The Stamford Bridge Diaries – The Arsenal perspective - Part 1
Remember the not so old times? Locking horns with the North London neighbors, only to see Arsenal making a lot of chances, retaining possession and squandering the game in the blink of an eye? Heading into the game at Stamford
Bridge, the Gunner population not only had to mark their territory, but also had to shrug off constant attacks on their credentials – ‘same old, same old Arsenal’ was the Blues’ chant before the meeting on the 2nd of October 2010.
Initially, it felt rather naïve on part of the Chelsea, United and City fans (Liverpool, understandably taking the diplomatic way out of it based on their performances this season) constantly reminding us that what lay in store
for us was nothing more than a mirror image of what happened for the better part of the last 5 seasons. However, as things unfolded on Sunday, it was hard to believe anything had changed.
Arsenal was quick off the blocks, naturally. Chamakh had an opportunity as early as 40 seconds into the game; a low Sagna cross delivered to perfection for the Moroccan to attack. After a slight deflection from Alex, the glancing
header went whiskers away from the bar. Koscielny came close from close range.
The Away fans felt that the new signings were justified; Chamakh gave us a much needed physical presence up front for the full backs and midfielders to have their say. Koscienly and Squillaci were making their aerial presence felt
– was this a new Arsenal?
However, missing chance after chance, the picture became a lot more familiar. It was Ashley Cole’s pass to Essien’s infamous long range strike that broke Arsenal hearts all over and also his doing when he crossed in for Drogba
to flick in last season – surely not a repeat of the fiasco this time round?
However, as the full backs were busy joining up in attack, it was Ramirez’s through ball that brought the former Arsenal left back into play. Ashley Cole delivered a peach of a low cross that Drogba intricately directed towards
Fabianski’s near post. The move happened in a matter of seconds. It took some time to register what had gone on… The through ball… The low cross… the flick… the rattling of the net… Drogba rejoicing in front of the Chelsea fans… the score line reading 1-0
in the home side’s favor.
The match headed to half time. The following half saw Arsenal fighting back - Dominating play for long intervals and constantly on the prowl for an equalizer. What would happen next, we thought. Scoring was vital, even a draw
would have sufficed. But surely, surely not a defeat… What would the top team’s fans think?
We came close; Arshavin’s shot was fingered to safety by Cech. The Russian has always had a knack of scoring important goals on the big stage. Nasri often twisted his way into the Chelsea final third, as the home team defended
deep. There was an added concern though, while Chelsea were more than comfortable in staying back, making Arsenal players do the chasing, tiring themselves. After the midweek Champions League tie, the unit was already fatigued. Perhaps the Blues were quite
willing to let us hold onto possession and construct our game; as long as it was in front of them, hardly did any Arsenal player wriggle his way free of the back line to challenge the goal keeper. Further pressing forward was doing no good while it also opened
us to a counter attack.
As the Arsenal engine continued to work tirelessly to level the score, Squillaci made a mistake that saw Anelka one on one with Fabianski. The French striker was expected to score but after rounding the keeper, was only able to
rattle the side netting – Could it be an omen, we believed? The game could have been wrapped up there and then; it was hard to argue otherwise.
Tags: