3 Points Thrown Away

After a reasonable start to the season and a couple of ballsy displays by the squad (Montpellier and City away) we had the right to start believing we had as good a chance as any of the other contenders for a title tilt. Chelsea at home….no problem….they hadn’t really had a test yet, we’d been away to the Champions and bossed them for ninety minutes, save an unfortunate occurrence at a set piece, ah defending set pieces… The bane of Arsenal’s lives.

From the kick off Chelsea controlled possession well, but they were not overly threatening in the opening stages, the final ball normally being picked up by a red and white shirt before getting to the real danger areas. What they did do well was press our players high up the pitch when we had possession, this resulted in hurried passes, and we seemed to lack the movement and options to get out of our half quickly. Something that up until now has been part of our success this season.

Two goals conceded from set pieces in this game, another conceded in the City game, and our first in the Southampton game. Arsenal really need to work harder on this aspect of their game. They let a good (not great) Chelsea team take all three points in an important game for us, one that could have sent out a real statement of intent to the other contenders.

So do I think we deserved a draw then? The answer to that simply is no. And the reason it’s a no is that you cannot give two dreadful goals away and say we deserved a point. Unfortunately when you give goals away you get what you deserve, and it’s been happening for too long now and for me it’s very easy to fix.

The scoreline flatters Chelsea. They did not do enough in open play to win that game, we won every major stat apart from the important one and tackle success. We gifted that game to them yesterday and that is what disappoints me most.