₦airaland Forum

PDPGuy:
Despite playing 52 minutes with ten players, Chelsea had 11 shots, no opponent has done that against Arsenal in EPL this season. During the first half Arsenal had only 2 touches in the Chelsea box, their fewest in the first half of a EPL game since Dec 2021.

💙

If this isn't an evident of Arteta not being a defensive coach like they all love to parrot then i don't what it is.

Sportsweb:
Chelsea left three players up by halfway during Arsenal long throws and corner kicks forcing Arsenal to keep three players back.

It reduced congestion in the box, gave the GK space to claim crosses, and created counterattack opportunities. Smart way to defend those long throws.

Every team is going to copy this tactic...long throw era will soon d!e a natural de@th in EPL.

#CFC 🔵

Nice observation...

popizaino:
Taking out Estevao was another wrong move to me.

he is definitely right with those decisions you know

Rice seemed to have taken A red card alongside caicedo. Dude disappeared in the presence of king Reece James.

timbros:

When we were clamouring for improvement in defence, they think it's only buying of players that improve defence.

Maresca came in and said one of the first meetings he had with the players was about the defence. He changed the entire Poch tactics. It was a slow process, but we are seeing the benefit gradually now.

The same people that said our defence is good the way it is, just fix attack, period, are the ones celebrating an improved defence now.

Our attack is scoring normal average number of goals we have been scoring for 2 seasons now. What is the difference between now and then? It's just the defence that has improved. The difference is clear.

Maresca is really improving. Kudos to you, you have been supporting him from day one.

Were you on colos when you made the posts below condemning these same defenders? And you will tell young ones not to lie.

timbros:
Airmark said we have 10 defenders so therefore, we are stacked in defence.

Our defence is very okay with Badashile, Disasi, Dr. Fofana, soon to retire Silva, Dr. Reece, Dr. Chilly etc etc...

Let's focus on attack. Once fixed, we are challenging for the next title!

timbros:

Is it the Colwill we watched earlier in the season or another Colwill? James is not CB by trade.

Enzo5:
Maresca says he is going to rest James on Wednesday, so no James, no Caicedo, Santos then 😊 only if Essugo is fit and firing

Santos and Enzo . Palmer starts as attacking midfielder

timbros:
When we were clamouring for improvement in defence, they think it's only buying of players that improve defence.

Maresca came in and said one of the first meetings he had with the players was about the defence. He changed the entire Poch tactics. It was a slow process, but we are seeing the benefit gradually now.

The same people that said our defence is good the way it is, just fix attack, period, are the ones celebrating an improved defence now.

Our attack is scoring normal average number of goals we have been scoring for 2 seasons now. What is the difference between now and then? It's just the defence that has improved. The difference is clear.

Maresca is really improving. Kudos to you, you have been supporting him from day one.

Something to note. We have kept 6 clean sheet out of the 13 games played in the EPL this season. We kept just two around the same time last season.

We have scored 24 goals this season, we scored 26 goals around the same time last season which means despite adding more in the attacking zone, we have scored less goals

(Something to also note, we had our worst runs in December - January, we had 50% win rate )

Now we should be praying for Chalobah/Fofana to not get injured , at least Arsenal get better backup , na Tosin be our backup

Only King Recee James in midfield yesterday D

Na to recall Anselmino before Dortmund scam us with €10m offer to play as rb back up while James continues as a midfielder.

Stingy club

The Man with many faces

Almost thought chilwell is back

omotola90:
he is definitely right with those decisions you know

Even without the benefit of hindsight, it was still the wrong move.

You always need a tricky player when you are a man down.

These kinds of players help you win fouls and take pressure off the rest of the team with their sublime foot work.

Infact in some cases they help you distribute fouls which would have been vital for us yesterday because most arsenal players were on yellow card.

Chelsea have announced that Thiago Silva's son Isago Silva has signed his first professional contract.

fredoooooo:
I h8 Refrrees

I was a red card anyways...

Caicedobets:
lol
Iraola don loose him steeze with those poor results

And we dey line am up to take over from slot oo ...

Silentgroper:
And we dey line am up to take over from slot oo ...

Omo it's a gamble banking on such coaches to translate success to a big team
His Bournemouth team has lacked consistency

Gucciboy:
Rice seemed to have taken A red card alongside caicedo. Dude disappeared in the presence of king Reece James.

Airmark ngbo?

airmark:
Ramdeuter ngbo?

Maresca is crazy sha.

Silentgroper:
I was a red card anyways...

No doubt about it.. why is it not spuds ?

NinjaMetahuman:
Maresca is crazy sha.

The corner taker plus GK = 2 players out of 11.
Add the 3 players dealing with our boys staying far far upfield. Thats 5 players out of 11

The only thing left to deal with is the 6 opposition players attacking the box for the corner, which I think we could handle well with 7 players + GK presence in the box. (in this case, 6 players + GK because of the red card, which is still enough to deal with their 6 box players)

In one smart move, we managed to break their box overload, while outnumbering them defensively, and still set up well for the counter-attack if it presents itself!

If that's not smart coaching, I dont know what it is.

Amethyst101:
The corner taker plus GK = 2 players out of 11.
Add the 3 players dealing with our boys staying far far upfield. Thats 5 players out of 11

The only thing left to deal with is the 6 opposition players attacking the box for the corner, which I think we could handle well with 7 players + GK presence in the box. (in this case, 6 players + GK because of the red card, which is still enough to deal with their 6 box players)

In one smart move, we managed to break their box overload, while outnumbering them defensively, and still set up well for the counter-attack if it presents itself!

If that's not smart coaching, I dont know what it is.

well said.

brilliant stuff.

Gucciboy:
The Man with many faces

Almost thought chilwell is back

Who is that?

Ibime:
Who is that?

Marc guiu

drisham:
Marc guiu

Have you seen the latest Mateo Kovacic look?

Na so some players go gather millions and blend into anonymity after football with no one able to recognise them on the street. Best of both worlds.

Caicedobets:
if we don't pick stupid red cards ...
You can never tell

Our players have to work on that,, we should be d highest on red cards so far

Sportsweb:
Chelsea left three players up by halfway during Arsenal long throws and corner kicks forcing Arsenal to keep three players back.

It reduced congestion in the box, gave the GK space to claim crosses, and created counterattack opportunities. Smart way to defend those long throws.

Every team is going to copy this tactic...long throw era will soon d!e a natural de@th in EPL.

#CFC 🔵

I was telling Arsenal fans that Chelsea will expose d loop holes in their game there by making Dem to drop points... Arsenal just entered one chance

Altern8tor:
Our players have to work on that,, we should be d highest on red cards so far

we are the youngest team in the league that explains why

Amethyst101:
The corner taker plus GK = 2 players out of 11.
Add the 3 players dealing with our boys staying far far upfield. Thats 5 players out of 11

The only thing left to deal with is the 6 opposition players attacking the box for the corner, which I think we could handle well with 7 players + GK presence in the box. (in this case, 6 players + GK because of the red card, which is still enough to deal with their 6 box players)

In one smart move, we managed to break their box overload, while outnumbering them defensively, and still set up well for the counter-attack if it presents itself!

If that's not smart coaching, I dont know what it is.

Good analysis... Yet some people will open mouth waaa and say Arteta is better than Maresca... Now that Arteta has been exposed,,let's see how they will cope in d next 5 games

Sportsweb:
Caicedo 3 games ban

Romeo Lavia is nowhere to be found 💔.

Lavia has really failed us. How much are they even paying him weekly

Santos is available

airmark:
Were you on colos when you made the posts below condemning these same defenders? And you will tell young ones not to lie.

You know, I was on colos when I needed our medical team reshuffled.

I was on colos when I recommended what and what will improve our team aside buying players up and down.

You claim to have played football, but sadly, your football knowledge is hardly higher than that of my 6 year old daughter.

You are embarrassing.

timbros:
And the attackers too.

I don't know who are the personnels in our medical team, but they need to be reshuffled badly. Our injury record is nothing to write home about. And the rate these injured guys relapse is a big cause of concern.

These are some of the things that can improve a team. Not only buy buy buy buy.

Amethyst101:
The corner taker plus GK = 2 players out of 11.
Add the 3 players dealing with our boys staying far far upfield. Thats 5 players out of 11

The only thing left to deal with is the 6 opposition players attacking the box for the corner, which I think we could handle well with 7 players + GK presence in the box. (in this case, 6 players + GK because of the red card, which is still enough to deal with their 6 box players)

In one smart move, we managed to break their box overload, while outnumbering them defensively, and still set up well for the counter-attack if it presents itself!

If that's not smart coaching, I dont know what it is.

I literally typed this out yesterday for all to read, but I lost it while it was uploading, and I couldn't be bothered to retype the long post from scratch.

I just went on to call him a proper blend of an adaptive and pioneering tactician.

If you watch closely, you will find that this move was more nuanced than that. Arsenal usually start out for set pieces by keeping a wall of bodies on the back post. As the ball comes in from a throw-in or corner kick, they all run to the front post, causing chaos and increasing the chances of an error.

Not only did Maresca adapt and pioneer a tactical counter-measure by leaving 3 players up front, and keeping the box void off chaos, he also kept a wall of bodies with Arsenal at the back post, just like they do.

But watch where Sanchez is always standing. He's standing around the front post, always. Away from all the bodies.

So when the ball is then floated in, all the Chelsea players stand in front of all the Arsenal players, physically impeding that run to the front post, allowing Sanchez free of bodies to hop and claim the ball every single time, then start an attack.

It's freaking genius coaching.

Don't care what anyone says....Me I am happy to have a manager thinking with this level of tactical ingenuity, developing counter-measures (and succeeding with them) to stop the best teams in the world, in only his 2nd year of premier league management.

Singapore1:
Something to note. We have kept 6 clean sheet out of the 13 games played in the EPL this season. We kept just two around the same time last season.

We have scored 24 goals this season, we scored 26 goals around the same time last season which means despite adding more in the attacking zone, we have scored less goals

(Something to also note, we had our worst runs in December - January, we had 50% win rate )

Now we should be praying for Chalobah/Fofana to not get injured , at least Arsenal get better backup , na Tosin be our backup

Is it not glaring where our problem have been all this time?

So after all the money spent on attack and chasing away of the culprit, Jackson, we didn't outscore this time last season? You don't mean it!

The irony of the whole thing is that this same guy with these comments below is here now celebrating cleansheet and tight defence...

airmark:
You don't need any balancing rim, fix the attack. Period.

airmark:
Our defence is ok. Let's focus on how to score goals. Them defenders are supposed to do a Calvin Bassey on our attackers, for our terrible league table position.

If you check the period when these comments were made, you will shudder in disgust.....A period where you can make millions in betting if you stake your money on Chelsea conceding two or more goals per match. That is when somebody will make such comments above and yet claim he is a Chelsea fan.

Tufia!

popizaino:
Even without the benefit of hindsight, it was still the wrong move.

You always need a tricky player when you are a man down.

These kinds of players help you win fouls and take pressure off the rest of the team with their sublime foot work.

Infact in some cases they help you distribute fouls which would have been vital for us yesterday because most arsenal players were on yellow card.

It's not true. In this case, you need runners and workers. Those that can run the entire length of the pitch defending and putting in the work to cover the extra man, and on top of the that, have frightening pace to set fear in the opposition in a counter attacking move.

Maybe Estevao might have done something, it is not wrong to have runners instead, knowing Arsenal were going to push bodies up front in a bid to score a goal.

popizaino:
Nateevs can never point out something like this,always painting a flawless Maresca's image.

I think you are the one desperately looking for something to hang Maresca with.

I have called Maresca "inexperienced" on here many times. That's enough to see that I categorically do not paint a flawless image for Maresca. I just recognise how good he is and speak up for him when people call him rubbish.

There's no need for me to be fishing for problem, when he's literally managing the youngest side in the league to 2nd on the table for a second consecutive season.