Chelsea now serious contenders

Arsenal 1 Chelsea 2

Yet, if you ignore the headline-hogging antics of pantomime villain John Terry — not easy to do after a week in which his FA trial for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand reached a climax — there is so much to enjoy about the current Chelsea side that, after years of attritional football, is no longer playing to type.

When Chelsea last won at the Emirates, 3-0 in November 2009, they did so on the back of a mammoth performance from Didier Drogba, who scored twice, aided by a muscle-bound display from Michael Essien alongside Frank Lampard in midfield. Arsenal, the headlines screamed, had been bullied, brutalised, beaten up.

But the Blues have mellowed since; Drogba has gone, Essien has gone, Lampard is no longer first choice — and on Saturday, with a footballing midfield of Oscar, Hazard and Mata, they matched Arsenal pass for pass, turn for turn, triangle for triangle. The possession stats at half-time suggested the visitors had enjoyed 65% of play and were unfortunate to be only level at 1-1 after Gervinho had equalised Fernando Torres’ opener.

That’s 65%. At the Emirates. Against Arsenal.

So when Mata, the man of the match, scored a winner from a free-kick intended as a cross it was still a winner he deserved; and the overall performance hinted the new Chelsea will not be so easy to dislike as everyone has been used to — even if Di Matteo fails to see it.

“I think when you are a winning team you are never loved.” he insisted. “Teams that win trophies, they are never loved. That’s in the history of football. So it’s as easy as that. I thought it was a mature performance today. It’s not easy because you need to be able to press Arsenal and not to let them get into any kind of rhythm; but you also need to keep the ball and create chances for yourself. And I thought we did that very well.”

It will be fascinating to see how Di Matteo continues to develop his side’s midfield play based around three technical players who are all capable of playing as a ‘number 10’ and capable of switching roles during a game. But with Terry and Ashley Cole leading from the back they are never going to be completely sweetness and light — which is probably to their benefit.

For Arsenal, the days of being loved by everyone have been gradually ebbing until a promising start to this season reminded the world of the kind of high quality football the squad is capable of. They didn’t play particularly badly against Chelsea, either — the inter-play around lynchpin Santi Cazorla, the hard work to win the ball back quickly, the rapid improvement of full-backs Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs were all promising. But there was a lack of a killer instinct up front — Cazorla hit three efforts off target and Giroud missed a late sitter — and two critical lapses of concentration at set-pieces handed Chelsea victory.

It’s tempting to say ‘same old Arsenal’ and you can sympathise with manager Arsene Wenger when he said: “We were too passive on both goals and we have to be more active. I’m frustrated because the team put a lot of effort in and when you give so much and lose it’s not easy. Chelsea are a good side because they have good players. Hazard, Oscar, Mata are all technically good. But there was much more in the game for us if we had been patient.”

It’s way too early to rule out Arsenal on the basis of one performance; most of their problems began when Abou Diaby was injured after only 17 minutes, leaving organisational issues at set pieces after he was replaced by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — a player half his size But you can’t help thinking that, just as Chelsea are becoming more loveable, Arsenal are still missing that bit of steel and aggression that gives opponents something to hate; because trying to replicate the style and success of the 2004 Invincibles, who went through an entire season unbeaten playing glorious football, is becoming harder each year.

That era does prove, perhaps, that a winning team can be loved; but it was Di Matteo who had the last word on the subject.

“The Invincibles?,” he said wide-eyed when challenged on the issue. “That was a long time ago...”

ARSENAL: Mannone 6, Jenkinson 7, Koscielny 5, Vermaelen 6, Gibbs 7, Diaby 6 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 17; 6), Arteta 7, Ramsey 6 (Walcott 67; 6), Cazorla 7, Podolski 5 (Giroud 67; 6), Gervinho 7. Subs not used: Martinez, Mertesacker, Andre Santos, Djourou.

CHELSEA: Cech 8, Ivanovic 6, Luiz 6 (Cahill 81; 6), Terry 7, Cole 7, Mikel 7, Ramires 7, Oscar 6 (Moses 73; 6), Hazard 7, Mata 8 (Bertrand 84), Torres 8. Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Lampard, Azpilicueta.

Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)