Chelsea 0-1 Arsenal – 16/12/07 – (Premier League) 17 December, 2007

I knew it! Rarely I go into a big game like this believing we can win. I had a feeling it’d be 2-0 with Gallas and van Persie scoring. Robin came very close to scoring in the second half but in the end the one goal was enough and we got all three points. And we’re still top of the league!

We started with a pretty much full strength 11. Van Persie started on the bench so Hleb supported Adebayor and Eboue took over on the right wing. Ashley Cole started for Chelsea in his first return to Arsenal. As you can expect he got a great reception.

It was a cagey start, but it always is in games like this. We were knocking the ball around well and were trying to work an attack. We got in decent positions a couple of times around the box, passing the ball around as we do, but Chelsea managed to clear it one way or another.

Almunia had a fantastic game. His first save came form a deflected Wright-Phillips shot in the 13th minute. It was a comfortable height but you’d expect most ‘keepers to push it away but he held it very well.

Tempers started to flair after half an hour. Cesc was driving into the box when Terry came flying into Fabregas. It was a terrible challenge and both Terry and Lampard came away with bookings after the mini-brawl. At the time I thought this good for us as two of their better players were on a warning. However, a few minutes later Terry limped off after a marvellous challenge from Eboue. He’ll be out for three months now and that might prove a big blow for Chelsea’s season. Well done Emmanuel.

Late in injury time of the first half we broke away from a poor goal clearance. Chelsea knocked it out for a corner so we’d have one last chance to attack before the break. Fabregas took the corner, and it was a good one. Cech came out to try and clear it but missed leaving Gallas with an open goal. He easily rose above Ben Haim to score, if that was John Terry marking him it could’ve been a different story.

The place went mad; it was an absolutely crucial goal. I have to say the crowd did really well yesterday; it’s one of the noisiest home games I’ve been to which really inspired the lads on the pitch.

In the second half things opened up a lot more. Chelsea went 4-4-2, which gave us room in midfield to work our stuff, and it was just generally more attacking a free-flowing football. Almunia made another great save on the hour from Mikel’s shot, from outside the box.

Eboue got injured with 20 minutes and this allowed the perfect opportunity to bring van Persie on. Eboue did alright actually, I sarcastically talk about injuring Terry but he was useful around the box, working well in tight spaces. Van Persie gave us a bit more going forward; with Chelsea pressing, our counter attacking football was very dangerous. Robin played off Ade who stayed as the front man.

After 74 minutes the best chance of the game fell to Shaun Wright-Phillips. A ball came in over the top of the defence and the ball fell straight to him 3 yards out. He lashed at the ball and pulled it wide. Thank God. He should’ve scored, there’s no doubt about it. His finish was bad though and we stayed in the lead.

A few minutes later we broke from the back and the ball ended up at van Persie’s feet after a squared ball from the right. It wasn’t right into his path though and he had to take it on his weaker foot. The ball went over the bar but it was a great move and it would’ve been a brilliant goal. He got a chance to make up for it though in the 85th minute. Rosicky went through on the left and squared it again to Van Persie, this time he made no mistake in the finish but the flag was up. It was Tomas who was offside on the original ball. The replays show that he was slightly too early, it was a 50:50 decision that could’ve gone either way.

Two minutes later we should’ve scored again Ade’s little cross from the left fell beautifully to van Persie who connected with a decent shot but was straight at Cech. The rebound fell to Cesc who certainly should’ve made it 2-0 but somehow he too shot straight at the Chelsea ‘keeper and they had avoided a second goal conceded.

In the 89th minute it was Chelsea’s turn at goal. Shevchenko found himself unmarked on the edge of the box and called for Lampard to cross. It was a good delivery straight onto the ex-AC Milan striker’s head but the finish was poor. He headed down, with no pace and Almunia collected. The ball went straight up the other end and Adebayor scored a perfectly good second. He had two defenders to beat and he muscled past Ben Haim to slot the ball in the bottom-right corner. I celebrated, I thought it was a great goal and a well deserved one for a good performance but the referee pulled it back. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t know what for because he wasn’t offside. He said that there was a foul on the build up to the goal but I don’t think so, it should’ve been 2-0.

Just into extra time Gilberto gave away a free kick to the visitors in a great position. Shevchenko lined it up and it was a great hit. It was going just underneath the bar with some pace but Almunia made another fantastic stop. It was right above him but he managed to see where it was going between the crowd and put it over the bar. If it’d gone in it would’ve been a bad error by Manuel, but that’s the fine line between being a goalkeeper.

95 minutes gone but there was still enough time for some controversy at the other end. It was another perfect opportunity for the second but Ashley Cole actually made a great block. Bendtner cut inside and could’ve had a shot but squared to the unmarked Cesc who wrong-footed Cech and just as he was about to pull the trigger Cole came flying in. Cesc thought fuck it, and tried to break Cole’s leg with a scissor challenge from behind. It was a beautiful moment, you could compare it to Grimandi’s challenge on Davids in DB10′s testimonial. If any of us were on the pitch we would’ve done the same thing; that was a tackled of an Arsenal fan.

Anyway, he failed to break his leg and Cashley retaliated with a shove to Fabregas’ neck. Cesc’s reaction was Eboue-esque and very unlike the Spaniard but he only did it to run down the clock, Chelsea might’ve had another attack if he didn’t. Cole got up, then went down, and then rolled around for a bit…twat. Cesc was booked but he didn’t care, the whistle went and the players went mad and we followed. All a bit confusing but we’d won the game!

It was another Ashburton Grove classic. We beat Chelsea, Cole’s comeback was great. With Gallas getting the goal it was even better. And just to rub it in that little knob’s face, Clichy was man of the match.

I hope you lot enjoyed it as much as I did, and I hope we’ll see something just as good next week. We deserved to win, good performance and great to see Cesc, Matty, Hleb and Robin back. C’MON THE ARSENAL. Thanks for reading.