Chelsea 2 v Arsenal 0

As meticulous as his preparations would have been for the game at Stamford Bridge, Arsene Wenger would have sat through the video of last Sunday’s loss to Manchester United, furiously making notes to ensure he stressed to his players, the need not to lose possession high up the pitch and then get hit on the counter attack. Wayne Rooney did precisely that a week ago, and seven days on, for Rooney, read Didier Drogba. The scourge of Gunners present was at his brutal best to stun the Gunners with a brace inside the first twenty-three minutes.

 

Un-marked
Once again, the Arsenal defence will need to question why the firstly let John Terry rise unchallenged from Florent Malouda’s corner, and then with the ball seemingly going out from the former England captain’s header for a goal-kick, allowed Drogba to nip in un-marked at the far post for Chelsea’s opener. That was with just eight minutes on the clock. A furious Wenger looked on motionless.

Lone striker
With Abou Diaby and Alex Song, Arsenal then began to get to grip in mid-field as the Gunners then went about trying to repair the early damage. Samir Nasri was more effective than aginst United and Cesc Fabregas was getting a lot of the ball. His searching pass on seventeen minutes fell right into the path of lone striker Andrey Arshavin, with a clear view of goal. The Russian’s shot although true was straight at Petr Cech, who saved with his legs. With further forays into the Chelsea half, Arsenal began to settle and looked likely to fashion a leveller, such was the level of their early possession.

Lurking
When one such attack broke down, Frank Lampard fed the ball out wide, where once again, Drogba was lurking. The powerful Ivorian, took a touch to slip past Thomas Vermaelen, before unleashing with his left foot past Manuel Almunia to double Chelsea’s lead. Still there seemed to be time for a Gunners’ revival. Playing their 4-3-3 formation however was having little affect, and especially on the right where Theo Walcott was unable to slip the shackles of Ashley Cole. It was Walcott however whose defensive game was being tested and the former Gunner almost netted a Chelsea third, which Walcott did well to block.

Dominated
The Gunners set about attacking from early in the second half, and the possession statistics will show that Arsenal dominated the game. Being two goals to the good however, Chelsea seemed content let Arsenal play. Whenever they did threaten a shot on Cech’s goal, Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Cole and Branislav Ivanovic just shut up shop to frustrate Arsenal.

Penalty denied
Nicklas Bendtner replaced Walcott just past the hour mark, and his direct powerful style ruffled Chelsea’ defence. The Dane was very unfortunate not to have been awarded a penalty when hacked down by Cole. Wenger said afterwards that Bendtner was adamant it was a penalty, but Chelsea survived. Try as they might, you just sensed that this was not going to be Arsenal’s day. There have been too many fixtures with this type of theme against Chelsea of late. With the title now all but a distant dream for Arsenal, Wenger will have to accept that - although mathematically the Gunners are still in with a shout – after back-to-back losses to United and Chelsea, once against the title race appears to be a two horse race.  

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