Mixed feelings about the result today. Considering the way we played i will take a draw. I think we got lucky not to get scored on after we got caught on the counter attack numerous times. At the same time we had the better chances to score a goal and we hit the post twice. Depending on how other scores go, this might turn out to be a valuable point. But we also can get punished for another under performance at home.
The first half we got outplayed, there is no question about that. Chelsea were very compact and were doing a great job of denying us space in the middle of the field and on the wings. We missed A LOT of passes and most of them led to dangerous counters and a few penalty appeals from Chelsea. In all honesty i don't think there were penalties but i have seen them given as well (Man U normally gets those calls). So kudos for the ref today who didn't make a dumb ass decision and ruin the game. Chelsea were lacking the final pass to finish those counters, otherwise we allowed them plenty of space to work with. And even though we sucked in the first half we had the better chances: in the 13th minuteTheo put a great cross in from a free kick and i couldn't believe RVP didn't score. Same thing happened a bit later when Koscielny hid the bar after another good cross.
Second half we played better. We put more passes together in a row and had more possession than we did in the first. Ramsey, who was absolutely awful in the first half and was one of the players who gave away the ball consistently, all of a sudden woke up and started making some great passes. First, he gave a great ball to RVP who miss-hit it badly. And then his game started flowing better, gave a few more good long passes to Gervinho and Santos. I was ready to bash Ramsey for his performance in the first half which was shit, but he finally played a good half of football in the second one. Van Persie was poor today. Unlike the match with Wigan, today he had more than a couple of chances to score. On a few of them, he miss-hit tough balls, but they were still chances he was scoring a few months ago. And then he had a great chance in the 85th min when he should have shot the ball with his right foot after he put the defender on his ass, instead of trying to go back to his left. So for his standards that was disappointing performance. Until he got injured, Theo was doing decent; gave a great ball for the first chance of RVP; covered a lot of ground defensively as well but since Chelsea had closed the wide areas well, he couldn't do much. Oxlade did decent too, nothing great but also showed discipline at coming back and covering on defense. Rosicky wasn't much of a factor, maybe the illness he had this week took it's toll on him.
Song also missed some passes today but overall he had a good game and gave some great balls. Gervinho was NOT good AGAIN. After he came on for Theo, i think he lost the ball at least 3 times in succession. He has to be much better than that. Except for one run on the left when he gave a decent cross he didn't do almost anything at all. Diaby was not bad, made some good runs through the middle but his final pass was lacking. Considering he has played once in like 5 months, we will give him a pass. Santos did decent but wasn't able to be a difference maker either. In all honesty, even though we played better in the second half, Chelsea had more than a couple of great chances as well. Koscielny did really well in the 87th minute to take the ball away from Sturridge's foot when he was about to shoot from the small penalty area. Sturridge also missed some other good chances, mainly because he was too greedy to shoot himself instead of trying to link up with his teammates. Torres was a constant threat as well and we did well not too give him too many chances.
Except for the fact that we were too open when Chelsea countered, the defense was solid today. Both Vermaelen and Koscielny had good games, Gibbs was good for the most part. Sagna struggled a bit in the first half when they broke away a few times on his side, but he did better in the second half. Anyway, draw was probably the fair result. The problem with that is, that we can't make any more mistakes until the end of the season. The away games at Stoke and West Brom should definitely be a concern for us, and since Newcastle won today, if they win their game in hand, they will be tied with us at the 3rd place. And so would Tottenham. So, hopefully some results go our way and we clinch that precious 3rd spot before the last game of the season. C'mon you Gunners!
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