Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal – Drogba does the damage once again
Arsenal’s nemesis Didier Drogba kept up his remarkable goalscoring record against the Gunners as Chelsea managed to secure at 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.
The Ivorian forward flicked in an Ashley Cole cross with his back to goal to give his side a first half lead, and despite Arsenal enjoying plenty of possession, it was a lead that Chelsea never really looked like losing.
Alex made sure of the points with a fierce 30 yard free kick five minutes from time.
Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri went close for the Gunners in the first half, but they were well beaten by their London rivals.
This heavyweight clash started well, and Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny somehow contrived to head over the crossbar when he found himself just a yard away from goal following a corner that was flicked on, before Drogba saw a shot blocked at the other end.
Drogba then found Florent Malouda, who could only prod wide, but it was Arsenal who looked the most settled side, and Arshavin produced a terrific effort that Petr Čech did well to tip around the post, before Nasri was inches wide with a left foot shot.
Back at the other end, Lukasz Fabianski kept out a powerful Drogba effort, but the Ivorian’s moment was to come.
Ramires released Cole down the left flank, and the former Arsenal man delivered a low centre which Drogba – with his back to goal – flicked into the net via the post. He loves playing against the Gunners, this was his 13th goal in his last 11 matches against them.
Arsenal started the second period on top, and Abou Diaby saw an effort deflect narrowly wide, before an error from Sebastien Squillaci allowed Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka to run clean through, but after rounding Fabianski the former Arsenal forward could only sidefoot into the side netting when it looked easier to score.
Cole saw a goal chalked off for offside when he appeared to be level with the last man, and while Arsenal were keeping the ball well, the Blues were protecting their lead and looked dangerous on the break.
Marouane Chamakh headed wide for the Gunners when he could have done better, and as Arsène Wenger chased a goal, he threw on young forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas to partner the Moroccan. A goal did some come, but it was at the other end, and what a goal.
Five minutes from time, many expected Drogba to take a free kick around 30 yards from goal, but Brazilian defender Alex charged up to the ball and let fly with a stunning strike that Fabianski could only get a fingertip to on its way into the top corner.
Alex limped off shortly after, but his wonder strike had killed off the Gunners, and Chelsea played out the rest of the game amid joyous scenes from the Stamford Bridge stands.
They look too strong, and on this form they look the potential champions.
Imagine if Chelsea play without Lampard, Drogba, Cech, Terry, Ramires, Malouda, and Kalou ? Damn we really miss Cesc and co.
Aiming for 4th place finish again!
It wouldnt have made any difference.Remember we lost 3-0 at home with all of them playing.We simply arent in their league clinically finishing wise that is why you pay the big dough to get a player like Drogba.
We were denied a clean penalty on Chamakh right infront of the referee. Btw; is high time Mr Wenger drop Arshavin, this are the kind of game that big players show up but the only thing he do was to kill the team moral whenever we have posession in dangerous areas of the pitch he looses it, heartless son of bi*ch!
We have a team of nice ball movers and absolutely no clinical finisher whatsoever.
It is not our fault if you can not keep your players fit. It will always be Men against girls.
Arsene Wenger has never won anything with Arsenal without a George Graham defender in the side
Wenger got what he deserves. Boys vs Men.
We are playing containment football within ourselfes.
@danish, exactly, you cant win the league with stingy management. the premiership is getting tougher season by season. you need to spend and but quality strong experience players. not lightweight players. the premiership is physically demanding. Smh. The only hope of for Arsenal now is to win the FA cup, Carling cup, and focus on the Champions league. They should forget about winning the premiership this season cos they dont have the players that can win them the prem.
we made £56 million profit tho remember, Arsene says no one gives him credit for that. we should thank him for making us money n giving up on trophies
Frankly Damstar,this team is not a trophy winning side whatever Wenger tells us.
We were denied a clean penalty on Chamakh right infront of the referee. Btw; is high time Mr Wenger drop Arshavin, this are the kind of game that big players show up but the only thing he do was to kill the team moral whenever we have posession in dangerous areas of the pitch he looses it, heartless son of b**ch!
And what exactly is this rubbish about us not competing for great players int the future,is he serious and how can he say 20 years if he is not told by the board.
i dont belive u people think that monkey boy played well the best player on the pitch was alex and ewan ur a cock cos arsenal had all the ball just u have 2 give them credit on the way they defend, if we had all the best players on the pitch ie fab rvp tw tv that would have made a massive dif and also dont blame thour deffence cos 1 goal was lucky and 1 was a wonder strike
Wenger is living on past glories of his early years where every Tom,dick and jane couldnt handle our aggressive football but the PL have evolved beyond this football, today you saw that a team can both defend and attack well and still contain us without actually getting out of gear.Wenger has stood still since Mourinho and Arsenal have suffered.
if they get all there injured players back and stay fit hopefully, maybe they can push for the champions league and the two domestic cups. if they can win that dat will be a success for them. but wat am sure about is that this arsenal team can’t and won’t win the premiership. they are not physicall enough to win the league. The Gk and defence is not strong enough with quality experience strong players. They are too lightweight to win the prem. I hope arsene we know this as well. they shouldnt bother about pushing for the prem cos if they do, that might hurt them physically for other available trophy. he should now sit down with his team and they should have a priority. champions league and the domestic cups.
Im a proud gooner, we played very well. Not happy with the result but happy with the performance.
With some key players back in the team we have a great chance of finishing in the top 4 again.
Some fans are totally unrealistic and live in some lsd induced fantasy world. We have an amazing squad with the money we have, i love going to the emirates, and if we were at the bottom of the table I would still support our team, unlike some of your glory seekers.
guys our chance of getting a trophy is the Carling cup and the FA cup. Even i dont think we can win the Champions League because we dont know how to keep a clean sheet.
Agreeing with Aaa up there. We did what I’d expect with the players available. We didn’t win, but we weren’t rolled like we could’ve been. We’re without over half our first 11. I’m not talking about how we shouldve bought, coz we didn’t and we should’ve. But it could’ve been worse!
@aaa; which alex are you talking about? I hope not Song bcoz he was responsible for their 2nd goal. Re-look at how he jinked his body away from the ball thereby allowing a clean through shot on target which Fabianski couldn’t do anything about and that goal kills off the hope we have about an equaliser!!!
This is not sour grapes but if van persie was here….. Lethal. Van persie is a very aggresive forward and thats whats missing in arsnal, arshavin was key today, i really liked he’s play and he’s not afraid to shoot. Cech brilliantly saved most of the shots. Without fabregas Arsenal overplay, too many fancy touches, it irritates me that only arshavin seems to have that killer edge. I’m slowly getting fed up of supporting arsenal, i will always support them but in my heart i know that we won’t win anything without a consistently healthy lethal striker. WE need a bit of individuality, a player who doesn’t just blend into the arsenal pass and move system. A player who can step up and do his own thing. Sometimes i thing arsenal’s system seems to kill individual talent. Thus this is why van persie arshavin and fabregas are the most important players for arsenal. They are different, players that play the arsenal way but impose their own game in matches
It’s painful but life’s tough and arsenal isn’t
Conclusion: 1, We have a medical team no better than my youngest brother playin doctor, 2, we are light weight in terms of individual threat and 3 i have unfortunately given up any hope of winning anything this year. I love arsenal to bits and i’ll keep supporting but i’ll watch the invincibles on youtube. Mark my words, we will win nothing this year, it’s not out of spite but reality hits home in matches like this, even arsene wenger looked absolutely crest fallen.
Carry on gooners but our kind of football isn’t made to be champions.
Just back from the bridge… We bossed the game, proud of the team, we didn’t take our chances, gutted
i thought we played well except for the 2 perennial non-performers, diaby and arshavin.
it’s arshavin that created the gap in the wall,song just moved a bit.
the first goal was pure LUCK!
fabianski was fabulous.
Oh my goodness, Arsenal, we were so good today, but we just lucked the creativity upfront, let walcott, van persie and fabregas come back, i think we have got a chance of winning the premiership, we outplayed chelsea, created the best chances, i believe we are going to win the premiership, serious.
Every1 saying we aint gona win the premiership, just look at how we controlled the game from start to finish, but luck sometimes dont go our way against chelsea, the Drogba goal could have gone out, coz he just put his foot on it and hoped for the best, Alex goal, he just smashed it and hoped for the best, could have hit the wall and got cleared, but it dint, luck was there, all in all, we had the chances to win this match, but as always, chelsea is our boogie team, we out play them but they just score from run off play, we are going to do even better than last season, Arsenal forever.
Marouane Chamakh is not good enough to lead arsenal forward, we need a complete striker that is good both on air and can use his two feets very well, Arsenal shows a strong courage in todays match but it unfortunate that i can only see just one man upfront for arsenal. arsavin have a good game today with Abou diabi. We need a good striker in Jan transfer window. If not for sluggishness and greed, The so called Crazy wenger ought to have signed Osaze odewingie, the guy that now play for westbrom, The same happen for drogba case, He have the chance to sign drogba then before the guy signed for olympic masseles.
Wenger should be sack should he fail to sign a a complete fast striker that is good both on AIR AND BOTH FEETS respectively
You conveniently forget that Wenger doesnt give a shit about the FA cup.