One of the most anticipated matches in the English Premier League between Arsenal and Chelsea will take place at the Emirates on Monday. Both teams are rating that match as a pivotal one in terms of the season ahead.
Chelsea have had the better of Arsenal in recent times, but the Blues manager, Carlo Ancelotti, has said that this game would not be like the previous ones. The Italian believes that the addition of some new players to the Arsenal team has given them a whole
new dimension. He singled out http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marouane-Chamakh-c24294 and said that he has opened up more options in attack for the Gunners.
A match between the 2 bitter City rivals is always dubbed as a big one, but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 has had the measure of Arsenal in the past 6 years. Arsenal has managed to win just 2 games since 2004.
In the early part of this decade, Arsenal did enjoy some good successes, including the victory in the 2004 season without losing a single game. However after that, the club saw a number of senior players leaving and hence, they went into a rebuilding phase.
It has been 5 seasons now since they have won any silver. As the Gunners were rebuilding, Chelsea was growing increasingly strong. The Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich, bought the London club and pumped in enormous amounts of cash, and brought in some
of the best players from all across Europe, and also one of the best managers in Europe, Jose Mourinho. 'The Special One' led them to back to back league titles.
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has insisted on not going for big names, and has relied on developing youngsters- a tactic which has failed to produce much results, and the patience of the board as well as the fans, it seems, is finally running out.
Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, though, believes that Wenger has made some intelligent signings last summer and has strengthened the team to a good degree.
The Italian said: "I think Arsenal changed a little bit compared with last season, not just because they were able to buy [Marouane] Chamakh who is a very good striker but also because they have improved with experience. It could be a different game compared
with last season”.
The manager went on to say that he knows that his team would have to be on guard against the potent attacking line of Arsenal. He said that the one touch football played by Arsenal is something he would have in his mind when he makes plans for the match.
Ancelotti went on to say that Arsene Wenger is a clever man and even though his team has not been able to get the results against Chelsea, he would not take Arsenal lightly at any stage.
The match against Arsenal is first of many games that will follow in the busy winter season; the Blues will play 4 games in a time span of less than 2 weeks. Various managers have been complaining about the busy schedule and, until Friday, Ancelotti was
also the same. But now he is saying that he does not mind the back to back matches and it gives him a chance to test the mental and physical toughness of his team.
Chelsea are currently on 4th place in the Premier League after starting the season with a boom, which saw them score 24 goals in the first 6 games. However, in the last 7 games they have won just one. Arsenal, on the other hand, have been more
consistent and are currently on 2nd place behind Manchester United.
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