Chelsea vs. Arsenal: 7th February 2010, Stamford Bridge
The idea of Didier Drogba running rings around Arsenal and making Gallas look like a tool would have been just what the doctor ordered after a week where John Terry was stripped of his England captaincy and battered by the press, the same press who failed to retract any of their “child slavery” allegations when our transfer ban was lifted.
Siege mentality was touted by many and Team Terry shirts went on sale on the streets of Fulham. The Arsenal doom-mongers had been out in force all week following their defeat at the hands of Wayne Rooney, (because watching the television you’d think he played all eleven of them on his own) panicking about Drogba and forecasting upwards of 5 or 6-0.
Half of that would have been enough to keep me happy. No sooner had the crowd finished with resounding chants of “one England captain” and “John Terry” than the man himself had set up Drogba to put us ahead.
There was barely any time to be nervous but as early as the first goal came, the six minutes preceding it showed that the visitors were going to struggle trying to keep tabs on the Drog.
Malouda corner swung onto the head of JT, who was unchallenged and Drogba was delightfully unmarked as he tapped the ball past Almunia.
Surprisingly Arsenal came back into the game well, pushing for two good chances inside the first twenty minutes to no avail. It was end to end stuff until Drogba broke free on the right, played in with a pass from Lampard. Cutting inside Clichy he made the scrambling Arsenal defense look shambolic as he powered in a left foot strike (a proper African Cup of Nations goal – just for the Ivory Coast fans…Ed..
By the end of the half Fabregas had tried to get Ivanovic into trouble with a ridiculous dive and Vermaelen went to ground as if he’d been shot in the face after a collision with Malouda (who Mike Dean appeared to have it in for all afternoon) despite the fact that it was the Frenchman who was covered in blood. All of it appeared rather desperate as the visitors failed to impact before half time.
Wenger replaced Walcott with Bendtner in the hope that an all out striker would make some headway on the hour but as a contingency plan he was woeful, spending more time complaining than anything else and never looking like he would get the better of the Chelsea defense.
You can tout possession stats as much as you want, count up your shots on target and territorial numbers but Ballack was completely right in his sentiment when he pointed out that the idea of the match is to WIN. Much as we took a battering from the press after the away game in Barcelona last season, the result is what matters, not the moral high ground in terms of how entertaining you were.
We stopped them from scoring and in doing so used far less numerous chances and 200 less passes to effectively expose flaky defending on both set pieces and in open play. Despite a mass of build up play in the second half they could find no way through and ended the match having taken 1 point from 9 since they started facing real opposition at Villa. Chelsea retook the top of the table and Cech, Ivanovic, Mikel, JT among others were notable on a day when the entire team played their part.
When Scouse Sports News asked Wenger what he thought about Drogba pre-match I’m reliably informed that he had little to say other than that his streak against Arsenal had to end soon. What he probably didn’t consider was that in order for this to happen he might have to actually alter his time honoured and totally unrewarding footballing philosophy which granted, pounds the likes of Bolton but enables any team with half a brain to sit there and wait for his mob to run themselves stupid and wait to attack on the break. No doubt had it been Liverpool, Andy Gray would have banged on about their resolve and the spirit of St. Stevie with all his talismanic-ness on a day when they underperformed but showed the true spirit of champions by gaining three points, but this was us - so I’m not holding my breath.
Man of the hour: More specifically men, women. kids etc. The Blue crowd came out in full voice and rarely shut up throughout the afternoon.
Tw*t of the day: Who else but Arsene Wenger? For a multitude of reasons, but specifically because he’s a sore loser. Add to that a small percentage of their fans who lit a flare (not mentioned by Sky apparently?) and pelted Chelsea players with coin and other missiles.
Chelsea: Cech, Branislav the Scouse Slayer, Carvalho, Terry(c), A. Cole, Ballack (Zhirkov 81), Mikel, Lampard, Anelka (J. Cole 86) Malouda, Drogba (Kalou 90).
Arsenal: 8 “beautiful” yet ultimately short little non-English speaking adoptees from the Wenger home for underprivileged ethnic children, a scruffy looking keeper who should learn to keep his opinions about Chelsea fans to himself, Gallas (booooo) and a Meerkat.