Chelsea geared up for the testing times?

Chelsea is one of the teams doing extremely well these days. They are leading the EPL and have already qualified as group leaders in the Champions league. More importantly they are getting close to the invincibility associated with Chelsea team, during their prime under Jose Mourinho. They are definitely looking like the favorites for EPL, so what do I mean by testing times. Last year this time Chelsea was almost in the same position, leading the table with Liverpool when they played the critical (proved later) match with Arsenal on 30th November which they lost 1-2 thanks to the 2 goals by Van Persie.

This was critical because it started their decline, ultimately getting the manager Scholari dismissed. If history can be given any merit Chelsea will be aware of this fact at the back of their minds. So this weekend’s match with Arsenal can be testing times for the character of the Chelsea players, one which I believe will crucial to their hopes of winning the EPL this year, considering also the fact that they will be playing much of January with out some of their key players, unavailable due to the African Cup.

I do not believe in history too much, and feel Chelsea will not crumble like last time, even if they lose the match this weekend, but then Foot ball is a strange game with unpredictable results and anything is possible. So lets wait and watch one of the much awaited matches of this season with our fingers crossed, as this might be more crucial then it seems.

Tactical fouling killing the beautiful game

The last week Manchester United Vs Arsenal match created enough impact for me to actually write this even though it is late by a few days. The feeling I got after seeing the full match was that Arsenal did not deserve to lose; the match was more or less fought on equal grounds with arguably Arsenal having the slight edge because of their style of play. The flowing single touch passes of Arsenal was quite a pleasure to watch but it was unfortunate that Manchester United successfully managed to spoil their rhythm with the huge number of fouls, Fletcher in particular looked like he was there only to foul the opposition, a fact which also was pointed out by Arsene Wenger. The irony is that fetcher fouled no less than 6 times but did not even receive a single card for it. I do not think the English referees are too keen on seeing nice flowing football, as I am sure quite a few teams would have noticed this and will employ the same strategy with teams like Arsenal and for that matter even with Barcelona. I believe that you can do anything to win, but a team like Man U doing this surprised even me.

The second thing that struck my mind was the vulnerability of the Arsenal boys against the experienced men of Man U, it was for everyone to see that they were nervous but to concede a own goal (by Diaby) from a unchallenged cross is something that I have not seen for ages, and showed in full the darker side of team Arsenal. They say experience is everything and I could not agree more after seeing Ryan Giggs being the creator of both the goals (The pass to Rooney which crated the penalty and also the cross from which Diaby scored the own goal). Arsenal definitely needs some experience and needs to buy a few senior players, it is sad that they did not continue the good work after buying Arshavin, who again proved what experience can bring to the team by scoring a fantastic goal. This Arsenal team, I feel will disappoint its fans in the critical games, more often than not.