Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1

By Myles Palmer

Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1

Song 44, Fabregas 51, Walcott 53, Ivanovic 57

Chelsea were smashed 3-1 last night by a fresh, sparky team that played with a lot of energy and belief.

The best Arsenal performance of the season gave them their biggest win against Chelsea for 13 years.

Song had his best game ever and scored the first goal.

Djourou did well with Koscielny at the back, the superb Wilshere relished the battle, and Walcott justified his ｓ ｅｌｅｃｔion ahead of Arshavin by making the second goal for Fabregas and scoring the third himself.

The first half was a tight game of mistakes, fouls and offsides, as both teams played a high line, compressing the play into the middle third of the pitch. Arsenal dominated but could not score. Their best effort was a wickedly dipping shot by Nasri which forced Cech to make a fantastic one-handed save.

Then Song played a one-two with Wilshere, got the ball back via Fabregas, and slammed his left foot shot across Cech in 44. Ref Clattenburg said he would have given a penalty for Paulo Ferreira's foul on Fabregas if Song's shot had not gone in.

As I said as few weeks ago, Song is up there because Wenger wants him up there. If he's doing that, it's vital that Arsenal score the first goal. And this time it was Song who landed a heavy blow on JT and company just before the interval.

THE SECOND HALF WAS EXCITING.

Outplayed in the first half, Chelsea were an unrecognisable rabble after the break, after the awful Ramires had replaced Mikel.

Arsenal came out and scored two quick goals in 51 and 53 and killed the game. An Essien challenge gave the ball to Walcott, who set up Fabregas for a tap-in.

Then Malouda was robbed by the nippy Walcott, who rifled his shot past Cech.

Carlo Ancelotti immediately took off Malouda and put on Kakouta, a 19-year old winger. Chelsea's bench was threadbare and almost everybody had noted that well before kick-off.

Chelsea huffed and puffed and Ivanovic headed in a Drogba free-kick to make it 3-1 in 57 as Fabianski stayed at home.

When Jack Wilshere got the ball in 66, he tried to move forward, slipped, and got up so fast that he trod on his hands.

When Arsenal took a 3-0 lead it was a zonal victory, a win that came from a high line, fierce pressing, interceptions, pace and momentum. They won the battle in the middle of the field, then moved swiftly towards the box.

Pressing is attacking when you don't have the ball and that's what Arsenal did, making the champions look old and slow. Chelsea played a high line too but Arsenal broke through their line again and again. That was because they were murdering Chelsea in the middle third

Walcott will always be hit-and miss but here he was brisk and efficient, making one goal and scoring another.

When Cech came out to close him down, Walcott nicked the ball square for Fabregas, jumped over the keeper, and saw his mate slot for 2-0.When Fabregas gave him a perfect return ball 111 seconds later, Walcott raced to the edge of the area and rifled a first-tome shot across Cech and into the bottom corner for  3-0. The pass was so good. He didn't need to take a touch. He just hit it.

In their wildest dream Gooners did not expect Chelsea to be pulverised in this manner. But when Arsenal play with tempo, they're dangerous.. After two weeks off, they outran Chelsea from first minute to last.

Frank Lampard was as rusty as an old Transit van and his vicious foul on Song might have been a red card with another referee.

The second period was a triumph of pressing, as Arsenal forced Chelsea to make mistakes. The Blues were so rattled that they were passing the ball to Arsenal even when they weren't being pressed.

Chamakh replaced Van Persie and was better than Van Persie. One of the reasons Chelsea didn't get back to 3-2 was Chamakh, who made nice runs and held the ball up. He is a good continuity player, as is Rosicky, who came on for a few minutes and played keep-ball. The game had been won by those two goals in 111 seconds  and Arsenal just needed to keep it won.

Truly, Chelsea were unrecognisable. But, as we used to say I was at school,  you can only play as well as you're allowed to play.

After six Premier League games without a win, Chelsea play Bolton tomorrow night

Wigan v Arsenal is also on Wednesday night.

Rodallega, N'Zogbia and in-form loanee Tom Cleverley might make Arsenal's last game of 2010 an interesting one. If Arsenal can win at Wigan, I might start using the words title and Arsenal in the same sentence. Which I haven't done for years.

Right now, Arsenal's bogey-man looks a spent force. I've been a huge fan of the Ivorian gladiator for the last seven years. At times, Drogba has been 50% of Chelsea and he's scored about 140 goals. After one legendary season at Marseilles, he has been awesome at Chelsea for most of the last six seasons. But, like Kolo Toure,  hasn't been the same player since he got malaria. For years a lot of Gooners have said : We won't beat Chelsea till he retires. Before last night, Drogba had scored 13 goals in 13 games against Arsenal.

Is Drogba finished? I wonder.

FACT : 18 games played, 20 more to play.

Big Mitch phoned after the game.

"All we gotta do is win all our games."
"Win all 20 games?" I said
"We can do it!" he said, laughing.

ARSENAL(4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy; Song, Wilshere; Nasri, Fabregas (Rosicky, 88), Walcott (Diaby, 73); Van Persie (Chamakh, 76). Subs not used Squillaci, Arshavin, Bendtner, Szczesny.

CHELSEA (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira (Bosingwa, 61), Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Essien, Mikel (Ramires, h-t), Lampard; Kalou, Drogba, Malouda (Kakuta, 56). Subs not used Turnbull, Van Aanholt, Bruma, McEachran.
Referee : Mark Clattenburg (Tyne and Wear).
Booked : Fabregas, Van Persie, Cole, Lampard, Kalou.

Dec 28, 2010