Mourinho hails Crespo factor

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1

The Ivory Coast forward was a major disappointment in his first season at Chelsea, scoring just 16 times in 41 appearances during a disrupted campaign affected by ankle and groin injuries.

With Crespo returning to the Premiership following an impressive loan spell at AC Milan, most pundits expected Drogba to be eased out of the Premiership champions’ first-choice line-up.

Instead, offered the chance to impress in yesterday’s Community Shield clash with Arsenal, Drogba produced the perfect response, netting once in each half to secure Chelsea’s 2-1 victory at the Millennium Stadium - and collect a richly-deserved man of the match award.

“I think you could say Hernan Crespo is responsible for Didier’s performance,” said Mourinho.

“When you have a big player on the sidelines and you have to fight with him for a place, it produces the kind of pressure which is good for players.

“Having said that, I think it is normal for the second season to be better than the first for most new signings.”

Drogba’s first effort, just seven minutes into the contest, was the one which caught the eye as he stole half a yard on Philippe Senderos and took Asier del Horno’s long ball down on his chest before lofting a first-time effort over Jens Lehmann.

But you suspect Mourinho was happier with the second, which came just before the hour mark after Eidur Gudjohnsen had flicked on Frank Lampard’s long ball.

After again shrugging off Senderos’ attentions, Drogba turned inside, tip-toed past Lehmann’s outstretched arm, then won a 50-50 challenge with Lauren before turning to fire over Ashley Cole into the roof of the net.

“He showed great power in contact with Senderos for the first goal and he was fast and powerful for the second.

“Another striker might have dived looking for the penalty but he kept fighting to score the goal.

“People should remember since Didier arrived with us, we have won the Premiership, the Carling Cup and now the Community Shield. Some measure players by statistics, I go for titles.

“Didier wants to score more goals and we want him to score more. But we are winning things and he is contributing. That is the most important thing.”

Mourinho rightly claimed his side deserved victory for a more accomplished performance.

Drogba’s initial effort allowed Chelsea to sink into their preferred tactic of defending strongly and then hitting their opponents on the counter-attack.

A couple of debatable decisions which went against the Blues, and Cesc Fabregas’ unexpected strike midway through the second period made the contest much closer than it should have been. But no matter how decisive the outcome was, Mourinho insists it will have no bearing on the Premiership encounter with Arsenal in a fortnight’s time, or the season as a whole.

“It is always nice to win a trophy,” he said. “But it has no consequences for the future. What happens in 15 days’ time will bear no relation to what happened today.”

Arsene Wenger claimed Chelsea used long-ball tactics and time-wasting to beat Arsenal. The Arsenal manager also insisted that he was not worried about Chelsea’s strength in depth - and even claims it is fans of the Blues who should be worried by his side.

Wenger said: “Chelsea were dangerous with the long balls, they were very direct and we tried more to play our usual game. I’m not here to judge Chelsea’s game, they play their game and we play ours. I just feel that Drogba gave us a hard time on the long balls, but that’s not a criticism.

“The result is not too important. We have won four Community Shields and no-one regards it as a trophy so I do not mind anymore.

“I feel our game suffered a bit from the quality of the pitch and from the fact we are not 100% sharp yet but overall I’m happy because we were consistent, our technical quality was good and our spirit was strong.”

CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno, Makelele, Lampard (Geremi 90), Duff (Joe Cole 74), Robben (Wright-Phillips 69), Drogba (Crespo 59), Gudjohnsen (Tiago 58).

ARSENAL: Lehmann, Lauren (Hoyte 78), Toure, Senderos (Cygan 72), Cole, Ljungberg (Reyes 72), Fabregas, Flamini (Hleb 45), Pires (Silva 45), Bergkamp (Van Persie 45), Henry.

Referee: Howard Webb (England).