A short-lived Capital Cup run this year then. While this competition is clearly the least important of our priorities, Arsène showed he was in it to win it by fielding such a strong line-up. Cazorla and Rosicky got some much-needed game time and Jack Wilshere was given a chance to play himself into some form. The absence of an experienced 4th choice centre-back meant Koscielny started alongside the out of favour skipper but the surprise inclusion was Wales' best footballer, Aaron Ramsey. While many expected him to be rested, his engine is mighty impressive and I'm pretty sure he could run all week without so much as a two-minute breather.
The game was an even one and I felt the score line flattered Chelsea. One man/brain-dead, bald ignoramus disagreed:
"Chelsea's depth is much superior to Arsenal's...A Chelsea reserve team have wiped the floor with Arsenal, they haven't shown anything. Chelsea have been so superior to Arsenal tonight its almost been slightly embarrassing in how easily they have won." - Uncle Fester
There is a difference between not having squad-depth and managing to go top of the league with an injury list longer than a Marouane Chamakh goal-drought. Why do Sky and other TV and Radio broadcasters feel they need to overpay so many ex-players and managers to share their insider knowledge on the game, when so few of them have anything remotely insightful to say? Get some journos on, that's what I say.
Unfortunately, the game hinged on a poor defensive error from Carl Jenkinson. The young full-back did his best Nastasic impression and attempted to head a ball back to Fabianski, got it horribly wrong and his opposite number snuck in to slip the ball in off the post. This is not the first time Carl has made this kind of mistake - he was guilty of a similar, less costly error earlier in the game and several times in pre-season. It seems to me that these kind of errors can be avoided with work on the training ground and a few wise words from Steve Bould and the experienced defenders - something along the lines of "for fuck's sake don't do that again" maybe.
Had we not given away that goal, the game could have been quite different but Chelsea teams under Mourinho don't tend to give away leads. They wrapped up the win with a right-footed thunderbastard from Juan Mata.
Although we came fairly close a few times through Cazorla, Ramsey and Monreal, we didn't really create much in the way of clear-cut chances and it was a frustrating evening. Arsenal fans of course vented their frustration almost exclusively at Nicklas Bendtner which was pretty tedious if you ask me. Myiachi struggled to get into the game and even Park couldn't turn things round for us after his late introduction - nor could Ozil or Giroud.
It's hard to glean positives from such a disappointing result but I'll try - several players short on match-practise will be a little sharper for the experience, Santi did this and although I would have loved us to win the Capital One Cup, our injury list means that perhaps the extra games would have been a hindrance to our League and Champions League form.
I don't think that Ray 'stay on your feet' Wilkins' words should be taken too seriously (today or ever) and the real challenges lie ahead. If we can beat Liverpool on Saturday then we will forget all about what happened last night.
Man of the match : Nacho Monreal
Had we not given away that goal, the game could have been quite different but Chelsea teams under Mourinho don't tend to give away leads. They wrapped up the win with a right-footed thunderbastard from Juan Mata.
Although we came fairly close a few times through Cazorla, Ramsey and Monreal, we didn't really create much in the way of clear-cut chances and it was a frustrating evening. Arsenal fans of course vented their frustration almost exclusively at Nicklas Bendtner which was pretty tedious if you ask me. Myiachi struggled to get into the game and even Park couldn't turn things round for us after his late introduction - nor could Ozil or Giroud.
It's hard to glean positives from such a disappointing result but I'll try - several players short on match-practise will be a little sharper for the experience, Santi did this and although I would have loved us to win the Capital One Cup, our injury list means that perhaps the extra games would have been a hindrance to our League and Champions League form.
I don't think that Ray 'stay on your feet' Wilkins' words should be taken too seriously (today or ever) and the real challenges lie ahead. If we can beat Liverpool on Saturday then we will forget all about what happened last night.
Man of the match : Nacho Monreal
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