Arsenal vs Chelsea - How the cards fell

Arsenal played Chelsea yesterday in one of the most critical and much anticipated clash of the Christmas/New Year time and of course of this season. Arsenal has been the dominant team this season and the onus was on them to make things happen. They were playing at home and had lost the top spot to Liverpool over the weekend. Chelsea on the other hand was trying to find out what it really needs to do to be in with a chance this season. They have been leaking goals, not scoring enough and Mourinho has been errant and maybe even eccentric with team selection upto now.

Come the big game, the teams more or less lined up like everybody expected. Arsenal back filled Koscielny with Vermaelen and Wilshere with Rosicky. They had attack in their mind and not enough spine in the midfield, which is something Arsenal have been comfortable with this season. No change in formation or tactics to note. Chelsea on the other hand go defence minded, they lose flair for purpose and lose pace for hard as nails defence. One of the rare games where all three of the midfield players, Ramires, Lampard and Mikel played, which clearly meant Chelsea was playing a switch formation. They are 4-5-1 when they don’t have the ball and going 4-3-3 when they are on the counter or attacking.

First Half: Cagey would be an understatement to summarize the first 20 minutes or so of the match. Arsenal had the ball but didn’t do much with it. While Chelsea tried to do things when they did get the ball, but they didn’t have enough quality on the park to make a difference. The first half more or less fell to that pattern, but as the half progressed, Chelsea were the better team by virtue of the chances created. The only real chance of the half went to Chelsea with Lampard finding the post at the culmination of a good counter attacking run. For Arsenal Gibbs, Walcott and Ozil were the definite under performers. For Chelsea, everybody except Hazard and the defence were poor. Well, poor they were with their touches and passes and vision. But they knew they had a job to do albeit a very boring one.

Second Half: Lets have more of the anti climax, shall we? More cagey, more arsenal possesion with nothing else to talk aboit. More chelsea inaccuracy on the counters and ball fumbling. But the game did get more physical and we saw a few cards. Midway through the second half, Chelsea infused some energy into midfield by swapping out Hazard and Willian with Schurrle and Oscar, while Arsenal didn’t use a single substitute all game! Giroud ran hard the whole game and got a couple of chances in front of goal, but they were difficult ones and didn’t trouble the Chelsea defense. Arsenal, like any home team did find some wind towards the end of the game, but it was too little too late.

Arsenal needed a win and Chelsea wanted a draw and credit to Chelsea they managed to get the result that suited them more than it suited Arsenal. This doesn’t necessarily mean Arsenal want the title more than Chelsea, but Chelsea knows it is sorting out some defensive frailties and attacking uncertainty. And a draw against the best team in the first half of the season, that too away from home, is not a bad result. For Arsenal on the other hand, a win against Chelsea would not only have given them the lead in league tables going into Christmas, it also clearly would have spelt out their aspirations and improvements this season. As it turns out, it was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. A fair result for the way the game progressed, but for the neutral who sat till 3.30AM, a goalless draw is the worst possible result!