Arsenal were playing against Chelsea again and it didn’t look good from the onset, with Arsenal coming off a shock 3-2 defeat last week and we missed Fabregas, Vermaelen and Van Persie leaving Diaby to fill in the hole in the middle. To make matters worse Fabianski was in goal, and he marks starting appearances with a dreadful mistake every time, it was just a matter of when he was going to leave a massive hole in our goal.
Nevertheless a relatively young side took to the field against the Blues, knowing that three points would do us a world of good as would a draw, seeing as at that time Liverpool were behind at home to Blackpool.
Arsenal had a very lively start with two headers coming close, Koscielny missing a chance where he just had to tap the ball in, but heading the ball over. Chelsea then had Malouda hitting it on the bounce, going over, and Arshavin had a mass of chances that worried the Chelsea defense, Ivanovic in particular. Nasri didn’t fare badly either with some chances, but both fell on his weaker foot. And Fabianski then marked the occasion with a typical mistake, trying to punch out the ball but slicing it into the box with a lucky clearance.
Drogba had a chance resulting from bad Arsenal defending that Fabianski then saved.
Chelsea seemed to be better in front of goal than we were however with more corners falling to them in the first half and they looked more confident in front of goal, and that showed with Arsenal passing it round the box only shooting with Nasri’s weaker foot and creating chances with crosses that had no end result, even with Chamakh playing as striker.
Meanwhile for Chelsea they were getting plenty of corners and scored through Drogba on a play that Arsenal couldn’t do today, or probably any other team in the Premier League for that matter, shooting from the near post and ending up at the back of the net. Again. Half time came with Arsenal 1-0 down from a textbook Chelsea goal, and with Diaby seemingly injured.
The second half started well with Chamakh having a few chances, beginning Arsenal’s best spell of the game. Corners come and go, no effect as Chelsea’s defending is good and shows Arsenal’s obvious weakness, and it ends with Anelka missing a glorious chance that resulted from seemingly typical as of this game, wasteful Arsenal play and confident, efficient Chelsea. Arsenal had chances but the touches on the ball were well off today, and didn’t look like scoring to say the least. As for Chelsea they were creating chances, and amazingly they were foiled by Fabianski with finally a decent game today.
Ashley Cole began to turn the tide with an offside goal, as Song tries a shot from distance but misses......... and that’s modest. We begin to try from longer distance to try and get a goal but Cech is having a good game and saves Rosicky’s shot minutes later.
The final minutes of the game tick down, with Jay-Emmanuel Thomas coming on for Wilshere having his first League start, and it still looks like box to box football, but no goals resulting from it, until Koscielny trips Anelka a good 25 yards out. Drogba looked to take the free kick but Alex pounded it past the wall, past Fabianski and almost past the net with his shot, giving Chelsea’s second of the night.
Cole gave Fabianski something to cheer about with a shot too close to him, giving him more confidence to his dry tank but it ends 2-0, Arsenal looking lively until they fell to pieces in front of goal while Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the table with clinical football. Possession was 50-50 for all of the game, and it shows, like last week, that possession can’t give you goals.