The Emirates Diaries: The Chelsea Perspective – Part 1
Arsenal and Chelsea: Two heavyweights of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 Football. Both sides aspiring for the title and verily both parties being host to a diversified fan following. While the on-field theatrics were accessible via a simple television set, here is an in depth
look at how the game was ‘perceived’ from the eyes of the everyday fanatic.
We start from the Chelsea point of view.
In the last few years Chelsea have had the better of Arsenal in the league but on a cold Monday evening all this was to change. In a nutshell: The Gunners simply dominated possession and made their home advantage count.
Chelsea started the game well, to be fair to them. They were given enough room to have an early feel of the ball and kept good possession in midfield. But as the first half progressed, Arsenal started to settle in as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 had a more cautious approach. In
the early exchanges, Arsenal’s nemesis http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Didier-Drogba-c11044 came close to scoring but the Ivorian put his short wide of the post.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873 started to cause the Chelsea full backs all sorts of problems and fed in crosses for Van Persie but the Dutchman just could not make a connection. Arsenal increased the tempo and fed men forward in support. Nasri directed a great
chip towards goal only to be denied by a great save by Cech and just when Chelsea was playing for the whistle for half time Arsenal broke the deadlock with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-Song-c4804 who finished from inside the box.
In the second half Chelsea replaced poor Obi Mikel with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ramires-c30523 in hope of getting a goal. But Arsenal with the momentum and largely thanks to sloppy defending from Chelsea added two more with Fabregas and Walcott. Arsenal was in wonderland.
Hopes of a comeback were ignited when minutes later Ivanovic scored from a Drogba free kick. However, the events that followed made it appear nothing more than a consolation as Chelsea slumped to yet another defeat.
This defeat leaves Chelsea 6 points behind Manchester United who have a game in hand. Chelsea has picked up only 6 points in the last 8 games and is the clubs worst run since 1998. What a turnaround it has been, the high flying Chelsea who everyone thought
are going to emulate the success of last season now just over a month later are fighting for a champions league spot. Something has gone horribly wrong for the SW6 club.
Those who had hoped to see Drogba out muscle the Arsenal defenders AGAIN were to be disappointed as he did not have a great game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Johan-Djourou-c18779 took care of him quite well. Malouda had a shocker of a game and was rightly subbed early into the second half.
Ancelotti believes that the lack of belief among the Chelsea players is responsible for the slump the blues are currently in. Chelsea has not won a game since November 10th and are now almost out of the title race with just half the season gone.
The Italian said:
“Obviously the confidence, if you watched the game, we don't have confidence in this moment. We are sleeping. This is the reality of this team, so when you play against good teams like Arsenal you can lose if you do not wake up.”
From those words, it’s apparent that the Chelsea manager, too, accepts that the Blues just didn’t have their mind in the game. Arsenal played well, there is no denying it, however, the final score was heavily aided by the Away team not playing to the best
of their abilities – It seemed as if, it was never a contest. While the Manchester United versus Arsenal game was scrappy and rather slow, this tie on the other hand, lacked discipline all round.
To be continued...
The article is based on the views of a Chelsea fanatic.
Tags: