da bet esporte： Another game. Another defeat. Another blank in front of goal. Another instance of Wenger blaming anyone (mostly Costa) but himself or the players for his side’s shortcomings.
da bet nacional： Following defeat to their London rivals on Sunday, Arsenal have now gone nine league games without a victory over the Blues. Their last win came when Andre Villas-Boas was in charge – how long ago does that feel?
This was the game that was supposed to right the wrongs of the past few seasons. With Arsenal gunning for the title and Chelsea struggling to get clear of the relegation battle, it was all set up for the North Londoner’s to finally get one over on last year’s Champions.
Even Wenger’s nemesis had gone this time. No more Mourinho? Ah well, Arsenal will win then. The Portuguese manager often seemed to prioritise games against the Gunners and relished victory over his rival. Even this season, with Chelsea’s worse showing in the Premier League in it’s history, the Blues ran out 2-0 winners in the first encounter at the Bridge.
It seems that no matter what Arsene does, he just cannot get a result against the West Londoners, in the league anyway. Even with home advantage, a relatively full contingent of players and a ‘wind of change’ blowing through the air, things still took a familiar course.
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A failure to score, a man sent off, players not playing to their potential. All in a day’s work when they face Chelsea. Wenger can try all he likes to claim that Costa got Metersacker sent-off, despite it being one of the most obvious red cards you’ll see.
More baffling, what exactly was the lanky German glancing at just before the tackle? A camera-phone perhaps?
With his own questionable team and tactic selection, and substitutions (particularly Giroud) that were met with derision by the fans, the Arsenal boss would be better served to look at himself for the reasons for defeat, but that’s not his style is it?
It’s getting beyond a joke now, and surely it’s more a case of a mental block than any physical shortcomings in the players.
It’s been well documented on past occasions that Chelsea’s superior size and strength was a major factor in holding the Indian sign over Arsenal. Certainly this was often the case with Mourinho in charge and to some degree can still be argued to be true.
But this is no longer just a team full of ‘giants’, as it often has been. This was not a case of ‘Men against Boys’ as it has looked in the past, Arsenal actually showing some good ‘fight’ at times this season and more than equipped to deal with this Chelsea side. Fabregas was the top-tackler for goodness sake.
This is now a lack of belief from players and managers alike, that when facing Chelsea they are going to come away empty-handed. You could argue that the Gunners were never going to win yesterday, no matter what they did, and they knew it.
They actually played quite well in places, even more so when they were down to ten men. There was endeavour and, sure, Chelsea rode their luck at times. But there wasn’t really anything you could call a guilt-edged opportunity.
Their players looked a little flat, even the till-now impressive Mesut Ozil disappearing into obscurity once again. The introduction of Sanchez helped, but he can’t do it all by himself, while Flamini did his best to win the game for Chelsea single-handedly.
I can only conclude that it comes down to the manager. Whether he over-thinks it, under-prepares it or it’s simply just ‘one of those things’, the Frenchman and his side cannot get over their Chelsea hoodoo. But then again he can just blame Costa, it’s probably all his fault!
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