arsenal 2-0

Independent:

Drogba provides ruthless finish to familiar tale of Arsenal failings
Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0
By Sam Wallace

At a break in play during the first half, Ashley Cole found himself close enough to the Arsenal fans that it was impossible to ignore the abuse directed at him from their corner of the ground. So he just pointed to the sleeve of his jersey and the golden Premier League crest that is worn by the champions alone.
As a rebuke to the Arsenal fans it is pretty-much unanswerable. Arsène Wenger's side are an accomplished team and for periods yesterday they played by far the better football but, to steal an analogy from Jose Mourinho, everyone knew how this movie was going to end. Chelsea looked like the champions and Arsenal just looked like Arsenal.
By which we mean there was no killer instinct in Wenger's side. They started quickly and might have scored within the first minute through Marouane Chamakh's header. Jack Wilshere was again a revelation for one so young. But the crucial moments in the game, those moments when the game is decided, were monopolised by Chelsea and from the moment they took the lead in the 39th minute they looked unshakeable.
That Didier Drogba scored the first goal gave the afternoon a fatalistic feel for Wenger's side. Drogba is the man who always scores against Arsenal – he has 13 goals in 13 games against them – and his presence is like a curse on Wenger's team. And because Drogba is so physically powerful so it follows that Wenger faces the accusation his team are simply not up for the fight.
But it goes a lot deeper than that. Arsenal have strong players too, they create chances and they can dominate matches. It feels like they have gone so long since they have beaten Chelsea or won a trophy – none of this current team, Gaël Clichy aside, were around for the last one in 2005 – that the problem is self-perpetuating. Arsenal cannot shake their inferiority complex. Before long yesterday they found their natural role in these encounters.
Afterwards, Wenger talked about how "easy" his team had found it dominating the game. He is a great manager and an engaging individual but it has got past the point when anyone tries to point out to him that he is ignoring the painfully obvious. Ray Wilkins was faultlessly polite about Arsenal. Rather as someone might be about a scatty relative who keeps disgracing themselves at family gatherings.
Something is badly missing from this Arsenal team and it is not just the seven first-team squad players out injured. Wenger was explicit that he believed this team was good enough to beat Chelsea. What was missing was the ruthlessness to bury Chelsea. It was not there in Chamakh's header in the first minute nor Laurent Koscielny's miss from a yard out from the resultant corner.
Carlo Ancelotti, who returned from Italy on Saturday night following his father's death, has restored the menace to Chelsea that they lost over the three years that Manchester United were champions. It was there yesterday. Chamakh pulled out of a tackle with John Obi Mikel in the build-up to the first goal. Ramires played in Ashley Cole down the left and his cross was expertly guided in by Drogba at the near post.
There were some formidable performances in this Chelsea team, albeit understated. Ramires looked excellent in midfield with his fierce turn of pace on the counter-attack. John Terry and Alex da Costa were solid. Michael Essien did not always get the better of Wilshere but he and Mikel were a bulwark against the attacking threat of Arsenal.
Wilshere makes his team tick. Only 18, he is always in a position to receive the ball. He never wastes a pass and for one so young his judgement is incredibly sound. Time and again he fetched the ball from his back four and moved it forward but Wilshere alone cannot win matches for Arsenal. He needs Chamakh to play more like a Drogba. He needs Andrei Arshavin to get involved. Chelsea's second goal on 85 minutes was a glorious hit from Alex whose free-kicks are becoming an event in their own right at Stamford Bridge. He charges at them like an old-school West Indian fast bowler and there is never much deception about which corner his shot is likely to be directed at. Lukasz Fabianski's problem yesterday was that he was never going to get there in time and – even if he had – he might not have stopped the ball.
Nicolas Anelka could have wrapped the game up after an hour when a terrible mistake by Sébastien Squillaci let him in on goal. He went round Fabianski but put the ball wide of the post.
At the final whistle, the young Arsenal substitute Jay Emmanuel-Thomas bagged Cole's shirt and quietly tucked it out of sight in his waistband. Not everyone at Arsenal loathes Cole and there was no disputing who, between him and the away fans, had the last laugh yesterday.

Match facts
Chelsea 4-3-3: Cech; Ivanovic (Ferreira, 73), Alex, Terry, Cole; Mikel (Sturridge, 89), Essien, Ramires (Zhirkov, 83); Malouda, Anelka, Drogba. Substitutes not used: Turnbull (gk), Van Aanholt, Kakuta, McEachran.
Booked Ferreira.

Arsenal 4-3-3: Fabianski; Sagna, Koscielny, Squillaci, Clichy; Diaby (Rosicky, 70), Wilshere (Emmanuel-Thomas, 81), Song; Nasri, Arshavin (Vela, 87), Chamakh. Substitutes not used: Szczesny (gk), Denilson, Djourou, Eboue.
Booked Koscielny.
Referee M Dean (Merseyside)
Man of the match Drogba
Possession Chelsea 53% Arsenal 47%
Shots on target Chelsea 6 Arsenal 5
Attendance 41,828. Match rating 7/10.

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Guardian:

Didier Drogba forces Arsenal to yield to Chelsea's greater efficiency
Kevin McCarra

If the breath is leaving Arsenal's bid for the title so early, the cause of death will be registered as suffocation by stereotype. It is hard to avoid the focus on losers who put so much into the match for no return whatever. Nonetheless it would be implausible to suggest that they had been unfortunate. A sequence of five consecutive defeats by Chelsea in all competitions is no statistical freak.
Few observers at Stamford Bridge would have been surprised that the victors made thorough use of limited opportunities. It is natural that there should be expertise in so seasoned a line-up. The squad, broadly speaking, is an ageing one but, so far as other contenders are concerned, it is taking far too long for them to drift into feebleness.
Despite a further success for Chelsea, not all stereotypes about Arsenal continue to be valid. They were not really innocuous. The openings did exist and the inability to exploit them was, in one particular case, uncanny. Wenger's men began the afternoon with great verve, as if rebuking everyone who scorns them as feeble aesthetes. Despite that, it does remain true that they are not clinical enough on occasions such as this to get the maximum benefit from their excellence.
In the first minute a Marouane Chamakh header was deflected behind and from the corner Laurent Koscielny contrived to nod the ball over the bar when the target was a mere couple of yards in front of him. While Chelsea had no influence on that, they are seldom shaken by endeavour from their opponents. The obvious prototype for the win might have been the Champions League contest at this ground last Tuesday.
Marseille have little of Arsenal's finesse yet often went on the attack, before being picked off in a 2-0 defeat. At the second goal yesterday's visitors also saw how Chelsea's patience can abruptly turn into vehemence. There was no fault on Arsenal's part once Koscielny had brought down Nicolas Anelka to earn a yellow card five minutes from the close.
The ensuing 25-yarder from the centre-half Alex had both power and movement as it roared past the left arm of the goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski. That clincher ensured a handsome prize. The Premier League leaders now stand seven points ahead of Arsenal and four ahead of second-placed Manchester City. The old claim that they are merely functional should also fall into disuse.
Chelsea might have bided their time against Arsenal but they still have 23 goals from seven league matches. The rampage has been in progress for well over a year now. It was triggered by the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti and the manager, returning from Italy following the death of his father, could see again the degree to which he has recast the style and reputation of Chelsea.
Arsenal, all the same, had a foretaste of that incisiveness well before the advent of Ancelotti. For then the lethal trait is embodied in the imposing Drogba. He now has 13 goals in 11 starts against Wenger's men, so long as a Community Shield game is included in the reckoning.
For all the visitors' endeavour and technique, Ancelotti's line-up had the air of patient men biding their time. Even when pinned back, Chelsea carried a threat. Drogba would acknowledge some excellent work in the fashioning of his chance in the 39th minute. Ramires has been rather subdued since the summer move to England but his presence was felt fully in the goal.
After he had made a tackle he found the ball played back to him and the Brazilian showed an unexpected finesse with the pass that released Ashley Cole on the left. The low cross from the former Arsenal full-back was backheeled home by Drogba via the inside of the near post.
That build-up was impressive andvindictive, as it contrasted with Arsenal's lack of efficiency when the fashioningof the final pass and shot was at issue. Ultimately they were reduced to the sort of forlorn appeal for a penalty that was liable to be dismissed by the referee, Mike Dean.
Arsenal's suffering might have been more intense still. Anelka, another of their former players, would also be profligate after the interval. With an hour gone a lapse by Sébastien Squillaci let him run through, only for the shot to be struck off target. By and large, though, Chelsea knew precisely where they were going and efficiency secured the win.
There are other issues, of course. Arsenal's verve would have more impact if Cesc Fábregas and Robin van Persie were fit. The speed of the absent Theo Walcott might also have been of help. Further, it will be a relief to Wenger when the injured centre-back Thomas Vermaelen is fit once more. At the same time, though, it has to be recognised that the signings of Squillaci and Koscielny were intended to give Arsenal a depth of resources in a critical part of the line-up.
So far, that upgrade is not apparent. Chelsea, on the other hand, rest on the tried and tested. An overhaul will be demanded eventually but they have gone on prospering regardless of the unavailability of someone such as the injured Frank Lampard. Those awaiting an implosion at Stamford Bridge will have to be patient.


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Mail:

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0: Beware the Drog - Fragile Gunners are bitten by Didier yet again

By Matt Lawton

Sick of listening to the taunts that made a rather distasteful reference to his ex-wife, Ashley Cole finally responded to the visiting supporters yesterday by kissing the gold badge that signifies Chelsea, not Arsenal, are the English champions.But this was one day when no such badge was required. When it was obvious to everyone, even those seated in the away section, that only one of the two teams here possessed the qualities necessary to win the Barclays Premier League.
For all the fine football that Arsene Wenger's side play, they continue to frustrate in their consistent failure to turn flair and fluency in possession into the hard currency of goals against this Chelsea side.
They had their chances on this occasion, not least in the opening few minutes when both Marouane Chamakh and Laurent Koscielny squandered clear opportunities to land an early blow.But still they lack the killer instinct that divides the great from the good; that, for years now at Arsenal, has been the reason why the team which so often plays the best football in this country is not the best team.As Ray Wilkins admitted afterwards, it was a battle for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
A game when they had to work tirelessly just to gain time on the ball. But they did what was necessary, with Didier Drogba and Alex scoring the goals that extended this era of dominance over their London rivals.
Since the arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004, Chelsea have lost just twice to Wenger's men; under Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Drogba has a remarkable record against them. Yesterday was his 13th goal in as many matches and his 10th victory in the same number of encounters without defeat.In Sebastien Squi l laci and Koscielny, Arsenal had two centrehalves who certainly struggled to cope with that devastating combination of power and finesse that ranks Drogba among the top two or three strikers in the world.
While it was Alex who produced something truly spectacular with a free-kick straight from the Roberto Carlos repertoire, Drogba produced a trademark finish that once again demonstrated his impressive ability to score when travelling at speed.
From the delightful ball forward by Ramires to the cross from Ashley Cole, it was a swiftly executed move. And it was all the more memorable for the way Drogba took the left-foot shot in his stride and beat Lukasz Fabianski via his near post.That goal arrived in the 39th minute, by which time Arsenal might have celebrated one or two goals of their own. Chamakh should have done better with a Bacary Sagna cross that he diverted wide with a close-range header, as should Koscielny when he somehow missed from inside the six-yard box.
Arsenal were playing some delightful stuff, with Jack Wilshere once again showing a watching Fabio Capello that the senior international stage is one he could comfortably occupy.A fine opportunity soon fell to Andrey Arshavin, who forced the save of the afternoon from Petr Cech with a well-struck shot. But with the sight of Drobga's opener came the sense that Arsenal simply could not match Chelsea for strength and power.That there is something to be said for the fact Chelsea top the scales as the Premier League's biggest team while Arsenal, so say certain statistics, are the smallest.Anyone passing Chelsea's dressing room after the match would have thought them giants, although that would have been because of the seven NBA stars - Kobe Bryant among them - who dropped in to congratulate them.An Arsenal side boasting eight French-born players mustered little in response. Chamakh might have struck had he not hesitated when receiving a cross from Arshavin but the better of the second half chances fell to Chelsea.
Having done the hard part in first stealing the ball off Squillaci and then rounding Fabianski, Nicolas Anelka contrived to shoot wide of an empty goal and into the sidenetting. Michael Essien allowed Fabianski to make what amounted to a decent save when he, too, should have scored.But from Alex came the moment of the match. An absolute missile of a free-kick that curled away from the diving Fabianski and flew into the roof of the net. A free-kick that has to rank among the fastest any goalkeeper will face.That it came as a result of Koscielny's reckless challenge on Anelka would have frustrated Wenger - as would the fact, of course, that this defeat comes after losing to West Brom the previous week.Carlo Ancelotti's side suffered a similar setback, albeit away to a Manchester City team now sitting second in the Premier League.
That the same team which lost at Eastlands also won here would have pleased Ancelotti. A point proved. But the more significant point was made to Arsenal who, for all their ability, have failed to heed the warnings of previous seasons. Their team remains a work in progress rather than the finished article.Wenger has said they are ready and in fairness to Arsenal's manager they came to Stamford Bridge without Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie. But it should say something to Wenger when Wilshere is his best player.It should say that, for all the genius that is sometimes evident in the feet of players like Arshavin and Samir Nasri, they still need to take a step up the next level. It is why Chelsea have a gold badge and Arsenal do not.

MATCH FACTS

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech 7; Ivanovic 6 (Ferreira 73min, 6), Alex 7, Terry 6, Cole 7; Essien 6, Mikel 6 (Sturridge, 89), Ramires 7 (Zhirkov, 83); Anelka 6,Drogba 7, Malouda 6.
Goals: Drogba (39), Alex (85).
Booked: Ferreira.

Arsenal (4-4-1-1): Fabianski 6; Sagna 6, Squillaci 5, Koscielny 5, Clichy 6; Nasri 6, Wilshere 8 (Emmanuel-Thomas, 81), Song 6, Arshavin 6 (Vela, 87); Diaby 6 (Rosicky 70, 6); Chamakh 6.

Booked: Koscielny.
Man of the match: Jack Wilshere.

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Sun:
Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0

By SHAUN CUSTIS
THE Drog and his Rottweilers 2 North London Pussies 0.

Arsene Wenger can argue all he likes that physical strength is not a significant factor in the battle for Premier League supremacy and that brains can triumph over brawn.
But the reality is that whenever Chelsea get their teeth into Arsenal these days, they shake them around so violently they are squealing for mercy by the end.
And nobody loves chewing up the pop-Gunners more than Didier Drogba.
Wenger said Arsenal would not be intimidated by him and shouldn't be obsessed by his presence.
But Chelsea's ace striker made it 13 goals in 13 games against them with an outrageous 39th-minute finish. Then, five minutes from time, Alex bludgeoned a second with a screaming 25-yard free-kick.
Arsenal had loads of possession and painted lots of pretty pictures. But don't they always?
There were times when Chelsea couldn't get the ball. But they didn't care because, for the most part, whenever Arsenal threatened they were too easily knocked off the ball.
They have no one to rough-up opposition defences the way Drogba does.
The Ivorian revealed last week how he could have signed for Arsenal rather than Chelsea six years ago.
Had Wenger decided to let the moths out of his wallet back then, Arsenal's trophy cabinet might not be gathering so much dust.
Marouane Chamakh doesn't have Drogba's ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play while Andrey Arshavin gave up on two many challenges.
Gunners' central defensive new-boys Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci looked nervous wrecks in much the way Philippe Senderos used to.
For all that, Arsenal could have been a couple up inside the first two minutes. First, Chamakh's diving header took a touch off Alex and flashed inches wide. Then, for some inexplicable reason, Koscielny turned away from a cross which hit the back of his head and went over when he could have just nodded it in.
Arshavin also had a couple of stinging efforts well saved by Petr Cech.
Once the home side weathered the early storm they went up the gears and set about running their opponents down.
The much-maligned Lukasz Fabianski saved a Drogba shot but then came the goal which said everything about Arsenal's soft under-belly. Brazilian midfielder Ramires won the ball far too easily off Chamakh before setting Ashley Cole away down the left and his low cross was brilliantly flicked in off the post by Drogba.
Questions could be laid at Fabianski's door for being beaten at his near post but you had to admire Drogba's quality.
One man who was doing the business for Arsenal was Jack Wilshere who did not look overawed by any means. He got stuck in, tried to find the incisive pass and was always there to help out team-mates in trouble.
But he could not deal with midfield powerhouse Michael Essien on his own and the Ghanaian's forward runs were a feature of the afternoon.
Ramires, who has had a quiet start to his Chelsea career, also imposed himself, putting in a great tackle to prevent Chamakh getting in a shot.
Then Chelsea broke through the middle and Arsenal old-boy Nicolas Anelka went round the exposed Fabianski and only had to roll the ball into the net... but he fired wide.
You, didn't expect the miss to prove costly, although Cole had a goal wrongly chalked off for offside and Chamakh headed wide.
Koscielny was booked for a foul on Anelka and the moment Alex's free-kick left his boot there was only one outcome and it fizzed into the net.
It could have been more because in the dying minutes Fabianski saved well from Essien and again from Cole.
Already it looks like another season without silverware for The Gunners.
They have taken one point from the last nine and are already seven points behind Chelsea.
Wenger admitted pre-match that this game would be a significant pointer to how the season will go for both sides.
He has his answer. Surely he sees how badly Arsenal need some steel to go with their silk?


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