Another ’welcome to Chel’ for Arsene
But fighting flair with flares proved fruitless, as a far more respectful attitude from their players on the pitch allowed Arsenal to turn on the style and Danny Welbeck to grab the first hat-trick of his senior career.
On the face of it, the performance and result — a thumping 4-1 victory — seemed like a real statement of intent: Arsenal’s creative midfielders and wide men supplying the precision-guided ammunition for a striker whose finishing shots were unerringly on target.
Textbook stuff, you might say, and since no Champions League victory is to be sniffed at, every reason for Arsene Wenger to wear the broadest of smiles on what was the 18th anniversary of the beginning of his Arsenal reign.
Yet, on the back of those near two decades in which they’ve grown accustomed to the almost cyclical nature of success and failure under the Frenchman — from trophy monsoon to protracted drought and from winning displays to crushing defeats — Gooners have learned to fear that the darkest hour can come, not before the dawn, but right after it.
So, even as they revelled in getting their European campaign firmly back on track, satisfaction was tempered by the realisation that there would be, as they say, tougher tests to come.
And they haven’t had to wait very long because along comes one on the domestic front tomorrow — nothing less, in fact, than the toughest test the Premier League has to offer in the infant months of the 2014 season.
Welcome to Chel…
There are numerous reasons why Stamford Bridge is the place where Arsenal are most likely to have their latest bubble rudely popped, from the six-goal horror they endured there last March to Jose Mourinho’s unblemished record of never once losing to Arsene Wenger in 11 meetings.
That managerial clash of opposites has always made for an intriguing and betimes even unpleasant sideshow to the main event. In a magazine interview published this week, Barcelona’s Gerard Pique recalls how Mourinho’s presence in the Real Madrid dug-out added an extra edge to the already hothouse atmosphere of the clasico, the defender suggesting Jose just has a way of “yanking your chain”.
The sometimes thin-skinned Wenger knows that better than most and, with the build-up having already generated a few sparks, it will be a surprise if the contest on the touchline and in the press room in west London tomorrow doesn’t provide even more talking points.
But on the pitch, where it really matters, the main focus will be on Chelsea’s current headline-grabbers, Diego Costa and, especially on the day that’s in it, Cesc Fabregas.
With his devastating opening goal salvo for the club, Costa could hardly have done more to signal definitively that he is the missing link Mourinho required for his team to bridge the gap from nearly men to champions. And the fact the striker has managed to do so while apparently nursing a troublesome hamstring must be an additional source of befuddlement for Wenger, who has been forced to admit he has no idea why Arsenal ship an inordinate number of injuries to key personnel.
But doubtless a source of even greater anguish and envy for Gooners will be the unpalatable sight of Fabregas in a blue shirt. Wenger’s decision to pass on the club favourite when he was made available again by Barcelona was perceived by most supporters as another chink in the manager’s well-worn armour of infallibility.
Yet, there was no little logic to the manager’s rationale, which was, essentially, that Arsenal are pretty much coming down with mobile playmakers.
The counter argument that the Spaniard is still at least as good as, if not better than, the best the Gunners currently have in that department — when they’re not in sick bay, of course — is also reasonable. But the whole debate shifts attention away from a much more worrying deficiency in Wenger’s team: the lack of a warrior presence at the very heart of the side, a leader by example if not necessarily armband, who can mix the physical and the technical and underpin Arsenal’s signature style with the kind of steel they’ve lacked since Patrick Vieira left .
As it happens, they’ll find just the kind of man they need on the pitch tomorrow but, unfortunately for Arsenal supporters, he’ll be playing for Chelsea. And while seeing ‘Fab’ in the blue shirt will clearly do nothing to help the visiting fans’ mood, it’s the presence of Nemanja Matic in Mourinho’s side which should remind them of what they’re really missing.
The towering Serb popped up with a rare goal to see off Sporting this week, but succeeding where, for once, Costa failed, was really only by way of a welcome bonus on top of the routine but absolutely vital work he does as both destroyer and creator for Chelsea.
In a team of so many talents — not least the magnificent Eden Hazard — Matic can slip under the radar to a degree but, going into tomorrow’s game, he is the kind of player who seems almost laboratory-designed to disrupt Arsenal’s silky rhythms and provide the platform for Chelsea to make the most of the Gunners’ defensive frailties with the pace, power and new-found penetration of those trademark Mourinho counter-attacks.
For all the changes at both clubs, and unless Arsenal can spring a big surprise, it’s hard to see how it won’t ultimately be just another chapter in the same old story at the Bridge tomorrow.
