Premier League Full Time Report: Chelsea vs. Arsenal – Part 2
The match intensity simmered down for the next 10 minutes, with the battle shifting to the midfield. However, on the twenty ninth minute mark, the next opportunity fell to Michael Essien. The midfielder broke ahead of Alex Song from a corner, but couldn't keep his header on target as the ball glanced just wide of the mark. The midfielder was clearly disgusted by that miss as he retreated back to the midfield with his head in his hands.
On the thirty second minute, Arsenal had another opportunity which went begging. This time around, it was all down to some brilliant individual play by Samir Nasri. The Frenchman got the ball outside the Chelsea area, and with no options, he decided to shimmy past Ramires but couldn't keep his shot on target. That effort was sure to be goal bound, had it not been down to some good awareness by John Terry. The defender backed away from the ball while Nasri was beating Ramires, but then managed to get back into the midfielders path, to throw him off just slightly, to keep his shot from going on target.
In the thirty fourth minute, the threat of Drogba started to come into play. The forward zipped onto a through ball, Gael Clichy tired to keep the striker from reaching the ball, but thanks to Drogba's superior upper body strength, the French side back was left kissing the grass. Drogba then pulled the trigger from the narrowest of angles. However, Fabianski did brilliantly to keep the ball out. Most Arsenal fan's had closed their eyes thinking the ball was destined for the back of the net, but those fans were clearly still imagining Almunia to be in goal for the team.
On the thirty ninth minute, there was very little that Arsenal could have done to prevent Chelsea from taking the lead through no one other than Didier Drogba. Ramires played a quick free kick into the path of Ashley Cole, who squared the ball to Drogba who went on to flick the ball into the back of the net with an outrageous back heel. The goal was in simple words, stunning. The forward was quite a few yards away from the near post and had a defender on his back. There was also very little to no space in between the keeper and the goal. Nonetheless, Drogba went on to show just why he loved playing against Arsenal as he scored his thirteenth goal in thirteen games against the club.
(Continued in part 3)
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