Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Eboue, Flamini, Fabregas, Rosicky, Hleb and Adebayor
Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Alex, Terry, Cole, Makele, Mikel, Lampard, J Cole, Wright-Phillips and Shevchenko.
Ashley Cole is getting an almighty round of boos from the same fans that used to cheer him.
It is a free Kick for Arsenal in a good position in the 8th minute of play after Lampard halted Eboue's run.
Good chance for Adebayor but his effort was woeful and way off target in the 11th minute.
Alex in the 12th minute has just almost scored an own goal as a long punt from Arsenal resulted in him headed the ball over Cech but luckily for him it was just wide.
Shawn Wright-Phillips had a chance to either play in Shevchenko or Joe Cole but he went alone and his shot was saved comfortably by Almunia in the 13th minute.
Bad pass from Flamini straight to Wright-Phillips and his pass to Shevchenko was stopped by Toure in the 19th minute.
Chelsea have been given a generous free kick in a dangerous position as Eboue is punished harshly for bringing down Joe Cole but Lampard's kick is awfully wide off the mark in the 27th minute.
Frank Lampard and John Terry have just been booked simultaneously for bad tackles on Eboue and Fabregas in the 30th minute.
The game has got messy with too many niggly fouls but Shevchenko hit a speculative shot from 30 yards out that Almunia almost makes a mess of in the 32nd minute.
Emmanuel Eboue has been booked for leaving his stud as Terry went to clear the ball in the 34th minute.
Nice shot by Rosicky from 30 yards out but it was just wide in the 36th minute.
John Terry is in a bad way and it looks like he is going to come off much to the delight of the Arsenal faithful. Indeed he is replaced by Tal Ben-Haim in the 38th minute.
Good chance for Rosicky to create a goal scoring opportunity in the 47th minute following a probing pass by Fabregas but his 1st touch was poor and it allowed Ferreira to clear the ball for a corner Kick.
Fabregas, then puts in a the corner kick but Petr Cech makes a horrendous mistake when coming for the ball and William Gallas of all people heads into an empty net in the 48th minute to put Arsenal 1-0 up.
Half Time
Arsenal 1 Chelsea 0
Arsenal did not create much in the way of clear goal scoring opportunities as Chelsea have defended resolutely but they got lucky right at the death.
Chelsea have not offered much in the way of an attacking threat and losing their skipper would not help matters at the back for them.
The returning Fabregas and Hleb have done well but Eboue has seen most the ball for them and has not always used it properly. Adebayor has done well as a lone striker but his finishing is not always the best and neither is his decision making. Clichy had played well and neutralized the threat of Wright-Phillips and when he has gone forward he has been effective.
For Chelsea, Mikel has been non-existent; Joe Cole and Lampard have been very quiet. Ferreira and Ashley Cole have been good for them but they need to show more than they have so far in the 1st half.
Sloppy piece of play in defense by 1st Eboue and then Fabregas as they almost conspired to give Chelsea a good chance but Toure saw off the threat of Shevchenko in the 46th minute.
Arsenal have not started the 2nd half well defensively at all as they keep giving the ball away or wanting too much time on the ball.
It's been a succession of very bad passes from too many players on both sides as they just keep giving the ball away rather surprisingly.
Adebayor and Eboue are just trying the almost impossible running into spaces with the ball that are not just there.
First sign of quality in the 2nd half as Joe Cole turns Flamini and plays a good ball to Shawn Wright-Phillips and his cross was not a bad 1 but eluded everyone.
Mikel finally makes a contribution to the game in the 60th minute as his very good shot was parried by Almunia but Shevchenko was not able to capitalize as his effort was weak and saved comfortably.
Fine break by Arsenal is again ruined by indecision by Eboue but in all fairness he did not have a lot of options in the penalty area in the 63rd minute.
Claudio Pizarro is on for Claude Makele in the 66th minute.
Joe Cole is booked for a foul on Eboue in the 68th minute.
Robin Van Persie is coming on for the injured Emmanuel Eboue in the 69th minute.
Good shot by Van Persie that is saved by Cech and Ben-Haim inexplicably played the ball to Cech that may have caused further damage but Cech cleared the ball for a throw-in in the 70th minute.
Another chance for Van Persie after good work by Hleb and Fabregas but his shot was awful in the 72nd minute.
Terrible miss by Shawn Wright-Phillips when Pizarro's cross fell to him with Almunia the only person to beat and the thrashes the ball well wide in the 75th minute.
Terrific break by Arsenal with Adebayor playing a great ball to Hleb, who in turn plays to Van Persie and he quite incredibly shoots over the crossbar in the 77th minute for a very bad miss.
Gilberto is on for Hleb in the 78th minute.
Slight chance for Chelsea but cleared by Clichy in the 80th minute.
Fantastic saving tackle by Ashley Cole on Adebayor in the 82nd minute as the Arsenal forward was bearing down on goal.
Chance for Chelsea in the 84th minute as Mikel was found by Joe Cole but his attempted cross was blocked by Toure.
Fantastic double save by Cech from Fabregas and Van Persie in the 87th minute.
Excellent opportunity for Shevchenko in the 89th minute but his header was very weak and comfortably saved by Almunia.
Free kick in a very dangerous position for Chelsea in the 91st minute as the referee gives a very generous kick against Gilberto on Mikel.
Good save by Almunia from a fiercely his free kick by Shevchenko in the 92nd minute.
Break for Arsenal but poor play by Van Persie as his ball to Fabregas was not very good and they had 4 other players joining up with the break but they made a mess of the situation in the 94th minute.
Another chance for Arsenal as Nicklas Bendtner, who came on for Adebayor played a good ball to Fabregas but he took too long and Cech saved but Ashley Cole and Fabregas were booked for a slight melee in the 95th minute.
Full Time
Arsenal 1 Chelsea 0
It was not a great game but it was an absorbing 1 with Chelsea playing some much better in the 2nd half and Arsenal not really hitting the heights but doing enough to win the game as they were marginally the better side overall and if they took their chances better, they may have won by a bigger margin.
In the 2nd half the quality of Hleb and Fabregas dropped considerably and that made players like Mikel to come more into the game while the excellent Flamini was able to snuff out any dangers posed from Chelsea.
Tomas Rosicky had perhaps his finest game in an Arsenal shirt but he still needs to cut out the unforced errors that creep into his game now and then.
Emmanuel Adebayor worked tirelessly for the cause and his unselfish work is appreciated by his colleagues and his fans even his finishing can be suspect at times.
There were a lot of good performances from Arsenal players but I have gone for Gael Clichy who put up a tireless and brilliant display.
0 comments:
Post a Comment