4 Talking Points From Arsenal’s Humiliating 6-0 Loss To Chelsea

Arsenal were thrashed 6-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Here, Gunner333 gives us his four talking points from the game.

From ‘the Invincibles’ to an agglomeration of domestic trophies, Arsené Wenger has been the dictator of a long period of Arsenal success, with this week’s vital clash with Chelsea being his 1,000th fixture at the North-London club. His club’s attainment in the latter stages of his reign have failed to match his early efforts, but this season was offering new hope for Arsenal as we went into yesterday’s game as serious title contenders and with an FA Cup semi-final on the horizon.

Arsené’s thousandth meeting was with controversial, stirring sideliner José Mourinho, who was looking to back-up his critical comments of the Arsenal manager, with a solid three-points.

The home side started much brighter than the Gunners and after Olivier Giroud had missed a vital chance, Chelsea struck first. Schürrle unleashed a well-weighted ball for Eto’o to chase, and the Cameroonian dispatched the opener from an awkward angle. The start all Arsenal fans had dreaded, with Chelsea’s attacking presence looking formidable already.

Chelsea turned the screw as the Blues caught an un-organised Arsenal back-line once again. The German André Schürrle, this time going through by himself to convert. Now 2-0 to the home team.

The Gunners afternoon got a lot worse when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled Eden Hazard’s shot in the area in the 17th minute. A penalty given but there was confusion when referee Marriner opted to send Gibbs packing as oppose to Ox. Hazard converted from the spot to make it 3-0 with less than 20 minutes played.

Chelsea were superior in all departments and any feeble Arsenal attempts to correct the previous errors were easily dealt with by Mourinho’s side.

Amidst a roar of Chelsea dominance, 3-0 would have been taken at half-time but it looked impossible to prevent a fourth, given our child-like defensive display. Experienced Thomas Vermaelen was caught out of position, allowing Spaniard Fernando Torres to roll the ball across the goal to Oscar who knocked in an easy-finish at the far post.

Arsenal’s continued ineptitude was punished in the mid stages of the second half. Rosicky showed little intent with a pass and it was intercepted by Oscar who curled one into the far post to make it five for Mourinho’s men. Szczesny should certainly have done better though.

Arsenal were putting up a better fight of it but Chelsea broke on us once again when Azpillicueta’s long-ball dissected a vulnerable Arsenal back-line to find Egyptian Mohammed Salah. The January transfer  sliding it under Szczesny to complete the rout.

Full-time and little to say about an Arsenal team who seemed allergic to positive football, with every movement wreaking of pure footballing incompetence. A woeful 1,000th game for Arsené Wenger, who will have little to celebrate after this devastating display.

Here I will now analyse four talking points from the game:

1) Most Vulnerable With Ball

As Arsenal, we pride ourselves upon our delicate, beautiful passing game, but yesterday this was clearly our downfall. Each attempted dealing of possession frequently amounted in a stray pass causing a break-up in our play. From here Chelsea were able to take advantage of a dis-organised back-line and were able to set-up an attack with a simple pass  through the middle.

We seem able to deal with routine attacks but when teams get us on the counter, our inability to re-group leaves us wide open and unable to prevent chances.

2) Ox Unable?

Although there’s no doubting his technical ability in the attacking half, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain highlighted his frailties in the defensive part of his game. So many times was he unable to deal with Hazard’s winding runs and he struggled to break-up Chelsea’s passing play with a much-needed interception.

He must remain a permanent fixture in our line-up but could perhaps feature down the flank in big games until he seems fully capable to deal with a robust midfield portraying flair but also stability. With the Englishman on the wing, we’ve have more pace with Theo out, and we’ve certainly missed the speedster during the second half of the season.

3) Atrocious For Arsené

Arsené Wenger will always undoubtedly remain as a footballing great, but he got it all wrong yesterday. The decision not to start Flamini highlighted his frequent disregard for the defensive side of the game in favour of attacking football. To do this at Stamford Bridge was suicide.

In addition, he portrayed simple naivety at the quality of opposition and failed to adjust our tactics to counter Chelsea’s strengths. They had us on the back-foot from the start and through a constant repetition of dis-organisation we handed them chance-after-chance. Wenger’s decision to play the high defensive line only confounded our problems yesterday.

Wenger’s many achievements and admirable attitude to the game should be forever remembered, with this result a minuet blot on his copy-book. The Frenchman is a legend, but faces a real task in regaining fan trust…

4) How Far Behind?

In any other campaign a one-off thumping is recognised as the norm, but this is evidently not a one off in this particular season. We have been truly beaten by City, annihilated by Liverpool and now humiliated by the Blues. This begs the question, how far behind the rest of the pack are we?

It takes quality and consistency to win the majority of games in a season but to beat the best on most occasions takes the class we seem to forever lack. The title now seems gone for yet another season, but thankfully we’ve got an FA Cup semi final to look forward to. However, failure to bring home that cup could spell the end for Wenger.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below!