Gunners outmuscled by Drogba and Chelsea

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1:Chelsea will meet either Manchester United or Everton in the FA Cup final on May 30th after coming from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley.  The win keeps the Blues on course for domestic silverware and European glory, capping a memorable week for Guus Hiddink after their defeat of Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final.

Arsenal dominated the first 20 minutes and took the lead through Theo Walcott’s deflected effort in the 19th, but Chelsea fought back to equalise through Florent Malouda before the break and Didier Drogba scored the winner with eight minutes to go after rounding an over-eager Lukasz Fabianski in the 84th minute.

Stand-in left-back Kieran Gibbs bailed Fabianski out of trouble as early as the third minute after the Polish keeper wandered needlessly out of his box and was beaten to the ball by Drogba. The Ivorian's header looked to be trickling into the bottom corner until Gibbs recovered to hook the ball off the line, much to the goalkeeper's relief.

Having rescued his side at one end, Gibbs then had a large part to play in his side's opening goal. Having raced onto Emmanuel Adebayor's short pass, the youngster pulled the ball back for Walcott to volley home at the far post, with the ball taking a decisive nick off the arm of former Gunners defender Ashley Cole.

Malouda was narrowly off target three minutes later as the Blues immediately went in search of an equaliser, and it was the France winger who dragged his side level in the 32nd minute.

Frank Lampard's raking ball caught out Emmanuel Eboue, who allowed Malouda to cut inside before beating Fabianski at his near post.

Nicolas Anelka struck the foot of the post four minutes later after Abou Diaby was caught in possession while Lampard went close twice early in the second period.

Denilson was lucky to avoid a red card after putting his hands on referee Peter Walton while disputing a decision with 20 minutes remaining but despite retaining a full compliment of players, the Gunners fell behind with only seven minutes remaining when Fabianski failed to learn his earlier lesson.

Lampard's hopeful ball forward again tempted the Polish keeper out of his box and again he was too slow, as Drogba nipped in to round the stranded keeper before slotting into an empty net.