Arsenal v Chelsea and Chelsea v Swansea

                                                 Arsenal v Chelsea and Chelsea v Swansea

Merry Christmas first and foremost! Now, here's a question. If your team have a very difficult fixture, like say an away game against the team that are currently top and/or your team are not playing particularly well, most will say "I'll take a draw" right? Well, does that viewpoint that a draw would be a good result still stand even your team goes 2-0 up and are pegged back to 2-2? Or if your team are 1-0 up and concede a last minute equaliser? Or if your team dominate the game, create loads of chances, miss them all and you draw 0-0? Teeny bit of a conundrum in terms of how you reflect isn't it?

Well that's how I felt on monday. OK, we didn't have LOADS of chances, but I felt we were by far the better team, which I was not expecting. I expected Arsenal to dominate us with possession and I expected our defensive frailties of late to rear their ugly head. Couldn't have been further from the truth.  Firstly, Jose's tactics appeared to be the Jose tactics of old. Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Dave (at left back again instead of Cole, presumably punished by Jose for turning up at the enemies xmas party the other week), Mikel, Lampard, Ramires, Willian, Hazard and Torres. Is that 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 I thought? Wouldn't surprise me if it was 4-3-3 with Ramires alongside Mikel and Lampard instead of supporting Torres. I suspected Jose might surprise everyone with a tactical change. Still no Mata though, 4 goals in 4 starts v Arsenal? Come on Jose..... Anyway, as the game started, it did look like 4-3-3 with Chelsea over-running the midfield, and over - run they did. It was all Chelsea. Not many chances mind, but Chelsea seemed the most likely to score. However, that has been our problem lately, being punished for being wasteful with our chances so I was still worried.

Ramires floats a head over the top after half an hour, then a few minutes later, undoubtedly the best chance of the game - Lampard smashes a volley against the crossbar. Great effort but it goes down as a missed chance for me as he was close enough to score. But it's the closest to a goal in the opening 35 minutes of what (from a neutral point of view at least, because it's rarely boring watching your own team) is shaping up to be a very boring game. Then the Library crowd of Arsenal liven up when Walcott goes down in the penalty area under a 'strikers challenge' by Willian. Is it a penalty or not? Well firstly, and I'm not being biased because if I think we have got lucky with a decision I will always say, I am not sure if it is. I'm not saying it wasn't, I'm saying I'm not sure. Walcott for me, went down very very very theatrically (and they say english players don't dive or go down theatrically) and the touch was very minimal. But I have seen them given, I've also seen them not give so I have no idea. (Sidenote: Not a fan of the pointless arguing between Neville and Carragher at half time on Monday night football, spent the whole half time review looking over and over again at the penalty shout and the John Obi Mikel tackle which wasn't a red card for me, leaving no time for analysis on the game itself. Poor.)

Right on half time, Willian had a chance that forced Szczsney into a comfortable save, but one could argue that Willan should have done better. The second half was more of the same, Chelsea creating half openings if you can call them that but no end product. A moment of comedy-ish livened the game up half way through the half when Ramires was down injured, Arsenal in possession, obviously it's down to the ref to stop the game, but Ramsey decided to boot the ball out of play much to the annoyance of his own fans and players, including Giroud who ran up to him to remonstrate. I couldn't help but laugh, even Lampard ran up to him to high five him while Mikel appluaded. But receiving abuse from your own fans for kicking the ball out while a player is injured? And people say we lack class ...

Arsenals best chance came 15 minutes from time when Giroud slicked a shot wide when put through (Cech may have had it covered anyway), and it then occurred to me that Arsenal had no shots on target up to that point! Would we get credit for that? Probably not. But they did have chance on target 5 minutes from time when Cech turned a Giroud shot over the bar. But overall, we were comfortable and it was refreshing to see. I think we should have won, we were just wasteful again and we playing for a point at the end, with Luiz coming on for Torres, bit negative that.

Anyway, onto boxing day, a permanent fixture in the football calendar. While over countries shut down over Christmas, the Premier league football Christmas fixture list os something of a tradition for fans. Especially the games on Boxing day. I though, have never seen us win on Boxing day I soon figured out after acquiring tickets for me and my brother to see Chelsea v Swansea. Boxing day 1995, we lost 2-1 at home to Wimbledon and Boxing day 1997 we were at home to Wimbledon again, drawing 1-1 and I got surprising and disgusted looks for using some very naughty language in the Family stand that day. Boxing 2006, 2-2 draw v Reading, notable for the comical Essien own goal at the end that day. Boxing day 2007, the epic 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, one of the craziest games I've been to. Boxing day 2011, 1-1 v Fulham, notable that day for me and my nephew's epic walk home from Stamford Bridge to our house due to TFL's ridiculous decision to close the tubes. Only took us an hour :-)

So if we didn't win today, I wouldn't go again to a Boxing day game, but records are there to be broken anyway I thought. We had decent seats, Shed lower 3rd row from the front. Several changes were made from the Arsenal game, Luiz, Cole, Eto', Mata and Oscar came in for Dave, Cahill, Torres, Willian and Lampard. We started well and put Swansea under some real pressure, thought Jordi Amat had a header that almost found the net for Swansea before a good 10 minute period followed where Chelsea could have scored 3 or 4. Hazard fired wide through on goal, he should have scored, then followed a series of successive corners that produced chances, a half volley by Terry that was tipped over and a head from the big man himself that was cleared off the line amongst the stand out chances. Then the break through on 31 minutes, Hazard, on fire (not literally) cut inside from the left and unleashed a right foot strike that flew under the keeper and into the net. He celebrated right in f ont of us, signalling to his missus probably, as me and my brother were sat not too far in front of that area where the players wives and families sit.

Swansea's best chances came after that when Jonjo Shelvey had a close range shot that was tipped over  by Cech, that didn't threaten much after that to be fair. The second half just illustrated why Chelsea need a striker badly, Eto' should have had a hat trick but wasted three good chances, the best was seconds into the second half when he fired a cross point blank at the keeper when it was easier to score. But synonymous with our season, we failed to find the second goal to kill the game off and the last 20 minutes, Swansea tried to punish with countless possession in and around our final third, but no chances created. I was expecting them to score to punish us, but it never came. We deserved the three points I thought, but our poor finishing is still evident for everyone to see. Liverpool on Sunday and I felt that gave a really good account of themselves at City later that evening when they should have at least got a draw - at least. I don't trust our defence against the buck-toothed rascal so I expect as to score a few to stand a chance, but we are not too confident there either...

One last thing - Ramires picking up a yellow card against Arsenal means he is suspended tomorrow. Lack of options then? Simple - just play Luiz in midfield. It will solve and clarify a lot of problems Jose ...