more than the other big teams in the league.

Anyway, up and onwards to Stamford Bridge next weekend, should be an easy 3 points.

What can you say about yesterday? It really was a shambles.

The team selection was all wrong, the performance was pitiful and majority of the players just weren’t interested.

You had Andre Santos getting Robin van Persie’s shirt at half time. Seriously, what the f*ck?

That was just one example of how footballers live in a different world to everyone else. Not content enough with showing a lack of ability and effort when wearing an Arsenal shirt, Santos is a waste of space. When he’s not speeding like a raving lunatic he’s p*ssing off his own fans by swapping shirts with the one man Arsenal supporters can’t stand right now.

Unbelievable.

And Arsene needs to take some responsibility for the terrible team selection, and the current state of our squad.

Wenger has shown us that he’s not adverse to playing a right-footed player at left back, so why on earth would you start chubbs at left back when you have Jenkinson (who has been outstanding this season) and Sagna both fully fit? That made no sense whatsoever, considering most of United’s threat comes from the wings (did Arsene not see United at Stamford Bridge only a week ago?).

Then you have our captain. As Arseblog has already pointed out, he is and has been playing poorly for weeks now. Mertesacker is now our best central defender and we’ve got Koscielny and Djourou available so why not drop Vermaelen for a game? He makes too many mistakes and has now cost us dearly against Chelsea and Manchester United. I’m not saying our other defenders are completely blameless this season but our captain is struggling badly for form right now.

And then we have the squad. What is going on?

On paper, we really do have one of the best squads in the league. But in reality, the whole squad is disjointed and has no togetherness.

We have attacking players like Walcott and Arshavin who are still quality and yet are nowhere near the first team. Arshavin has showed in glimpses how good he is and how much he can add to the team. His influence against Reading was exceptional, and of course it was weaker opposition but he still showed the class he had. And yesterday he assisted Cazorla for our goal.

It’s obvious Podolski and Cazorla need a break because their early season form has dipped. And how can Arsenal hope to progress if they have players in the wings such as Walcott and Arshavin performing when they get the chance but also knowing they can’t even break into the starting eleven? The same goes for Carl Jenkinson, these players know where they are in the pecking order, irrespective of how they perform.

Arsene had a chance to mix it up against United and inject some pace into the team with Arshavin and Walcott, and their inclusion couldn’t have made us perform worse than we did yesterday. People will say they were too tired after midweek but these people are professional footballers. And they could have been replaced after an hour if it was that bad.

I tweeted yesterday that United wouldn’t have an easier game this season and it’s true. They were in cruise control from the first whistle and you could tell how annoyed Fergie was that they didn’t score more. Perversely though, for our shockingly bad performance we could have inconceivably and undeservedly nicked a point if Giroud took his chances. It would have been the most undeserved point in Premier League history, but it could have happened.

The problem yesterday was that no-one believed. Wilshere was let down badly because he was coming back in a game where the whole team didn’t care. He tried his best and was one of a very few that could come out of the game with any kind of respect yesterday. Arteta was another that tried his best but beyond that, it was extremely poor.

Was it just another bad day at the office? It seems like we’re having quite a few of those at the moment…

Where do you start with that game?

Gervinho, the enigma, shows why he frustrates and pleases in equal measure. His goal was absolutely fantastic, and really was a top class finish. But again, as we’ve seen many times before, he was unable to go the basic things like stay onside or find a teammate with a pass.

Theo Walcott came on and did nothing, he wasn’t interested and it’s clear his future isn’t at Arsenal. He may have scored twice in the Capital One Cup against a League One side, but today he didn’t care. Arshavin would have been a better option if he was even selected in today’s match squad.

And Olivier Giroud, just as he did against Sunderland in our opening home game of the season, had a guilt-edged chance at the death to score a vital goal. He did well to get around Cech but just didn’t have the composure to finish off an impressive move. I like Giroud and I think he offers something different, and holds the ball up well. He just needs to get some confidence and start banging in the goals.

There was no doubt that on the balance of play, Arsenal were the superior side, making the defeat even more frustrating. Chelsea may have started with Oscar, Hazard, Mata and Torres, but they never looked like scoring from open play. Which funnily enough, didn’t matter as they scored two goals from set-pieces, with a massive helping hand from Arsenal.

The games opening goal came from a freekick and not even Torres could miss from 3 yards out. Koscielny was marking the Spaniard but Arsenal let the ball drop to knee height and Torres had a tap in.

The second goal, was a simple Mata freekick and his cross went past everyone and into the far corner.

The defending was atrocious which is particularly annoying as our defence is something that has been praised recently. Looking at our performances this season, our defending in open play has been excellent, really top drawer. Our positioning and defensive movement as a unit is much better than in previous seasons and we were known to concede stupid goals from open play. Unfortunately, our defending from set-pieces has gone to pot.

Against Manchester City, our defending was poor for their goal which was from a corner, and today we were undone by two freekicks.

And that is something we need to improve on if we want to progress in that area and pick up more points.

The talk before the game was about who would start in defence and upfront, and starting Vermaelen and Koscielny today made sense. But unfortunately Koscielny and Vermaelen were both culpable for the goals, Koscielny on the set-pieces and Vermaelen who gave away a needless freekick for the second goal.

A team like Chelsea will always play negatively and deep against Arsenal and will always look to score from a set-piece or on the break. As I’ve already said, in open play our defensive game has improved greatly, it’s just on set-pieces we struggle badly.

Our play today was okay but Chelsea know how to kill a game and once they scored their second ten minutes into the second half, we never really looked like scoring. Cazorla had two decent chances to score but generally seemed unable to make an impact, Podolski was played in a deeper role which never exploited his attacking prowess and Gervinho was erratic as ever. Diaby’s early injury meant Ramsey had to play in central midfield which was a shame as he’s been playing well on the right.

Mikel Arteta was excellent again, and one of the main reasons why our back four have had more protection this season – making the departure of Song pretty insignificant. Jenkinson and Gibbs look good in the fullback positions and Oxlade-Chamberlain tried to influence the game and did well in patches.

But the bottom line was we gifted Chelsea all 3 points.