Drogba is far better than Adebayor – always will be.
Adebayor is a beast but Drogba is a lion, especially in big games.
Grand Slam Sunday did not change my views on those two.
Two high, diagonal balls into the box, two goals by Drogba. First one, he chests it down and it comes back to him luckily off Lampard, second one is a flick-on by Anelka.
Arsenal need a six foot four centreback and I said that many times, months ago. Toure is five ten and Gallas is about five eleven.
But Arsene Wenger values speed, skill and mobility in every position and he will never accept that he needs a big stopper like Lucio, Juan, Vidic, Hyypia, Mertesacker or Samba.
So as long as Drogba is at Chelsea, he will always take Arsenal apart. And as long as Wenger is at Arsenal, he won’t do anything about it. He takes great pride in having the two smallest centrebacks in the Premier League.
Chelsea v Arsenal was a better game than Manchester United v Liverpool because it was closer.
First half was tense, scrappy and boring. Second half was good.
At Old Trafford, Steve Bennett wrecked our Sunday morning by booking Mascherano very early. He was late on Scholes but I thought a yellow card in 11 minutes was harsh. Having looked at it again last night, I still thought it was harsh. The problem was that Mascherano never accepted it. He put his toothy, snarling grin in Bennett’s face all through the game and that was suicidal. From 11 minutes, Torres and Mascherano never thought that early call was right and they never accepted it. It was only 1-0 but the game was over when Mascherano sent himself off with ridiculous dissent about a Torres booking.
Where was captain Gerrard? What a failure of captaincy to allow the Argentinian to throw the match away like that. Why didn’t Xabi Alonso grab Mascherano more firmly to prevent his kamikaze confrontation with the ref? Because he is competing with Mascherano for a place in the midfield? If Mascherano is suspended, Alonso must play. If so, that’s a massive failure of team spirit. After he went, United hammered them 3-0.
Reina was badly at fault for two of the goals, as you saw. He started badly, kicked erratically, almost slapped one in, came late for the Wes Brown header.Then he threw a ball to Anderson, who panicked and shot wildly.
At Stamford Bridge, Arsenal played short passes in front of the Chelsea defence, so they had no chance of scoring in open play.
When Adebayor did get a glimpse, he scuffed his shot. On a Fabregas corner, Toure and Gallas made contact with the ball, which was quite promising
Lampard did nothing except let Bacary Sagna score with a slick header when Fabregas’s corner flew flat to the near post. A sweet and neat near-post header was his first goal for Arsenal. We need to see more of that. When Sagna went off injured, the defence got shakier, Anelka and Belletti came on, Drogba scored two goals. Drogba was the difference. As he has always been when Arsenal have played Chelsea.
In fact, both Ferguson and Grant picked the wrong teams.
Manchester United are so strong that Sir Alex can pick the wrong team and win anyway, most of the time. It was crazy to have Anderson playing virtually in the Tevez role. He hit one great pass for Rooney in five minutes, buzzed around like an electric bullock, but lacked the composure of Tevez in the front third. Anderson is helluva player, though, when he is intercepting and starting fast attacks from a deeper position, hitting Rooney or Tevez with a 25-yard pass. He will be awesome next season
Avram Grant wanted to play Essien and Makelele so he stuck Essien at right back, where he was very average. That was a mistake but it didn’t matter and Chelsea won anyway.
Seeing Arsenal on top from September to March always felt a little bit surreal, a bit artificial. But no sensible man knocks a team which is playing far better than last season and is top of the table.
Now that the season is over EVERYONE can admit that the squad was always too small, always too thin. The laboratory near St Albans has come up short again. This will be three seasons without a trophy. They need four more players as good as Sagna.
Arsenal have two thirds of a squad and gave us two thirds of a great season by punching way above their weight.
But in the last game of February the enterprise went into meltdown at Birmingham. Four draws and a defeat in the league, Arsenal’s worst run in four years, has turned a five-point lead into a six-point deficit.
And Arsene says he won’t buy a striker in the summer because Carlos Vela is arriving after his loan. Then, amazingly, he says it’s not only about winning trophies !
Still, we always knew that Arsenal would have a cheap team in this period. The Arsenal Property Club has £100 million wrapped up in 270 flats in Highbury Square and the board won’t get that money till late 2009. Until then you will be paying the highest ticket prices in the world to watch a cheap young team.
Get used to it. And steel yourself for a season-ticket price hike. Your loyalty is needed. Your loyalty is commendable. You are the best fans in London. Your leader is the greatest spin-doctor football has ever seen. He will keep selling you the future and you’ll keep buying it for £1,700-plus a year. We play the prettiest football, we have the best kids.
Bottom line?
Manchester United are far better than Chelsea. And Arsenal are far better than Liverpool. But Liverpool will win over two legs in the Champions League. Unless Reina plays as badly as he did at Old Trafford.