Chelsea (A) - Thu 5th Jan, 20:00 | Pre-Match Thread

[tolmie's hairdoo]

But we are nowhere near that team of 18/19! In fact we are miles away. Our midfield has aged and furthermore we no longer have David Silva. Our forward line is a one man show and we no longer have Sane's pace nor more importantly we no longer have Kompany's leadership.

In short I feel we have more chance of poking fog up a cats arse with the tip of a pencil than we have of catching Arsenal, but I'm ever the pessimist.

We have won two league titles since Silva and Vinny finished, mate.

As I state, we are not at 98pts level this season, but certainly good enough to still attain ten points less than that incredible total.

Our midfield has not aged since, as Dave and Fern were middle thirties.

Rodri and the legs of Bernie more than keep us younger. Wasn't Kev also missing for that particular season and Bernie filled the void?

The leadership aspect I do agree with, but Ruben, Bernie, Haaland and Kev offer it in different ways.

I'd say we need a big win against a big opponent right at this moment, just to gather some momentum.

That, and a couple of back to back clean sheets!!

 

[bluesince76]

I'd say we need a big win against a big opponent right at this moment, just to gather some momentum.

That, and a couple of back to back clean sheets!!

There haven't been a lot of great performances so far this season, but our next three league games are Chelsea A, Rags A, Spurs H. We're about to find out what we're made of, but if we come out of that with 9 points, I expect there will be a lot more belief here and more pressure within the Arsenal dressing room. That's until we lose at home to Wolves, obviously!

Time for a few of the players to step up and them all to remember that Haaland was supposed to add to the goals, not be the only source of them.

 

[domalino]

Chelsea’s midfield is awful and the defence soft, I would be surprised if this is the fixture that causes us problems this week.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

We have won two league titles since Silva and Vinny finished, mate.

As I state, we are not at 98pts level this season, but certainly good enough to still attain ten points less than that incredible total.

Our midfield has not aged since, as Dave and Fern were middle thirties.

Rodri and the legs of Bernie more than keep us younger. Wasn't Kev also missing for that particular season and Bernie filled the void?

The leadership aspect I do agree with, but Ruben, Bernie, Haaland and Kev offer it in different ways.

I'd say we need a big win against a big opponent right at this moment, just to gather some momentum.

That, and a couple of back to back clean sheets!!

It’s more a lack of leadership at the back for me. Dias brings that but without him the others don’t seem to have it. Their goal illustrates it. No leadership to say who should be closing the man down, who should be watching the overlap etc. Stones and Akanji were way too passive.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Chelsea’s midfield is awful and the defence soft, I would be surprised if this is the fixture that causes us problems this week.

It shouldn’t going off that performance and Spurs shouldn’t either but I fear a new manager with them if this continues, just before they play us.

 

[Manc123]

I'm not worried about us just yet. I think the previous result will be the kick up the back side we need. I do think there is a communication issue without Dias. I also think we need to play the grealish foden haaland front line as that seems to be our best this year and we've hardly played it since the Manchester derby.

 

[lasereyes]

7 points when we played them in Jan 19.

We played them Jan 3 - remember it was a miserable Xmas and all the media wrote us off for the game. With the World Cup, we are of course earlier in the season and still have to play the Arse twice.

 

[kippaxchris]

Dont think Arsenal winning the title would be as suprising as Newcastle

It wouldn't but everybody thinks they will fall away like they did Leicester.

 

[blueparrot]

There haven't been a lot of great performances so far this season, but our next three league games are Chelsea A, Rags A, Spurs H. We're about to find out what we're made of, but if we come out of that with 9 points, I expect there will be a lot more belief here and more pressure within the Arsenal dressing room. That's until we lose at home to Wolves, obviously!

Time for a few of the players to step up and them all to remember that Haaland was supposed to add to the goals, not be the only source of them.

I think those 3 fixtures are easier for this team than games like Everton and Brentford at home. Those teams can’t sit deep and we are better than them in games that will be more open.

 

[chesterbells]

I think those 3 fixtures are easier for this team than games like Everton and Brentford at home. Those teams can’t sit deep and we are better than them in games that will be more open.

Spurs will sit deep at our place. Kinda agree on the other two fixtures though.