10th Fixture: October 29, 2011: Chelsea FC vs. Arsenal FC [R]

You do realise that doesn't make much sense, do yer? The two matters are totally unrelated.

It's not just the 1960's. We ALWAYS had a reputation for playing attractive, open football with flair. That was the case up to the late 90's and early noughties. Franco Zola wasn't an aberration for us. He was the norm for many die-hard Chelsea fans who grew up on players who could drift pass people with ease.

In any event, nobody's saying we should abandon good defending and embrace losing on a regular basis. Just that we want to combine winning with some of the old Chelsea 'swagger'

 

I just hope we give AVb some leeway for the growing pains this season, and well, those Anelkalouda pains.

 

You guys talking about the 60s? Dam you fellas are old .

 

I agree with you, but my point is that said "swagger" isn't so far gone, or old as you put it, hell, even at the beginning of just last season we were crushing people. Of course we'd all love for Chelsea to play some lovely football, but as of right now I'd take a steely defense and some less-than-entertaining off the cuff play than losing to Arsenal and drawing against a team we swept the floor with a week ago.

 

To be frank, I thought the 'swagger' under Jose was much more pleasing. Teams were afraid to play us because we hardly lost. We had a watertight defense and a good attack. Teams knew if they got scored on, more often than not, it was game over for them.

AVB needs time. But i have been reiterating that the high line with our current set of defenders is suicide. Barca may easily score 10 against us when Arse can put 5 past us. It would never have been the case earlier. If you want to play the system, change the personnel or else change the system till you get them.

 

AVB seems intent on creating and scoring as many goals as possible. Its almost as if he wants the opposition to lose focus and start scrambling once we are 3-0 , then go for a blowout score. We are conceeding like its going out of fashion , and championship teams are built around a tight defence. I think he sees the defence moving forward (Bosingwa,Cole and even Luiz nowadays) as a key part in the initial attack sequence .

 

^^ our midfield and forwards should be the only ones worried about pushing forward. The defense has been getting over lapped all season

 

Thanks for posting that clip I must have been at that game, I only missed West Ham at home that season.

 

Surely you agree it is possible to play badly and win, and play well and loose, and sometimes as in the QPR game external factors conspire against you. All I was saying that I enjoyed the Arsenal game.

Winning is not everything.

 

Dr.I--I agree winning is not everything. The Blackburn match yesterday was a good example. Pretty dreadful. However, I would posit that when it comes to big matches, if you aren't going to win, I want to see a sound effort. I don't want or need my idiot brother calling me on the phone cackling that Chelsea defend like school girls. That defensive effort was simply ridiculous, and in my opinion, completely avoidable. Had we simply done what has been done ad nauseum by every top side against the Arse in the last 5 years, which is to say counterattack, WE could have won 5-3, rather than the other way round. Those just aren't sound tactics and frankly, I found that match very much not enjoyable for that reason. To each their own I suppose, but if we have a bunch more of those results and end up conceding 40 goals and missing out on the Champions League, I will say I don't think anyone is going to be terribly fond of that brand of entertainment. You can be both entertaining and defend at the same time. If all I wanted to see was non-stop one dimensional attacking with no defending I would sit around and watch the Arse (not that I could support them). My brother would always say "how can you not love their style?" My response was that this isn't figure skating and you don't get style points. Its about who scores more goals. I completely understand and accept what happened at QPR as bad reffing is part of the game and evens out over time. The Arsenal result on the other hand was self-immolation on our part and that's just not fun for me to watch. But, like I said, to each his own, and hopefully the manager learned a bit of a lesson there and we won't have to see City put half a dozen past us as I believe will happen if we try the high line against them.

 

Some people here are beginning to sound like Arsenal fans. I would gladly take Mourinho's or Hiddink's counterattacking Chelsea over an "attacking" but losing team. I'm not going to jump the gun and assume that us losing will be a regular thing this season or the next, but winning is everything. I don't want to see us become another Arsenal.