I hate losing to Chelsea, especially in the way that we did today. They are my least favourite team in the league (namely because their squad is full of players I loathe) and the fact that we conceded two very soft goals makes the defeat all the more difficult to take.

Ramsey a surprise

Wenger’s decision to start Aaron Ramsey was somewhat surprising for me. I like Ramsey and, yes, he performed well against Man City last week but I thought the manager would have selected Giroud after his goal against Coventry during the week.

After netting his first goal for the club, Giroud’s confidence would have been high and I would have started him as his strong, large physical presence would have caused Chelsea’s centre backs problems. His miss at the end of the game was not good but when he came on his movement presented problems for Chelsea and had he played for the whole game I feel we would have been more dangerous.

Mertesacker should have started?

The other surprise selection, if you will, was the inclusion of Koscielny at the expense of Per Mertesacker. Mertesacker has been fantastic so far this season but against Chelsea’s quick and nimble forward line I can understand why Wenger picked the more agile partnership of Koscielny and Vermaelen.

Unfortunately, though, we really missed the German as two simple set pieces led to goals and you have to think Mertesacker’s height and positioning would have made life more difficult for Chelsea.

Diaby a significant loss

Diaby’s early injury had an impact, too, as we lost a big body in midfield and I thought Chelsea had an easier time in the middle of the park following the Frenchman’s departure. Mikel was able to overpower the diminutive Cazorla and nullify his influence on the game.

Wenger says that Diaby will be out for a minimum of three weeks and I really hope that he is able to make a quick and speedy recovery.

Gervinho and Cazorla

I’m not sure if there is any other Arsenal player that can infuriate fans quite like Gervinho. A superb equaliser, yes, but it feels like for every good thing he does he manages to commit two or three careless errors.

Overall, Cazorla had a solid game but perhaps he was caught in possession one too many times.

Now, I like Cazorla, I have made no secret of that but he needs to find his accuracy with his shooting. On three occasions against Chelsea he found himself on the edge of the box with a free shooting opportunity and each time he was unable to test Cech.

Did not take our chances

We created enough chances to at least get a point out of the game. Cech made a couple of decent stops and Giroud’s finish in the final moments was, if we are being brutally honest, shocking.

So, the unbeaten run is over and it has come against a Chelsea team who don’t look like the finished article.

I don’t remember Don Vito having to make many saves and we created goal scoring opportunities but, and stop me if this sounds familiar, we just weren’t able to take them.

Work to be done

Let’s remember, though, that we are at the beginning of a very long season and as tough and annoying as this loss is to take we can’t forget the very positive start to the season we have had. It looks like there is more work for Steve Bould to do with the back four and hopefully our habit of conceding from set pieces will be rectified soon.

Yes, we lost to Chelsea and it is an extremely bitter pill to swallow but we can’t linger on the result too long as we welcome Olympiacos on Wednesday in the Champions League and a trip to the east of the capital next weekend.

One loss doesn’t erase all the good early season work we have done and hopefully we can get things back on track against West Ham.

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