‘Drogs’ a drag for Gunners

Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0

But Jose Mourinho’s team seem to have stolen Arsenal’s crown in more ways than one.

Appropriately enough, it was an ugly Didier Drogba goal which settled a game that was far from a thing of beauty, as Chelsea finally ended Arsenal’s remarkable unbeaten run at the Bridge which had stretched back nearly ten years.

It’s hard to imagine Brian Kerr addressing Roy Keane in the form of an open letter or Alex Ferguson using the good offices of the Sky Sports studio to send a message to Rio Ferdinand. In common with most managers, they like to keep team matters “behind closed doors.”

Jose Mourinho tends to do things differently and, having berated Ricardo Carvalho in public over his complaints about non selection, the manager kept up the war of words in his programme notes ahead of yesterday’s game.

“Maybe when you are reading this,” he wrote, “maybe Riccy is sitting in the stand, not on the bench or on the pitch, maybe he is also reading this, and maybe he understands now.”

Gulp.

As it happened, poor Riccy wasn’t even on the bench, and nor was Joe Cole, but the £26m man Michael Essien was. Alongside him at the start was Drogba, and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Expensive reserves. Mourinho opted to kick off with Hernan Crespo, whose spectacular goal spared the champions’ blushes against Wigan.

Chelsea are developing a nice habit of snatching three points when their performance hardly deserves. Not that they deserved to lose either; this was one of those tight, tense and largely under-whelming affairs in which, if there was going to be a decisive moment, it was always likely to be the product of either magic or luck.

In the event it was the latter. Crespo had gotten little out of the Gunners’ defence in the first half, so Mourinho turned to the muscular Ivory Coast international at the break.

However, for close to another 30 minutes, it looked as if battling Drogba would fare no better, and one especially wild mis-hit from the right hand side of the box drew the derision of his own fans behind Jens Lehmann’s goal.

But in the 73rd minute, the striker was once more the darling of the crowd, though in truth they were cheering his luck more than his judgement. A quickly taken free-kick by Frank Lampard caught Philippe Senderos trying to play Drogba offside. But while the defender stood flat-footed, the striker followed the flight of the ball, attempted to take it under control and, in fluffing his first touch, shinned it into the net.

Right at the death, Drogba’s judgement was still missing but this time luck didn’t bail him out, when a dreadful attempt at a headed backpass by Senderos saw the Chelsea man go one-on-one with Lehmann, only to lamely lob the ball straight into the keeper’s arms.

It was an anti-climactic end to a game which had begun promisingly with both sides threatening to break the deadlock inside the first few minutes. First, Duff was foiled by the alert Lehmann and then impressive left-back Del Horno had a powerful header chested off the line by Freddie Ljungberg. At the other end, Thierry Henri replied by firing one over the top from 25 yards.

But after that, the goalmouth incidents proved as elusive as the male streaker who, after shaking hands with a bemused Lauren, gave the stewards the runaround before being taken out with a full body press. And that was about as entertaining as the action on the pitch got, as both defences reigned supreme, Duff and Robben were kept under the most suffocating of wraps and Henry showed only fleeting glimpses of his ability to terrorise the opposition. It was the kind of game in which space was always limited and a classy defensive midfielder like Claude Makelele thrives - and he did, putting in what I thought was a man of the match performance.

Still there was much to chew over in the tactical battle, as Chelsea frequently used the direct route of John Terry’s raking passes from defence and Arsenal attempted to answer with quick, triangular passing movements which sought to release Lauren and Cole on the flanks.

Arsenal’s biggest problem was that there was rarely an incisive end-product to their build-up play.

It was absorbing but hardly electrifying - a kind of phoney war badly in need of a goal. When it finally did come, all but the Gunners were grateful, even if Drogba himself will hardly want to give it pride of place in his memoirs.

Of some concern to Jose Mourinho must have been the worryingly anonymous display of Robben but when you can replace him with someone of the calibre of Wright-Phillips, it’s hardly the kind of problem that will keep you awake at night.

Arsene Wenger doesn’t have access to the same resources and with Ljungberg leaving Stamford Bridge on crutches, you suspect he is the manager who has the greater cause for disturbed sleep.

CHELSEA: Cech, Ferriera, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno, Robben (Wright-Phillips 57), Makelele, Lampard, Gudjohnsen (Essien 57), Duff, Crespo (Drogba 45).

ARSENAL: Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Senderos, Cole, Ljungberg (Van Persie 25), Gilberto, Farbregas (Flamini 83), Hleb, Pires, Henry.

Referee: G. Poll (Hertfordshire).