EPL UPDATE.......

Manchester United defender Chris Smalling says that Louis van Gaal’s philosophy is finally getting through to the players, and credits the manager for improving his game.
Smalling has been one of United’s best players this season, yet to miss a single minute in the Premier League or Champions League. He is also getting closer to holding down a first-team place for England.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Smalling says that Van Gaal’s training methods are responsible for this increase in his performance.

“Yeah I think he [Van Gaal] has improved me, all the coaches I’ve worked with have helped me, especially Louis van Gaal.
“We work hard and tirelessly on the training ground with our tactics, we do 11 versus 11s a lot so we know our positions and our roles down to a tee.
“The repetition has really improved my game and a lot of the other players as well.
“The manager said at the start of the season that once you’ve been with him for six months and got used to the repetition of drills, the tactics and you know your role that we will get better.”

Despite concerns over United’s style of play under Van Gaal, Smalling also feels that there has been significant improvement this season.

“Whoever comes in knows their job. We have the training routine and the philosophy of the manager so every player knows what he wants and what he expects of you on the pitch.
“It’s very clear to us as players what we need to be done come matchday. We started this season a lot better than we did last season and we can see an improvement.”

That’s very true, with United only taking five points from their first five matches last season. That said, this still feels like a job in the early stages of progress. They head into the game against Southampton with five wins from their last 14 away league

Wenger ‘doesn’t know’ how long Coq will be out for

Arsene Wenger has revealed that Francis Coquelin will miss the Capital One cup game against Tottenham on Wednesday after sustaining a knee injury in the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea.
Arsenal fans would have feared the worst when the Frenchman went down in the first half, but he got up and continued to play on.
Their fears were not misguided, however, with Wenger admitting that Coquelin does have a knock.

“It is a little knee injury. I don’t know how long it will be … certainly not for midweek … I don’t know yet how long.”

Arsenal face Spurs on Wednesday, followed by an away game at Leicester and home tie against Olympiakos in the Champions League before the international break. As you may or may not know, their other options consist of two chocolate teapots.

Wenger on Coquelin: "He has a small knee problem" – MANY MONTHS OR DECADES

16 Conclusions: Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

Nobody will talk about anything but Diego Costa’s sh*thousery, and Gabriel walking into his trap like an amateurish mouse, but there is more to discuss. We promise…
* Nothing is certain but death, taxes and Arsenal somehow contriving to shoot themselves in the foot against Chelsea. Theo Walcott recently said: “We’re going to push on and when we hit our peak, people will be more and more worried.” Congratulations Theo, you boys have officially reached Peak Arsenal. Again. We would indeed be worried if it wasn’t so sodding predictable.

* Diego Costa is Jose Mourinho: A horrible, conniving, despicable, manipulative genius. From the very first minute he was hitting the floor hard and appealing harder, shaking an imaginary yellow card with seasoned panache. But the real genius came in those few minutes before half-time when he twice hit Laurent Koscielny in the face, then chested him to the ground, then exchanged body slaps and insults with Gabriel and then – finally – snitched to teacher when the gullible Gabriel flicked out with his foot in the least violent act of the whole exchange. Bingo. Job done. Absolute genius from an utter, utter sh*thouse.

* ‘I ain’t gonna lie…I enjoyed that…Good ‘ol fashioned bruiser…’ was the Instagram message from Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney after he went into battle with Diego Costa three weeks ago. Years of wrestling with nasty strikers in the Championship and below prepared the 34-year-old Delaney to deal with the nastiest of nasty b**tards. What did he do? Ignored the sneaky, wind-up tactics and simply nailed both him and the ball in every 50-50 challenge. Perhaps if Gabriel had spent a spell at Mansfield Town on loan, he would have known to simply laugh at Costa’s pure kn*bbery. Costa set a very obvious trap and Gabriel walked straight into it like a mouse on his very first day of being a mouse.

* Chelsea fans will argue that they should have already beeen 1-0 up at that point via an Eden Hazard penalty after Gabriel tangled with the Belgian in what initially looked like strong defending but was revealed – on replay – to be Brazilio-Belgian wrestling. If it takes a replay to see the true nature of the challenge, we have to forgive Mike Dean for that mistake at least. For the record, he got the Santi Cazorla red card right, even if it’s difficult to admit that the lovely little Spaniard (who bizarrely looks like a Geordie Shore cast member) should have seen red. We wanted to hold him a little bit.

* If Arsenal had been smarter, it would have been Chelsea reduced to ten men before half-time. In the eighth minute, Branislav Ivanovic was a stumbling duck as Alexis Sanchez accelerated past him; why did it take another 20 minutes of football to force the Serb into a second foul? And why did it take another 20 minutes of football to force him into a third foul that earned him a yellow card? If Sanchez had stayed wide and targeted the Chelsea captain, he would have been trudging slowly off before the interval. Martin Keown recently said that the Gunners are ‘too nice’ – any other side (and certainly Chelsea) would have intructed Sanchez to run at Ivanovic until he was begging to be taken off, sent off or simply put down.
That Ivanovic was making his 61st straight Premier League appearance should have surprised nobody; he has not started a league game on the bench since April 2013. The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that April 2013 came before the return of Jose Mourinho. Despite being made to look like the top-flight’s worst right-back by Jefferson Montero and Yannick Bolasie, perhaps Mourinho knew that Arsenal would not have the balls, nous or killer instinct to continue the theme.

* It was billed as a shock that John Terry was not involved against Arsenal but when Mourinho said this before the game – “I try to read the game. I try to read the opponent” – he might as well have simply said “Theo Walcott is dead quick”. And when Kurt Zouma slipped and still managed to dispossess Walcott in full flight rather than opt for the traditional Terry approach of a rugby tackle, yellow card and free-kick, it looked very much like the right decision. Walcott is really not clever or creative enough to thrive when his pace is not a weapon and against Zouma, his pace was decommissioned.
Just before the half-hour, Walcott was put through by a sumptuous ball from Mesut Ozil, who began the weekend as the most creative player in Europe’s top five leagues. How he must curse that it is Walcott – who weighed up his options and chose a curled effort straight into Asmir Begovic’s arms – on the end of his lovely balls.

* Beyond the Costa arseholery, this was much, much better from Chelsea. They were pressing, they were tackling, they were squeezing the space in which Ozil, Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey like to operate. There was a wonderful tackle from Oscar in the 11th minute that indicated that this was a very different Chelsea to the one that has started the season lying down with their legs in the air.
This looked very much like a side who have been hurt by this week’s incessant talk of crisis. The combative Nemanja Matic made a return, Cesc Fabregas looked rather less like he was carrying white goods on his back and Eden Hazard showed glimpses of still being Eden Hazard. After beating just 15 players in five Premier League games, he skipped past eight tired Arsenal bodies at Stamford Bridge.
Beating ten and then nine men does not scream “we’re back” but it does whisper “you know what, we’re not that bad”.

* When it was still 11 v 11, Pedro, Costa, Hazard, Fabregas and Oscar were all drifting left and getting some real joy there. For about ten minutes, it looked very much like Hector Bellerin would be the Arsenal player designated to self-combust. There was some very cute interplay between the Chelsea players that had been missing so far this season, though it should worry Mourinho that they still struggled to create chances even with Arsenal very much on the back foot.
When the opportunity finally came, it was on the counter-attack, with a sumptuous ball from Fabregas finding Pedro pushing Arsenal’s defensive line and getting in behind Nacho Monreal. It was a warning that Fabregas was starting to find his range but the smart money was still on a half-time 0-0 stalemate. As long as Arsenal stayed compact, Chelsea were looking much prettier but ultimately toothless.

* The sight of Francis Coquelin on the ground and gesticulating towards the bench sparked a wave of worry amongst Arsenal fans that reverberated around the internet. Who was on the bench? Mikel Arteta. Get up, fella – a wobbling, one-legged Coquelin is still better than Arteta on two sturdy legs. He returned to the fray but his half-time withdrawal – coupled with Chelsea having space around the edge of the box – told the story: He had been struggling.
We have banged this drum until we have calluses on our hands but once again we must pick up the sticks to pick out the rhythm of that old classic ‘Why the f*** didn’t they buy a defensive midfielder and a striker?’ Like all the best earworms, it’s catchy but it ultimately grates. Would a better striker have taken one of Walcott’s half-chances? Would having a better defensive midfielder than Arteta on the bench have allowed Coquelin to come off when he was clearly injured? Mike Dean, Diego Costa and Gabriel are at the top of the blame list for Arsenal’s defeat but a place at 4) should be saved for Wenger and his summer malaise.

* There was a look on Santi Cazorla’s face just after the break – as Hazard started to think that he could really have a lovely afternoon against ten men – that said ‘this is going to be a hell of a long 45 minutes’. As it happens, Cazorla himself only had to suffer for another 33 minutes while his teammates chased shadows.
But for all the extra space afforded by Gabriel’s red card (and Coquelin’s withdrawal), it was from a set-piece that Chelsea typically opened the scoring. Fifteen of the 41 PL goals Arsenal have conceded since the start of last season have now been headers, and it’s little surprise when they are giving away an average 4cm a man to the opposition. Arsenal’s diddymen got absolutely nowhere near Zouma as he headed past Petr Cech. So far, so Arsenal.

* That was Fabregas’ first assist of the season. Only 17 more to go to match last season’s efforts.

* Something is not quite right with Alexis Sanchez. He’s now had 31 shots this season without scoring a Premier League goal, and his effort – hit with his studs – after a rare mix-up between Zouma and Gary Cahill made us feel a little sad. After the busiest of summers at Copa America, was he rushed back too quickly because his enthusiasm makes him a difficult man to keep on the bench? Certainly, the sharpness of last season is not quite there. Against Chelsea, he was dispossessed five times; it wouldn’t have happened if he had stayed wide and scared the bejesus out of Ivanovic.
Is he a little fatigued? Or has he now been at the club long enough to be full Arsenal?

* While Sanchez is being not quite the full Sanchez on one flank, Aaron Ramsey really is floundering on the other side. Quite why Wenger did not put Walcott or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wing and test Cesar Azpilicueta is a mystery. Or it would be a mystery if it wasn’t entirely predictable that while Mourinho ‘tried to read the opponent’, Wenger simply played the same team that had beaten Stoke. Bizarrely, the players and tactics good enough to beat Stoke at home were not good enough to make an impression on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Talking about anything other than the red card that changed the game will inevitably lead to cries of ‘Diego Costa is a c***. Full stop’ but there were enough clues in the opening 40-odd minutes that Arsenal were going to struggle to score against Chelsea. They were way too narrow and walked into Chelsea’s plan of trying to make them operate in a packed midfield.

* Even at 1-0 up against ten men, there was still time for a wonderfully Mourinho-esque substitution. Off came Oscar and on went Ramires. The result was that Chelsea’s players lost their urgency, having heard the clear message from the bench that they were to protect their narrow lead. They had been sweeping forward and cutting through at will, but were now passing the ball sideways and looking more like the Chelsea that finished last season at walking pace. Arsenal sniffed an opportunity and for a few minutes at least, an equaliser would not have been entirely surprising.
Then came Cazorla’s red card and the game was over, the second goal as inevitable as Wenger and Jose Mourinho’s rather amusing post-match reaction.

* Where does this leave Chelsea? Certainly with pride restored, and nobody would be shocked to see them put together a sequence of victories against Newcastle, Southampton, Aston Villa and West Ham. By the end of October, talk of ‘crisis’ could be long forgotten, to be replaced by ‘transition’, which has become a byword for acceptable failure. Hazard and Fabregas in particular will sleep rather easier after that 90 minutes, while Costa will sleep like an overgrown, ugly baby, gently snoring and dreaming of the joys of tempting a grown man into kicking you like a petulant child.

* As for Arsenal, the injustice of Costa escaping with a yellow card will propel them through the next few weeks. Will it propel them towards a title challenge? Sorry but no. “No one is going to remember the start of the season. It’s all about how we finish,” said Walcott last week. He’s right; we will have forgotten this defeat – like every other defeat to Chelsea – when they finish third. We are going to need a new drum.

Wenger: I wouldn’t like to be Mike Dean tonight

Arsene Wenger blamed referee Mike Dean for nine-man Arsenal’s insipid 2-0 defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge.
The Frenchman, who funnily enough did the same thing in the aftermath of Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, felt that Chelsea striker Diego Costa was lucky to remain on the pitch, and bemoaned the red cards handed to Gabriel and Santi Cazorla in either half.
Arsenal succumbed to their second Premier League defeat of the season through goals from Kurt Zouma and an Eden Hazard strike via a Calum Chambers deflection, but Wenger chose to concentrate on Costa’s role in Gabriel’s first-half dismissal.
Asked whether he felt a sense of injustice after the defeat, Wenger responded: “A big one. Costa is a red card.
“I would not like to be Mike Dean tonight because I cannot understand the situations and how he dealt with it,” Wenger added.
“Costa twice should be sent off with [Laurent] Koscielny. He hits him in the face in purpose. He makes a fuss of it. In every game he has aggravation and he gets away with it because of the weakness of the referee. Look at the pictures. We knew before the game he is only looking at that. We are guilty because we gave in on that and we responded to it.
“He can do what he wants, and he stays on. When somebody touches him he goes down like he has been killed. He will do the same next week and the week after and he always gets away with it.
“Gabriel should not have responded at all but the two sendings off for us and Costa staying on the pitch is a shame.”
Wenger continued to say that Costa set out to “use the naivety of Mike Dean”, with the Frenchman agreeing the same was true of Gabriel.
The Arsenal boss was also disappointed with Cazorla’s sending off in the second half at a time which he felt his side were “dominating” the game.
“We have a chance to come back into a game which we are dominating and it kills us. When you know Santi I think it was very, very accidental. If he touched him, I’m not even sure.”
Wenger then discussed the foul that lead to Chelsea’s opening goal, with Aaron Ramsey conceding a free-kick from which Zouma headed home a Cesc Fabregas delivery.
“I felt that the foul was very harsh against us. Aaron Ramsey comes out with the ball and I can’t understand how he gives the foul against us.”
On the half-time withdrawal of Francis Coquelin, Wenger added: “He has a little knee problem. We have to see how he is tomorrow but for the next game certainly we’ll be short. I don’t know, it’s difficult at the moment.
When asked on the lack of a handshake with compatriot Jose Mourinho at the end of the game, the Frenchman responded: “I’m always available,” before shaking the hand of the interviewer and leaving.

Mails: Diego Costa is sh*thouse and scrotum

We’re not sure we have ever done a Saturday Mailbox before but some things call for special service – Diego Costa being an absolute **** is one of them…
If you have anything to add on any subject, mail us at theeditor@football365.com


Diego Costa: The Fanmail
That Costa really is a petulant piece of something.
Matt, Manchester

…Diego Costa. What. A. Sh*thouse.
Gomez, MCFC

…What a scrotum he really is.
Amir (Not an Arsenal fan)

…Outside of football I can imagine if Diego Costa ever bumped into someone or danced the panic tango (that thing in the street where you both go the same way, then the other, then the same way again before awkwardly walking round each other eyes averted), then he’d grab their face, push them in the head, front up to them, probably get some of this friends to surround a passer-by wearing black screaming in their face at the outrage of it all, before elbowing some kid and walking away scot-free while all around him lie in pain and confusion.
I’m guessing Mike Dean’s only daughter is still being held in that abattoir basement with occasional videos of her looking bedraggled sent over to his office in unmarked brown envelopes.
Well done Mourinho, you old cad, you have managed to make Chelsea the most detestable side in the country once more.
Alay (sour grapes are when you lose fair and square, this is more like bitter raisins), angry N15 Gooner

…Not an Arsenal fan but for me I can’t take much more of Diego Costa. What does he have on the referees? How does he stay on the pitch long enough to get Gabriel sent off? Despicable footballer making a joke of football. Clueless refereeing.
Leon NJ USA LUFC

Too Ugly To Be A Villain
I’m sure the mails about the conduct on the pitch of Diego Costa will come pouring in, and I for one would hope he finally starts picking up some proper censure post-match for his behaviour, but I was more interested in the BT commentator referring to him as “looking like a villain from a Spaghetti Western”. Even with a poncho and rotten cigar in his mouth, Eli Wallach is still way better looking.
Jay Tea

Making It About Liverpool…Of Course
Can’t believe Costa was so intent starting a bar fight. How the flying f**K did Costa stay back? Luis Suarez is an absolute angel.
Tag (can we buy Costa in January?) LFC

Mike Dean: The Fanmail
This is 85 minutes into the Chelsea game. Is there a way to stop Mike Dean from officiating football games? On an unrelated note, I’m actually quite proud of this Arsenal side. Yes, we’ve lost this, but I’m proud to be a Gooner right now.
Chelsea really are a classless excuse for a club. I’d be ashamed to have Costa at my club, but Mike Dean, wow. Just wow. The words I have to say are probably unprintable, so I’ll stop.
Gbenekama Gideon

Arsenal: The Fanmail
Arsenal have gotten utterly predictable over the past decade; the lack of leadership, the misfortune and, ultimately, the defeats.
Over the past decade, we’ve gone from being the team that nobody, even in their prime, would like to play to one that everybody, irrespective of their own crises, would fancy playing against.
I could’ve been watching the Carling Cup final from nearly a decade ago and not known the difference. The stagnation is infuriating.
That decision not to strengthen in the summer, especially with the injuries and suspensions to supplement the lack of top-notch quality, is nothing short of criminal misjudgement.
Oh well, only 32 more games to go.
Deepak

Going Off Groundhog Day
I bet you don’t even write Arsenal articles anymore, you just have 3-4 templates, and you just switch out the nouns.
I also realise you’ve probably been receiving the same emails about Arsenal for 11 years, only with different nouns. Well, except for Wenger. Make of that what you will.
Though I have to say his post-match comments make him seem like loser. A couple of years ago you published one of my emails (never forget my 15 minutes!) in which I wrote that although Wenger keeps going on about how his team ‘learns’ from their experiences, there doesn’t seem to be any actual evidence for it. I guess a couple of years down the line we’re still waiting for lesson one to sink in.
David (I used to love Groundhog Day, but can’t watch it anymore, too painful), AFC

…I missed the Chelsea vs Arsenal game, and indeed the entire day, with a debilitating hangover, but I’m told Chelsea won 2-0. I was also told that the sun rose and, several hours later, that it went down again.
Matt Hennessey

If Only Rugby Was Any Good…
It’s game like this (Chelsea v Arsenal) that make you despair at football. It makes you question why you bother spending the time and money investing in something so lacking in quality, lacking in any form of moral substance. If rugby wasn’t so sh*t I’d be off.
Just disappointed by the whole affair.
Laurie Bentley

The Big Question
Watching the madness of the Chelsea vs Arsenal match I’m left with one important question:
Where did Ivanovic’s bald spot go?
Jason Galllagher, Montreal, Canada

Thanks For The Money, Arsene
I’m going to change tack and say that Arsene Wenger, I love you. I stuck £50 on 2-0 Chelski win. It’s like printing money! The most predictable fixture in English football Jose v Arsene. Yawn. Degsy must be on crack with them predictions! Still, as expected just when Jose needs the confidence boost he luckily gets to face Wenger: the ultimate confidence booster!
Stewie Griffin (Annual three-point donation at The Bridge!)