Capital One Cup Match Review - Arsenal 0 - 2 Chelsea

Arsenal are out of the Capital One Cup before the quarter-finals for the first time since 2002, going down in a depressingly flat game at the Emirates. I’m not going to write a lot about this one, simply because there’s not much worth writing about. To be honest, I’m finding it hard to even muster any disappointment. I couldn’t see us winning, simply because Chelsea have a reserve team that would make a decent run at the title and we….don’t.

It’s not a major criticism, although it does show that the squad is a little thin, but if a team wants to spend around £150m on a backup team to win the COC then good luck to them. Chelsea are almost certain to win it with a team like that and not many teams, bar City, can compete with that sort of squad depth.

Having said all that, neither team actually played very well. Arsenal lined up with a sort of hybrid team; Wilshere, Ramsey, Koscielny, Rosicky and Cazorla were our first XI players, complimented by the squad players Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Jenkinson and Miyaichi. And then Bendtner.

It was the sort of team that showed we would have liked to have played the full first XI, but knew we had to rotate. Chelsea on the other hand played an almost entirely fresh XI, with only Cahill having started against City. Willian, Mata, Essien, Mikel and David Luiz are just some of the expensive talents that the Chavs had the luxury of naming in a second string team. Juan Mata in a second string team, the mind boggles.

Despite having such a strong team though, Chelsea didn’t exactly play with intent. Both teams were cautious and we looked to be trying to find our feet. With some unfamiliar faces in the team, we seemed a bit disjointed and Ryo and Bendtner in particular struggled badly. We looked alright coming forward and put together a few nice moves, while Chelsea would probe and shoot over or straight at Fabianski. But, after a cautious and fairly promising opening, we didn’t so much shoot ourselves in the foot as blow it off with a bazooka.

Chelsea broke quickly after an Arsenal attack and Ramsey did well to get a slide tackle in, which popped the ball high into the air. Wilshere and Jenkinson converged, Wilshere seemed to claim it, but Jenks panicked and tried to head the ball back to Fabianski. The header was quite frankly appalling, selling Fabianski short and allowing Azpilicueta to nip the ball into the net.

There are few words to describe how calamitously embarrassing a goal it was. Pub football teams would hang their heads in shame. For me, all three players were at fault. Wilshere claimed the ball then seemed to hesitate and wasn’t clear enough. Jenkinson lost his head and then produced a shocking header and probably will get and deserves most of the blame. Finally, Fabianski was far too slow and didn’t challenge the Chelsea right-back for the ball, simply dithered and made a weak attempt to stop the ball.

The last thing you should do is gift a goal like that to Chelsea, but we went right ahead and did it. The rest of the first half was a bit flat and dejected, but we played fairly well at the start of the second. There was some more pace and drive in what we tried, which lifted the sleepy Emirates crowd. But we had no cutting edge whatsoever and it also didn’t help that we were carrying Bendtner and Ryo.

Bertrand smothered the Japanese winger with embarrassing ease, while Bendtner was nothing short of atrocious as the central striker. He was consistently miles from the balls played forward or long, brushed off the ball, miscontrolling passes, misplacing passes, failing to chase and press and in general added absolutely nothing to our attacks.

It really limited the good work of Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere and Ramsey and despite the introduction of Özil we ended up gifting a second to the visitors. We failed to deal with a ball in our box, tamely clearing to Mata on the edge of the area and allowing him all the time in the world to glide forward and smash the ball into the top far corner. Sloppy defending, exquisite finish, game over.

We put on Giroud immediately after the goal, but it was too late. The players who featured against Palace were very fatigued and despite Giroud showing us what a proper striker looks like, we couldn’t penetrate the Chelsea defence, who had only to sit back and soak up the pressure with relative ease. On a day where we could have fielded a full strength team, we’d have probably done a lot better, but we were forced to rotate and Chelsea punished our mistakes clinically.

I expected it would pan out the way it did and to be honest, we could do without the extra games the competition brings. The game does throw up some concerns though, most worryingly that we look vulnerable and disorganised at times without Flamini’s leadership and with the Frenchman set to miss all three of our big games, I will admit I’m quite concerned.

Another is the performance of Bendtner. The gap in quality between him and Giroud was brutally highlighted tonight and it was telling that the loudest song of the night was the one sung for the handsome french forward. It means we’re an injury away from crisis and seeing Bendtner, Akpom or even Chu-Young Park starting in important games. These are just a couple of the concerns that I have going into three games that could make or break our season. Let’s hope that the team stays fit and steps up in the coming weeks.

Stat of the game:

Arsenal had just one shot on target out of 13 attempts

Teams

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)Fabianski, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Monreal, Ramsey (Park 81′), Wilshere, Rosicky, Cazorla, Miyaichi (Özil 63′), Bendtner (Giroud 67′)SubsSagna, Özil, Giroud, Viviano, Park, Hayden, Yennaris

Chelsea (4-2-3-1)Schwarzer, Azpilicueta, Bertrand, Mikel?, Cahill, David Luiz, De Bruyne (Ramires 69′), Essien?, Eto’o (Ba 81′), Mata (Kalas 93’), WillianSubsIvanovic, Ramires, Torres, Hazard, Ba, Kalas, Blackman

Player Ratings

Fabianski	5/10	Didn’t have much to do, but never looked confident
Jenkinson	5/10	Remains tactically naive and made a howler for the first goal
Koscielny	7/10	Looks in sharp form and played well despite the loss
Vermaelen	6/10	Still not match fit I’d imagine, but an encouraging performance
Monreal	7/10	A strong showing. Gibbs will have to keep his form up
Ramsey	7/10	A class act even though the attack struggled
Wilshere	7/10	Added drive and directness but had nothing to hit up front
Rosicky	6/10	Did ok, but Essien and Mikel played him well
Cazorla	6/10	Full of running and tricks, but also found it tough against the Chelsea duo
Miyaichi	4/10	Horribly anonymous. In Bertrand’s pocket all night
Bedntner	3/10	Staggeringly poor. Lethargic and ineffective
Subs
Özil	6/10	Didn’t have much time to affect the game but did ok
Giroud	6/10	Immediately gave us something to work with up top, but too late
Park	N/A	Not on long enough. Still better than Bendtner