By Myles Palmer
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Arsenal 2 Chelsea 2
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Henry 2, Terry 17, Henry 29, Gudjohnsen 46
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THIS WAS a big comeback by the team which led 1-0 and 2-1.
If that’s not too Irish for you.
An exciting contest in which Arsenal proved the doubters wrong.
And a moral victory for Arsene Wenger, who stuck to his guns, his kids, and his No.2 keeper.
Almunia played well.
We can now say : Dropping Lehmann was not typical Arsene.
But restoring him after two games would have been even less typical.
Chelsea came to play football.They did not kick like Man United.
And they found the champions in a highly competitive mood.
Arsenal started strongly, competed fiercely, and rocked the Blues with a sensational early goal.
They finished very strongly as well.
If Graham Poll had let them play on until the next goal, Arsenal would have won 3-2.
Pires and Henry showed a lot of bottle when the pressure was on.
Pires was flying into tackles like a man possessed.
Makelele was bemused when Pires flattened him. You could see him thinking : What the hell is going on?
Reyes was very poor again. Van Persie must start the next game.
Van Persie and Clichy should have come on sooner, not after 82 minutes.
If Mourinho can bring on two new players after 45 minutes, why can’t Wenger bring on two after 60?
Scott Parker clattered into Flamini in the box.
By the letter of the law, that should have been a penalty. A rash challenge by Parker, who was lucky.
To make that challenge in midfield is fine. But to make it in the box is very risky indeed.
Overall, some hard tackles, but nothing nasty or malicious in a good, tight battle.
A marvellous advertisement for the Premiership, broadcast to 193 countries worldwide.
THE MOST INTERESTING THING, for me, was that the stylistic difference between the teams was not as huge as some of us had claimed.
Terry and Carvalho ARE capable of going for the same ball occasionally
Both were AWOL when Fabregas hit a 25-yard pass forward to Henry, who headed the ball to Reyes and took the return pass and killed it with his right foot and smacked it elegantly into the top corner with his left.
An amazing goal, in any league.
ALMUNIA parried over a Lampard rocket.
From the corner Terry scored with a glancing header after losing Campbell with a dummy run.
POLL was wrong to allow Henry to take a quick free-kick while the ref was standing a yard from the taker.
Ther FA should clarify that rule by telling refs to blow for every free-kick, rather than allow grey areas of cheeky improvisation to arise, such as this.
No keeper has a chance if the ref does not back away.
AT HALF-TIME, Mourinho went 4-4-2, bringing on Bridge for Carvalho and Drogba for Tiago.
Within 35 seconds of the re-start, Lampard clipped ina free-kick, Gallas headed down and Gudjohnsen stooped to head the bouncing ball up into the corner of the goal for 2-2.
After that, no more goals but Henry missed a terrfic chance in 77 after a Fabregas-Henry-Fabregas-Pires move.
SO WE SAW 4 GOALS, but only one in open play, the first.
Arsenal still can’t defend set-pieces.
Arsene says his players are too small at the moment.
Size matters, but organisation and concentration matter more.
He should send Henry and Pires to Chelsea’s training ground, where they might learn how to take a corner that doesn’t hit the first defender.
Chelsea looked a bit ragged and tattered in the last 15.
Their best team could not beat an Arsenal side with an untried keeper and 3 babies in midfield.
Overall a fine performance by the Arsenal boys.
FABREGAS has carried the midfield all season.
He played a big role in both goals, and the Henry chance, and almost created the winner for van Persie, who stabbed a yard wide.
Flamini is a terrific competitor, the new Ray Parlour. You need that type of player when you play high-tempo football.
YES, ARSENAL ARE BACK !
As I say, it was a draw, but a moral victory for Arsene.
BUT EVERTON ARE STILL SECOND.
After watching them beat Liverpool 1-0, Everton are the new Porto.
I fancied Everton, but it was hard and very close and they rode their luck.
When you play 4-5-1, the one has to be selfless.
Marcus Bent was selfless.
He ran himself into the ground and fed Carsley for the only goal AND crossed a beauty for the unmarked Tim Cahill, who headed wide from six yards.
Two years ago I talked about Everton being an ambush team, like Southampton, surprising the big boys.
Everton are better than that now.
11 wins in 17 games !!!
I was in Wales last week with Dave, my Everton-supporting friend.
He said, “We couldn’t play in the Champions League because we don’t have seven subs.We don’t have 18 players.”
12th December 2004.