Chelsea tasted defeat under Xabi Alonso for the first time yesterday, losing 2-1 to the defending Premier League champions, Arsenal. Given that this is now our twelfth (12th!) successive match against the Gunners that we’ve failed to win, losing once again at the Emirates should hardly be a surprise. Obviously, we were hoping for something better, and another fast start gave us real hope, but Arsenal played some brilliant football at times, got some friendly calls at other times, and did what all good
champions do: hold a lead and see out an expected win.
As disappointing as it was to walk away with no points, the Blues gave pretty good account of ourselves out there. A bounce here, a bounce there, and the result could’ve been quite different. Of course, that’s scant consolation when it comes to the scoreboard and the standings, but it is a sign of positive progress, especially so early on in the season. This will be one of the toughest challenges we face all season; we can at least take some lessons from it. As cliche as it might be, we can use this defeat to get better. (And in a way, in order to reach our eventual ambitions, we absolutely have to.)
“We are disappointed. It needs to hurt, but it needs to hurt in a positive way, because it’s just game three, still many games to play and we know it was going to be a very intense game today.”
“[We] have done many right things [but] we need to make it better, we need to learn from them, because this is the top level. When we have to play top level, we want to be as efficient and as accurate in all the phases of the game. But this is where we are, this is game three for us of this new start, this new phase that we are starting with Chelsea. But I’m happy with the spirit and the attitude from the players. They have given everything, they have tried and they fought really hard.”
“My priority is to win games [so] we want to do better, we want to be tighter, to be more clinical, more balanced. But this takes time as well. [It’s] going to be a long [season] and [this game] doesn’t have a big impact in our mood and in our mindset.”
-Xabi Alonso; source: Football.London
So, basically, it’s just one game, just one defeat, and we cannot let that sap our budding momentum. We need to learn from it, get better from it, (get healthier from it), and onwards and upwards we must go. Another big derby coming up midweek, against Leeds United in the League Cup. Perfect time for a response.
