Two goals from Didier Drogba saw Chelsea become Manchester United's closest challengers for the Premiership title following a come from behind win at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger must be starting to feel that this isn’t going to be his side’s season. With long term injuries to key players already having a serious effect on his squad, he now saw his team lose further ground in the race for the Premier League title in somewhat controversial circumstances.
Arsenal strike first in open game
Following the less than outstanding first part of Grand Slam Sunday between Manchester United and Liverpool, the second instalment of TV’s monetary manipulation of the fixture list produced a contest much more worthy of attention.
The game saw the coming together of the contrasting intricate build up play of Arsenal and the direct physicality of Chelsea and, right from the kick off, it provided a match that, for most of its duration, had an intriguing cut and thrust, and in its best moments, became an end-to-end battle.
Before they took the lead in the second half, Arsenal’s best efforts had come from a Robin Van Persie shot, an Emmanuel Adebayor header and a William Gallas deflection from point blank range that struck a post. Meanwhile for Chelsea the match looked like it was literally going to be one of missed opportunities as first Drogba failed to connect with the ball when through one on one with Manuel Almunia and then Salomon Kalou swung at nothing but fresh air from six yards out.
Finally, however, Arsenal managed to find the target when Chelsea decided not to put a man on their near post to defend a Cesc Fabregas corner and Bacary Sagna’s header squeezed in past a scrambling Carlo Cudicini.
Drogba turns things around
In previous games, Chelsea manager Avram Grant had received criticism from various quarters for not being able to change the course of a match with his tactics.
On this occasion, though, whilst his decision to replace Michael Ballack and Claude Makelele with Juliano Belletti and Nicolas Anelka was met with less than a warm reception from sections of the home support it had completely the desired effect.
On 73 minutes Arsenal were baffled by the absence of a linesman’s flag when Drogba and at least one other Chelsea player appeared to be offside from a long ball and the Blues’ striker punished them by pounding home the equalizer. Nine minutes later and, whilst struggling themselves with defensive injuries, Arsenal generously knocked the ball out of play to allow Joe Cole to receive treatment. In response Chelsea captain John Terry showed that, as far as he was concerned, sportsmanship had no place in the title race as, instead of returning the ball to The Gunners, he played it into touch as deep as he could in Arsenal territory. The away side subsequently struggled to get the ball back out of their half and an Anelka flick caused confusion in the Arsenal box allowing Drogba to slot home the winner.
The result saw Chelsea leapfrog Arsenal into second place, five points behind Manchester United with only seven games to go
