Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla has termed Chelsea right back Branislav Ivanovic as the toughest of that he has come up against.
Arsenal have struggled to get results against the blues in the last decade. This is exactly the opposite of what history used to say about these two teams coming up against each other. Much of the turnaround in history has been facilitated by the presence of top quality defenders like John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, and Branislav Ivanovic in the Chelsea team. While Cazorla has branded Ivanovic as the toughest defender, he also terms Chelsea as a very difficult unit to score against.
Jose Mourinho has built a Chelsea team to be extremely difficult to beat and this has been the hallmark of the club over the last decade. Even though Arsenal supporters have criticised the blues has been boring, Mourinho can point out to the Premier League and League Cup medals that his team lifted last season. Arsenal played beautiful football and ended up with yet another FA Cup title to their name. They have become the record holders of the FA Cup. Cazorla is now hoping to go one step forward and lift the league title with the gunners.
“Out of the top four sides I wouldn’t even consider anyone else than Ivanovic. But in general Chelsea are the toughest team defensively because of their strong work on a one-to-one basis. One of the key areas we have to focus on next season is to be a very strong defensive team. If we’ve got those things under control our offence is already good enough. We need to make sure that the positioning of our backline is strong and always stays that way,” said Cazorla. Arsenal’s season opener for the 2015-16 season is against West Ham United at home.
