Well, that was absolutely shite. I had a feeling there was going to be a bit of the Brighton’s about us last night; I turned out to be correct, we dominated possession, did absolutely fuck all with it, and conceded from a set-piece (45% of our goals this season according to the stat guys).
How utterly, utterly depressing.
The only positive I’ll take from that game is that we might get the chance to relegate Watford at the weekend. I much prefer Villa. Dean Smith is a good guy and I like some of the Villa players.
As for Arsenal, this is who we are. One moment, they’re taking bullets for 97 minutes, the next, they are flummoxed against a team that has been absolutely shite all season.
The usual suspects were problematic again. Rob Holding and Kola just don’t cut it for me. They’re not good enough on the ball and their fear of moving it forward is painful at times. The biggest mistake of the game for me was starting Lucas Torreira. We all want him to be the guy, but he doesn’t seem to have it. He was dreadful. He’s too small for the Premier League and I just don’t think he’s capable of being the warrior we need in the middle of the park. Striking that Arteta yanked him at half time, we haven’t seen that very often, but it was the correct decision.
People were also upset we fielded 3 center-forwards without any attacking midfielders. I don’t know if the hope was Lacazette would drop into a number 10ish role again, or the analysts assessed that Villa had conceded more shots than any team this season and it was likely we’d open them up after two strong wins. It didn’t work out. A lesson Arteta will have to learn. Maybe starting Willock would have been smarter (though he’s hardly pulled up trees), or perhaps moving Pepe into a 10 role? Who knows, some experiments don’t work, this one tanked.
Dani Ceballos had a solid game, but he doesn’t have devastation in his pocket when he’s probing the box. Granit Xhaka made things a little more interesting in the second half, but he’s far better at releasing the ball from deep than finding cute angles in the opposition area.
The harsh reality is if our wide players don’t show up, we offer fuck all to the forwards.
There is no point in controlling possession if you can’t convert it into a single shot. We can get angry about that, but it’s not a new problem, and the only way it’ll be solved is if we sign players that can do the job. I’d love Jack Grealish, the man has magnificent hair and unbelievable legs. Imagine that sort of creativity in your starting 11? Trouble is, we need two or three players like that.
The big positive from the game is that once again, Arteta has been reminded of the limitations of some of the players. Some of those deal extensions he’s thinking about might need a rethink. Some of those players he was thinking of keeping on, might just find their way out of the club. His team might start to realise that you can’t save some players from themselves. If you are weak mentally in your mid to late twenties, that’s probably a thing for life. You’ll get turns out of these guys, like the prior two games, but you’ll not get consistency, which is the difference between ok and elite.
We deserve everything we get this season in the league. We haven’t been good enough. The players aren’t of the right make-up for the way Arteta wants to play and there are too many players that can go missing when you need them. The points total speaks to that. We can solve that with a good summer, or at least progress to a much more coherent squad.
If you are now disgusted by the coach and you’re doubting things again, just take yourself back to the weekend. Remember the KLOPP OUT crew at Liverpool? The Fraudiola crowd? Lampard is a disgrace? Understand that everyone wants to be the first to call time on a coach. Those people will be wrong in the long run. This is not a sprint, there will be ups and downs, but Arteta is the right guy to carry us through.
The Cup Final will see us focused, I have little doubt about that. These players show up in the perceived bigger games, they are better when teams offer more than a deep block, we will also play our best 11. Bring that City energy to Villa and Brighton, we’re in the Europa League before the FA Cup. We didn’t, now we’re stuck in the same situation as last season… leaning on a Cup Final to save our summer. It’s grim, but we’ll do a better job of the final than we did last season.
The Villa result is not good enough, but it is what it is. Bumps are par the course. It doesn’t make it any easier, but if you pray hard enough tonight and donate to my Patreon, maybe we’ll do a little better.
Onto Watford, let’s hope we can finish the season by sending Troy and the boys to the Championship.
See you in the comments. x
s
azed Valentin’s problem is that he quotes his opinion as facts. If he said something along the lines of “pace is critical for a top level CB in the modern PL” then most would agree to a point. He doesn’t he makes a statement as fact on a player who’s hardly kicked a ball for us and helped to hold Liverpool’s front line for 120 minutes in the Club World Championships (or whatever its called). You can make a factual statement like “Pepe’s got 8 goals and 9 assists in all competitions” but you can’t claim an opinion to carry… Read more »
azed
How many of the great Italian defenders of the 1980s and 19890’s were faster that John Terry?
Certainly not Franco Baresi, Gentile, Pablo Maldino or Costacurta were faster. Italy were known for fantastic central defenders but didn’t produce fast defenders until recently with the likes of Cannavaro and Cheilini.
I think speed is over rated on le-grove, especially for a defender.
How can you suggest that Terry was a 5.5-6/10 level defender?
He may have been a horrible person but he was definitely one of the best European defenders for about 4-6 years.
*How many of the great Italian defenders of the 1980s and 1990’s were faster that John Terry?
Dissenter
I was talking about John Terry’s pace not how good of a defender he was.
That being they both have serious question marks against them regarding their overall application as players.
23 a French international with champions league experience but sure question marks on his application as a professional.
Terry wasn’t so great in the 2002 FA Cup Final.
Is it just me but giroud has been half decent for chelsea
I wonder if Chelsea would have splashed that crazy fee for Kepa had Cech been their director of football at the time.
London
‘Is it just me but giroud has been half decent for chelsea”
No different from the fine work he did for us
He’s one the best strikers 16 million [or so] can ever get.
Val Right, even that is subject to debate, but that’s not what was being referenced. You said directly before that “ With the EPL so competitive any early points dropped in the race for top 4 can be fatal.” So whatever you’re trying to say as far as being champions is concerned doesn’t apply to top 4, and doubly so when you look at the points return of 4th place over say a decade. Pretty sure I did that and the lowest was 66 points and highest 75. So points dropped is points dropped wherever in the calendar. Our target… Read more »
dissenter
Speed is super important for attacking players.
Look at the top players of recent years
Messi Ronaldo bale at his peak robben neymar mbappe Sterling sane mane salah hazard griezman sancho son ect. The top of the top usually have serious pace or insane acceleration.
dissenter
At time he was awful for us though.
He was 80 percent garbage 20 percent exquisite skill.
The amount of sitters he missed for us whilst pulling off that irritating smile with the tongue out.
I think to be fair to him he suits chelseas set up much better.
Chelsea have conceded the most goals in the top half of the league.
Are Timo Werner and Ziyech going in at fullback?
I wonder if Chelsea would have splashed that crazy fee for Kepa had Cech been their director of football at the time.
He’s not a director of football he has no say in signings
Both Alonso and Rudiger are quite slow. We should deploy Pepe to attack them. That Mason Mount is quite fast. We’ll need AMN to cover him. Hopefully Mustafi is available. He can eliminate Giroud.
4 – 1
I don’t remember Cannavaro as being particularly quick and not when he was so good for Italy in the 2006 World Cup.
It was his reading of the game that was top class.
How many assists has Alexander-Arnold got now? Absolutely ridiculous this lad. I’ve watched football a fair bit and can’t remember a fullback getting this many assists in a season.
Well Brentford fans are not going to live that down.
Their arch rivals QPR did the unthinkable and did them a favour in getting a draw at West Brom but Brentford fucked up themselves at home to Barnsley.
Oh QPR fans will be giggling for sure.
Good. Now Chelsea has to fight hard vs Wolves.
4 – 2 now. They subbed in Pulisic who looks good.
I’m not sure why Mount gets more game time than Pulisic.
Marko
“He’s not a director of football he has no say in signings”
A proper know all is Marko.
RR
Pulisic was benched earlier on in the season because of favouritism and that he wasn’t from the academy.
After he got his shot and was banging in the goals he has been played consistently. Against city he was injured so that’s why he wasn’t played probably brought on late in this game due to match fitness.
He is a better player than mount though
Damn. That Pulisic assists and now scores.
London
Ah I didn’t know he was injured. I don’t see what the fuss is with Mount. He’ll end at a mid table side soon enough.
Pusilic definitely on a different level.
Pierre just correcting some idiot who thinks Cech went straight from being a keeper to being in charge of transfers at a club like Chelsea.
“Good. Now Chelsea has to fight hard vs Wolves. 4 – 2 now.
They subbed in Pulisic who looks good.”
That’s one way of looking at it. Here’s anothe.
A tired Chelsea side that starts Pulisic and Abraham will tear Arsenal an asshole so large it will make Don jealous.
Salah is a little brat
The Pools team is distracted by those firework. They forgot to defend.
Good boy. Ox scores for us!!!
Kepa’s got the second worst shots/save ratio in the league? So we’ve got to shoot on site.
*sight
“Kepa’s got the second worst shots/save ratio in the league? So we’ve got to shoot on site.”
Like against AV yesterday?
Alex
Let’s hope we get ourselves some shooting boots then eh.
Pulisic gonna be a problem
Kepa is shit chelsea would do well to get leno
Game over. 5 – 3. Chelsea’s GK is small. The defense is average. Their midfield and attack are strong. Hopefully, both Kante and Barkley remain unavailable.
“Let’s hope we get ourselves some shooting boots then eh.”
Is there another transfer window between now and then? 😉
Nelson
Chelsea have flaws but my god ours are far worse.
If they start pulisic we are fucked
I watched Pablo Mari almost every week, he played for Flamengo, a dominant side in the Brazilian League last year, never impressed me, playing in a league much slower than PL, for example Balbuena when playing fot Corinthians was much better than Pablo, and the latter is an okay CB for WestHam…
Shithousery required again.
Sit, defend, counter.
That can do the job against Chelsea.
Didn’t bother watching the Liverpool Chelsea match – thought it’d be end of season players minds elsewhere etc
5-3
Doh!
Prat Souness getting completely ahead of himself and claiming Liverpool are on the verge of dominating the league and Champions League for the next decade, with him being adamant that we’re watching a return to the 70s and 80s.
Marko is the buffoon who thinks Chechen had NO say in Chelsea transfers
He could have take his Pyrrhic victory and done a victory lap for reminding me thay Czech is not the formal technical director – they gave him one of those funny titles but he’s effectively doing the work of a technical director
He just couldn’t hold back his stupidity when he went further to say Cech has no role in Chelsea’s transfer.
Marko with djnce dunce cap ; Who went to sign Ziyech and Werner?
Marko with the dunce cap; who’s the sporting/technical director of Chelsea?
summer priority should be 3 midfielders. A creative no 10 and a box to box midfielder also with Partey who can be the box to box player as he releases attackers on time with through balls and also destroyer, very strong on the ball.
Auba should be moved centrally while we need Saka to man the LW. Laca should be sold so we have Nketiah and Martinelli as other centre forwards.
A Football and Performance advisor with no say on signings. Quite the statement
Marko clearly on the inside at Chelsea as well
*Cech not Chechen or Czech
CC, For the last couple of years, for whatever reason at least one or two of the big six was out of contention for top 4 pretty early on. I think that next season, outside of Arsenal the big 6 look like they have their house in order. Add to that Leicester, Wolves who will also come back with strong team. I think that top 4 will be much tighter than previously. That could mean that a record number of points may be necessary to reach top 4. I see a top 2 (Liverpool, Man City), a top 4 (Chelsea,… Read more »
54 goals conceded in 37 games
Chelsea are back too right Dissenter?
Valentin
“Spurs sacked their manager who finished 5th for not getting Champion’s League despite having their record number of points. I would hate for Arteta to be the Boas equivalent.”
I don’t think Arteta will be in trouble for finishing 5th next season with a healty number of points. That won’t be on the cards.
But if he just bobs along midtable all season then the reapers shadow may appear.
Mikel Arteta has “restored” Granit Xhaka by taking the ball away from him. His pass numbers per90 are down from 86 per game to 66 on the season and those have dropped even further to just 55 since the June restart.
Per Mertesacker was slow.
Turning, he was like the QE2.
Azed
John Terry 5.5 or 6/10 defender?
What on earth are you talking about.
Maybe others have stepped up? Xhaka doesn’t hide when others do. That’s one way of interpreting that stat.
CC
Have you seen the type of additions Chelsea are making?
My opinion is that that the caliber of players they are adding to their squad will cover whatever shortcomings Lampard may have. Good players win games that you would normally draw.
Werner, Ziyech and possibly Kai Havertz elevate them to that position. They wont be finishing with anywhere near 63 points next season.
There talk that they are moving Kepa on because Lampard does not like fancy him.
Yes, is Havertz good at centre half?
Sid
“Mikel Arteta has “restored” Granit Xhaka by taking the ball away from him”
lol couldn’t make it up could you. Comical.
His passing stats are down because Ceballos is coming deeper all the time now in Xhaka territory.
Does his decrease in passing mean he is showing better now in other aspects? Off the ball perhaps? mmmm not sure at all.
Ishola,
He may not be sacked immediately, but the atmosphere could get toxic very quickly thereafter. Arteta would then be the easy fuse, fall guy.
Villa Boas left six month after he achieved record points tally.
Azed,
This is the problem here. Those People very quick to fire insulting, put down comment don’t bother to even read and understand what is written.
You never said that John Terry was a 5 out of 10 defenders, but that maybe he was a 5 out 10 in term of speed. Yet some people with agenda are deliberately miscontruing what you wrote.
azed
Okay, you meant speed wise Terry was 5-6/10
I read that wrong
Kepa needs help, something seriously up with that punk.
His price tag should be investigated
CC
I think Chelsea need to change Kepa before they buy central defenders.
Kepa is not a premier league starting goalie. He’s worse than Leno and Emi
The old boy with the bald head is Chelsea’s cup keeper isn’t he?
Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares are rubbish signings, bearably on one year rolling dears, utterly irresponsible on 4 year deals.
You can write a post as long as you like they are both average to rubbish signings who won’t move the needle one bit.
Receding
You don’t think a manager should influence squad composition.
Sit down and shut the fuck up, you’ve played your ignorant hand.
Dissenter,
I am sure that Kepa will be moved during the summer. Chelsea will not get back anything near to what they paid for him, but I don’t think that will bother them.
There were rumours earlier that Chelsea would fight Real Madrid for Alban Lafont services. Chelsea may decide to give a chance to a youth team player and promote one as understudy, with their current No2 Caballero becoming No1 for one season.
Marko with djnce dunce cap ; Who went to sign Ziyech and Werner?Marko with the dunce cap; who’s the sporting/technical director of Chelsea?
Maria whatever her name is she took over from Michael Emenalo I believe. An advisor isn’t a technical director or to be specific a director of football which dissenter claimed.
“The old boy with the bald head is Chelsea’s cup keeper isn’t he?”
Caballero has longer reach than Kepa.
Fenway Sports Group was not present in the award ceremony. KSE will probably not fly over for the FA Cup final.
The deal at Liverpool is you’ve got to get your teeth done to join Klopp’s army.
Maria was the Chief operating officer/CEO She stepped aside when Abramovich was having his visa diffiucltiesd but is still effetcively running the club Cech has a tile of “Technical & Performance Advisor.” The official Chelsea roll out listed his job description as “The focus of the job will be to provide advice on all football and performance matters throughout the club as well as embed and facilitate strong links between our men’s and academy teams, ensuring that the various support departments are working together effectively.” They don’t have a substantive technical director because Cech is effectively doing the same job,… Read more »
Listen you stubborn idiot he’s not a director of football and not a technical advisor he’s not responsible for transfers. To suggest that he was is nonsensical who goes from being a goalkeeper to responsible for signings at one of the biggest clubs in Europe. It’s dumb.
Unlike you, I wont do a victory lap.
For saying something stupid? Just as well cause you’d never stopped walking
“The deal at Liverpool is you’ve got to get your teeth done to join Klopp’s army.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXJ8S4ZyJwQ
Graham62
I was talking about John Terry’s pace not his defending.
“Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares are rubbish signings, bearably on one year rolling dears, utterly irresponsible on 4 year deals”
They’re backups receeding. Perfectly okay signings as backups. If they featuring alot, it means the starters in their positions are not up to par & need to be replaced…
Look at Liverpool’s bench when they played us. Absolute wank, but they just stormed to the league title.
“ Kepa needs help, something seriously up with that punk. His price tag should be investigated”
Stated perfectly!
That dude is a dud!
He makes Almunia look like Gordon Banks .
Hope he starts in the final
You sure Klopp didn’t do his teeth to be like firmino? His smile is incandescent. He could light up a cave with his chompers.
Would rather Villa get relegated than Watfrog, good guys finish lasts
come on what would the EPL be without a little Deeney violence
Our attackers cannot be blamed fir tgeir perfomances, they are not being serviced since we dont have a midfield, Luiz is our passmaster.
Actually seems Laca is being used as a #10 instead of an striker.
Nah would rather see Watford and their cojones go down. The look on Deeney’s face will be highly amusing I am sure.
Besides I just don’t see what they are trying to achieve anyway, sacking managers every 5 months. It wouldn’t surprise me if Unai Emery has a stint there at some point.
The Premier League has a more classic look returning to it next year with Villa staying up, Leeds coming up and perhaps Forest joining them.
IF we were to sign Szoboszlai can we please come up with a nickname for him pretty quick because that name sounds a mouthful. The Bosz of the midfield?
Getting lots of noise on Danilo Pereria of Porto. Anyone know how good he is ?
Chris, Forest missed out on the play offs last night. It’s Brentford, Fulham, Cardiff or Swansea.
Didn’t really give a fuck about the league table. It was all over for us in the first half of the season. Last few months under Arteta have been all about damage limitation and that’s it. Hopefully we make smart decisions in the transfer market and start fresh off. But I desperately want us to win the FA Cup. If we do its going to be 4 cups in 6 years I believe. Not bad at all.
Yeah worst start in 38 years . Never really cared about League table this year. Although I wish one of ManUtd or Chelsea miss out on CL would be fun to watch .
Un
I think this squad didnt have much confidence itself when Arteta came in. You cant do much if Kolasinac just decides to pass the ball to Son can you. He hasnt had a chance to overhaul the squad . Cant play Tierney every game . If it were a normal schedule , those games wouldve been spaced out . Not every 3 days .
Ceballos is too slow to offer any threat, he also stumbles a lot..
Watching WBA vs QPR yesterday.. there is a lot of quality there
Diangana, Robinson and Eze are on par if not better than what we got !!
Just realised that Burnley will probably finish above Arsenal in the final league table.
That’s just off. Not nice at all.
Am I missing something when I read the manager is doing a superb job.
Calypso
Maybe you missed watching all the games .
DivineSherlock
You are joking, right?.
Arteta picked up the team in 11th position and will likely end up 10th. that is superb in anyone’s book
Spicy Home kit. 🔥
Saka getting the no 7 shirt and Saliba no 4.
Shows the faith they have in Saliba already. He’s not coming in to be anything less than a starter.
Was post link
Talking about changes in next season’s shirt number right now is like discussing the floral arrangements in the ball room of the Titanic.
It really doesn’t matter, Ozil,has the number 10 shirt and is still a nonentity.
Diss
We can’t all live in the empty abyss of despair that you inhabit.
Sounds nice though…
We have had one of the worst player recruitment or talent acquisition teams.
We really need a football man in the clubs hierarchy. I’m not sure the figure who is responsible for liverpools signings but we need someone like that.
I get having squad numbers but I liked it when:
1: Goalkeeper
2: Right back
3: Left back
4: Defensive Midfielder
5: Centre Back
6: Centre Back
etc. none of this ’23’ and ’77’ shit!
Morning, I’m interested to know what wages are put aside for Mari and soares. Mari was an 8 million buy while soares was a free. Both seem like squad players for me and probably aren’t first choice. Both came from clubs where they wouldn’t have high weekly wages. So with a small bump up are maybe on 50-60k a week salaries now? When you consider we are currently blowing almost a million a week on dead wood salaries, it’s not a huge waste. If they aren’t good enough to break into the first eleven consistently, and can nail a place… Read more »