Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2
Djourou o.g. 31, van Persie 59, 62
A rant by Big Phil Scolari will make headlines on Monday.
Talking about the offside goal, he said, “Somebody didn’t want Arsenal to be 13 points behind leaders Chelsea.”
Note only these points (1) van Persie was one yard offside and (2) Terry and the other defenders did NOT put their arms up and (3) the linesman made an honest mistake. There is no conspiracy.
Scolari has not seemed paranoid until now. When they lost their unbeaten in 86 home record, he didn’t throw a wobbly about it. Quite rightly so. But now, for the first time, he’s let the pressure get to him.
What about Arsenal in this strange game?
ALMUNIA was at fault for the goal, throwing out to Nasri, who didn’t challenge Bosingwa or track back to recover the ball. The right back crossed into a dangerous area and the ball was stabbed in by Djourou for an own-goal.
SAGNA tightened up the defence, as always. He is a fabulous player and a fine sportsman. As John Terry dived in two-footed and late, Sagna managed to play the ball and get up quickly and not make a meal of a silly tackle. I don’t think Terry deserved it be sent off for that foul. But Sagna’s agility and class got JT out of jail.
GALLAS and Djourou defended well.
CLICHY had a poor first half because Nasri did not protect him. But he had a good second half.
DENILSON is a bantamweight in the 50-50s and not effective on the right flank. He lost five balls in the first 3 minutes and 25 seconds. But he gave RVP a sweet pass for the offside goal.
FABREGAS was shrewd and cute without being anywhere near his best. Two games as captain, two wins.
SONG had a competent second half but he’s only 10% of Vieira and 15% of Edu.
NASRI wants four or five touches of the ball and had a stinker. His knee is still dodgy and if Diaby had been fit he wouldn’t have played.
ADEBAYOR is not match fit but improved as the game went on. He had a decent 30 minutes in the second half.
VAN PERSIE scored two goals in three minutes.
Watching Chelsea you wondered : How can they be top? They haven’t won any of their big games this season. In all of their big games combined, Anelka has had zero shots on target.
They played well without the ball, doing all the things you need to do to beat Arsenal.Without the ball, they did everything right for 59 minutes. But they were very feeble with the ball. A Lampard header straight at Almunia was their only shot on target in the whole game !
Arsenal had seven shots on target, got stronger as Chelsea faded, and were in command at the end.
Even so, watching Arsenal, you wondered : How can this lot make up seven points?
They have half a team right now. Their squad is an unbalanced mixture of wannabes and good players. They need a Mikel or a Kompany and they also need a Vidic or a Sami Hyypia. They’re light years away from where they were in 1998 or 2002 or 2004. Even when they’re playing well, their style is one-dimensional.
This victory leaves them seven points behind Chelsea and ten behind Liverpool, if Liverpool beat West Ham on Monday night.
Torres is out for a month with a hamstring injury but they should beat West Ham
Overall, a weekend where everything went well for Arsenal, not just the offside goal. Hull could only draw 1-1 at Stoke, Aston Villa drew 0-0 with Fulham, and Spurs lost 1-0 at home to Everton.
CHELSEA (4-1-4-1): Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Ashley Cole; Mikel (Malouda, 70); Kalou, Lampard, Ballack, Deco (Stoch, 81); Anelka. Subs not used: Hilario (gk), Bridge, Ferreira, Miniero, Alex.
ARSENAL (4-4-1-1): Almunia; Sagna, Gallas, Djourou, Clichy; Denilson, Fabregas, Song, Nasri; Van Persie; Adebayor (Bendtner, 83). Subs not used: Fabianski (gk), Vela, Ramsey, Silvestre, Wilshere, Bendtner, Gibbs.
Yellow cards: Terry, Ivanovic.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).