ARSENAL 1-2 CHELSEA
Bit of an exciting start with Gibbs (who, let’s not forget was supposedly going to miss the game through injury) legging it towards the abandoned Arsenal goal to stop a Didier Drogba ball crossing the line. Followed by a brief spell of nothingness while neither side showed much in the way of conviction – or passing ability for that matter. And then as if out of nowhere, Walcott takes a shot which deflects off Ashley Cole’s hand and in past Cech. You couldn’t bloody script it really could you? So that left us 1-0 down and me wanting to punch every smug face in the crowd – not happy. Particularly when we seemed to be giving the Arsenal players so much space they were in danger of getting agoraphobic.
Still, not all was lost because their keeper was looking dodgier every time the ball was in the box and after our initial stutter, we dug in and started to get on top of the game. So, if we could just test the nervous wreck in front of the net (no, not Petr Cech this time!) we looked like we could get something out of it.
Meanwhile, Guus Hiddink looked like he was putting a bet on with his frantic hand gestures on the sidelines and Arsenal were kicking and pushing like bitches as usual – in fact, all they were missing was the hair pulling. Was it a nice change for the ref to notice though? You might usually think so but the play wasn’t exactly flowing, so the constant stop-start for free-kicks really didn’t do the game any favours.
And then something really weird happened, because I’ve always thought there are very few players good enough to beat a keeper at the near post and Florent Malouda isn’t one of them. Yet, on 33 minutes that’s exactly what he does. 1-1. A bit of careless defending nearly sees Anelka double our tally although typically the bloody post got in the way and a couple of yellows for us came in the shape of Branislav Ivanovic on van Persie and then Michael Ballack going into the back of Cesc Fabregas – so you’d almost have to say they were worth it J
And just worth a mention from the first half is Nicolas Anelka who for me, worked his bloody arse off having a right old battle to win the ball up front – and pulling it off for the most part.
1-1 at the break then.
Second half and we came out looking a bit like we’d had a nap at half-time and hadn’t quite got the sleep out of our eyes in the opening minutes. When we did wake up a bit though it’s fair to say we were the better side. Not that Arsenal didn’t have their chances – most of which seemed all too often to come from Walcott running rings around Ashley Cole, who never really looked like he’d got over his hand in their goal (pun intended obviously). Mind you, Alex had to do a bit of clearing up with a tidy overhead kick once John Terry (who’d otherwise had a solid game) had been mugged – unsurprisingly by the irritatingly good Theo Walcott, so it wasn’t just Cole I guess.
We had our fair share of chances as well, and definitely should have had a penalty with Silvestre blatantly handling the ball away from Didier Drogba. Needless to say, the commentator asking “was there intent?” wins the stupid question of the year award. And as for our midfield trio of Essien, Lampard and Ballack, they totally ran the show in the middle of the park. In fact, all of our players you’d expect to stand up and be counted, did just that to be fair.
A bit more handbags saw Frank Lampard awarded a free-kick and Arsenal’s Denilson rushing up to give the ref a shove in the chest. Would it have been just a yellow card if a Chelsea player had done the same thing? Answers on the back of a stamp for that one please.
Finally, Ashley Cole manages to stop Theo Walcott – bloody good job too seeing as he was streaking away down the pitch. And then Fabregas had the front to shout for a penalty after he’d kicked the ball straight at Terry’s hand, which, unlike Silvestre’s was firmly at his side. And on the subject of the Chelsea captain, his little floor shuffle over the ball had me laughing my arse off. Ok, so it wasn’t strictly text book defending but he somehow managed to get a free-kick out of it and it was bloody funny.
Anyway, as is par for the course in these games, it all started getting a bit tetchy, not to mention frustrating. You just knew there was another goal in us and yet as Essien stood calling for the ball while Didier Drogba was running it out of play, you couldn’t help but wonder where exactly that goal would come from. Then there was the substitutions – and I have to admit to questioning Guus Hiddink’s decision to take Nicolas Anelka off for Kalou. The Frenchman had certainly been a MOTM contender and I didn’t get it at all. Wenger’s substitutions were slightly more pleasing as he took off van Persie, Adebayor and Denilson for Arshavin (who might’ve had more impact if he’d played from the start), Bendtner and Nasri. Mind you, if nothing else, at least the late changes seemed to disrupt things enough for the Arsenal keeper to lose even more focus (if that was possible) and as Fabianski came out – and stayed out – Didier Drogba got in! Round the keeper, in the net, 84 minutes, game over!
Oh ok, so there were a few more minutes and an extra 3 added, just so we could watch Petr Cech nervously flapping at an Arshavin chance – but let’s face it, we love all that adrenalin right? Besides, Cech’s next punch out was a lot more decisive, not to mention convining, and this time – the fat lady really was singing! 🙂
TEAMS
ARSENAL: Fabianski, Silvestre, Eboue, Toure, Gibbs, Fabregas, Diaby, Denilson (Nasri 86), Adebayor (Bendtner 83), Walcott, van Persie (Arshavin 75).
Subs not used: Mannone, Ramsey, Song, Vela.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, A Cole, Alex, Lampard, Malouda, Essien, Ballack, Anelka (Kalou 82), Drogba.
Subs not used: Hilario, Belletti, Carvalho, Mancienne, Mikel, Di Santo.
Blue is the colour
