Football 1 Non-Football 0

In the last four games Arsenal have played Newcastle, Boro, Steaua Bucharest and Chelsea. For some reason, of all those games, I was most confident about Arsenal beating Chelski. Without Drogba and Essien, who are both truly world-class footballers, I knew that Arsenal would be techinically, and in Wenger’s words “footballistically”, far superior.

The gulf in technical ability between the two sides was comparable with England’s defeat to Croatia. Like England, Chelsea have lots of top players who play at the highest level of competition week in, week out. Also like England, Chelsea are predictable, slow, and they are smothered in a culture of player power that is very unhealthy for a club/country to progress.

Over the last few years under Jose Mourinho, Chelsea have been the most pragmatic of teams, winning games through power and directness. Rather than the great European flair teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal and Manchester United, whose footballing mantra is more often than not “we’ll score goals than them”, Chelsea have stood firm and said “you will not score against us.” It has not been pretty to watch, but it has won them a lot of trophies in a short space of time. Thankfully, natural ability beat pragmatism yesterday, as Arsenal overcame their West London rivals, and could quite easily have scored four or five goals in the process.

There were many players worthy of note in this game and I will briefly mention the star performers.

Toure and Gallas were superb, under considerable pressure in the second half, and only allowing Chelsea two decent sights of goal in 90 minutes. Fabregas and Hleb, only just back from injury, reminded us that they are the main men, the magicians, the midfield maestros, as they quietly got on with what they do best, drifting past players, initiating attacks, and Fab4 even getting an assist from a corner! Adebayor was a colossus. Playing against Terry, Alex and Ben Haim, he took on some of the biggest and strongest centrebacks in the country, and he ran them completely ragged - all on his lonesome. And lets not forget that he wrongly had a goal disallowed when he outstrengthed and outpaced the Chelsea defence. RVP looked sharp and exciting when he game on, shooting on sight, setting up chances, and significantly raising the noise level in Ashburton Grove – he will score against Tottenham next week. Another very good cameo by Niklas Bentdner – although I had my reservations about him, I’m fast becoming a fan of the great Dane.

Now onto the stars of the show. Flamini, Sagna and Clichy. Flamini was absolutely outstanding. Playing against experienced internationals Lampard and Makelele and the giant Jon Obi Mikel, he bossed the central midfield area from start to finish, and even on a booking did not pull out of a single challenge. Diarra would do well to have a look at Flamini’s career (patience is a virtue, particularly at Arsenal). Sagna, as per usual, was fantastic. Playing against international wingers, and of course Cashley Cole, he nullified every attack that came his way – is he the best right-back in the premiership? Clichy brings a smile to my face every time I watch him play, because he is the best left-back in the world and he doesn’t even know it! He was solid at the back and a constant threat going forward, this kid is the real deal, and he is only going to get better, which is a frightening thought – make that an exciting thought.

Conclusions? As I suspected might happen, the better football teams won on “Grand Slam Sunday”, and I still think Arsenal will have to work very hard to beat Man Utd to the title, but this win and clean-sheet will have the confidence levels sky high again, and we will beat Tottenham this Saturday, because we are the better team. Another conclusion – RVP’s return from injury is massive, and he will make a huge difference over the Xmas period, including a brace against Spurs.

By Martin Webb