In years gone past reflecting on a defeat at Stamford Bridge would have been a painful blog post to write. Time and again we never learned from our mistakes and just continued to be mediocre under Wenger. Although yesterday was a 3-2 loss it was nothing like the others. There are things to improve but there are so many reasons to be optimistic for the future.

First off let’s start off with the negatives and get them out of the way. Unfortunately when someone coaches the same club for 22 years and abuptly leaves a new manager with the same set of defenders it can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Apart from Sokratis and Lichtstiener every other defender in our squad played under Wenger. Although Emery is employing the new style from playing out from the back we are still susceptible to the long ball like in days gone past. We even let Morata score for crying out loud. If I have to pick on someone, I have to say Hector Bellerin had a shocker of a game, in both instances for the opening two goals he was caught out. Lacazette for all the positives he showed against City gave the ball away and showed little desire to win it back, leading to the third.

After going down 2-0 we had so many golden opportunities. We took two of them to be fair, but there were many easier tap ins we should have taken. It could have and should have and really should have been 4-2 going into half time. For all the years we have been crying out for a clincal striker, for all the years we have been disappointed by poor finishing, for a striker of Aubameyang’s calibre we really should be expecting better. I know he will come good but it was just frustrating to see.

Onto the positives of which there was many. The fact that we came back at all was a massive improvement from the Wenger days. Back in those days we would not have a single ounce of Mental Strength. Not only would we not come back, we would capitulate and let it get to 5-0 or 6-0. The fact that we squared it to 2-2 was the greatest breath of fresh air as an Arsenal fan for years. Its not to say Wenger never came back, but against big teams like Chelsea in recent years it would never happen, our comebacks were limited to smaller teams as we had no mental strength. We lost the game eventually but this comeback gives me plenty of hope.

Guendouzi again, an absolute gem of a player and a gem of a performance. If you didn’t know any better you’d have thought he had been playing for us for years, he is that confident and that composed, constantly controlling the tempo and picking the perfect pass. The passion he showed when goals were scored showed how much the game meants to him. With all the problems we have had in recent years in the midfield and just having a leader in there, we have found it in the most unlikely source, a 19 year old kid who only recently was in Ligue 2. Let’s make sure his workload is managed well this season and that he doesn’t get injured.

Emery was fantastic too. A certain Arsene Wenger would make substitutions only in the 80th minute and would be too loyal to certain players. Not Emery. Substitutions began at half time with Torriera. He took Ozil off, basing it off of his performance in the match and not reputation. The impact of this cannot be overstated. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that making late substitutions and the wrong substitutions reduces your chances of wining the game. Emery was constantly on the touchline, animated, motivating the players, with the desire to do well.

I said in my preview before that it would be our mentality more than anything that would determine if we would improve from the past era. I was right. Yes there were some issues tactically which will take time, but it was the mental strength Emery instilled into the players to get us to comeback from an early 2-0 deficit. It was the passion and desire shown by Guendouzi and the passion and tactical nous shown by the manager himself were basic things we did not see in the previous regime. Despite the loss we played away to a quality side and only lost due to a late goal. All of this gives up hope that with an easy run of fixtures coming up, we can be optimistic about climbing back up the table and giving the Emery era the shot in the arm it deserves.

Purchase your new Arsenal home kit at Kitbag and get an exclusive 10% discount by entering the promo code PURE10 at checkout.

NOTE: Promo code is only valid by clicking below:

The post More positive signs: Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal appeared first on Arsenal Blogger.