Match Review: Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0 - Premier League 23.12.13
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. What a tragically boring game that was. Vicious wind and incessant rain, combined with Mourinho’s ‘genius’ tactics of parking the bus made for an extremely dour spectacle. The build up to the game had given the sense that this was make or break for both teams. Chelsea have stumbled in uncharacteristic fashion this season, while we came into the game on the back of a hiding at City and a draw against Everton, which had eroded our 5 point lead at the top. A win for us would have seen us top on Christmas Day, while a defeat would have seen us slip to fourth and raised serious doubts about our title credentials. As it is, a draw means we spend Christmas in 2nd, level on points with Liverpool, but behind on goal difference.
Chelsea lined up with a three man midfield, signaling their intent, or lack of it, from the very beginning. Lampard, Mikel and Ramires often operated as a flat three, with Ramires occasionally venturing forward to press the central defenders and Arteta with Torres. The main function of the flat three in front of the two centre backs was to deny Rosicky, Özil and Walcott the space they needed to break down a Chelsea team in an ultra negative mode. Chelsea have got some very good defensive players, so of course they were successful in stopping us from playing our game. Having said that, there were two massive moments in the first half and predictably neither went our way.
Mike Dean’s first bottle job came when Walcott was clearly tripped in the area by Willian. The ball was being shielded between Walcott’s feet, Willian hooked Walcott’s leg and brought the winger down, nothing given. Everyone’s favourite Arsenal hating ref then neglected to take any action, let alone the red card that was warranted, when Mikel came flying over the top of the ball and nearly broke Arteta’s leg. The spaniard revealed after the game that the challenged had broken his shin pad and left him with a swollen ankle and frankly that’s a good outcome considering what could have been the case. Two moments that should have turned the game in our favour, ignored by an incompetent ref. But as Wenger said after the game, ‘We’re used to it’.
The ball was passed around the back, forward, then back, sideways, back, but went summarily nowhere. Time after time, we built the play up slowly only to see it break down in the Chelsea half. Hazard and Willian doubled up with the full backs on their respective sides and attempted to break forwards quickly when we lost the ball, but had little success until late in the first half. For a period of 5 or 10 minutes we went to sleep and let Chelsea in a number of times and the away side should have scored when Lampard volleyed against the bar from inside our area. Having been frustrated for most of the half, we actually went in lucky not to be behind.
The second half followed a similar, if not even more dull pattern. Arsenal probe, move breaks down, repeat. There wasn’t really much of note, apart from another dodgy tackle on Arteta and Ivanovic escaping punishment for kicking Özil in the face as he went to chest the ball. Giroud had two glorious chances to win the game. The first came from a beautiful chipped ball from Ramsey, the frenchman had time a space to set himself but skewed his shot wide. Then Rosicky and Gibbs combined to whip the ball across the six yard box, but Giroud couldn’t bundle the ball past Cech and one of Chelsea horrible thuggish defenders, I don’t know who it was and I don’t care either. That was it. A horribly damp, boring 0-0 and the home fans responded with a chorus of ‘Boring, boring Chelsea’.
If you’d said to me at the start of the season that we’d be level on points with Liverpool, I’d have been worried. As it is, we’re sitting in second a point above City and two above Chelsea and despite the fact that it could’ve been better still, I think we’ve made a magnificent effort to get where we are right now. There’s no let up though, we have 4 more games coming up in quick succession, starting with West Ham on boxing day, followed by Newcastle, Cardiff and Sp*rs. With Liverpool playing against City and Chelsea in the next few days, there’s every reason to believe we can reclaim top spot for ourselves.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Eat, drink and be merry, enjoy the company of your loved ones and cherish the time you get with them. Let’s hope we see the Gunners on top again before the year ends!
Stat of the game: Jose Mourinho claimed Chelsea controlled the game. Arsenal had 61% possession.
Teams
Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Rosicky ■, Özil, Walcott ■, Giroud
Subs
Fabianski, Jenkinson, Monreal, Flamini, Podolski, Cazorla, Bendtner
Chelsea (4-5-1)
Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpillicueta, Mikel, Lampard, Ramires ■, Hazard (Schürrle 73’), Willian (Oscar 77’), Torres (Luiz 87’)
Subs
Schwarzer, Cole, Luiz, Mata, Oscar, Schürrle, Eto’o
Player Ratings
Szczesny - 6/10 - Solid
Sagna - 6/10 - Contained Hazard with ease, tried in vain to help launch attacks
Mertesacker - 7/10 - I love this man so much, completely rock solid
Vermaelen - 6/10 - Solid for most of the game, but had a few heart attack moments
Gibbs - 6/10 - Same as Sagna but with Willian really
Arteta - 6/10 - Did a tough job well, despite numerous attempts on his life
Ramsey - 5/10 - Has really struggled in these past few weeks
Rosicky - 6/10 - Full of running and energy, did a good job
Özil - 5/10 - Denied any space, struggled to feature in the game at all
Walcott - 5/10 - Back to being frustrating, didn’t make the runs needed and went missing
Giroud - 4/10 - Had to finish that chance, questions about his ability will abound now
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