ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Chelsea 2 Arsenal 0:ARSENAL ARE being strangled by stereotype. Their familiar troubles against Chelsea and Manchester United were on display once more.
The immediate impact of this match is to put the victors two points clear of the Old Trafford side but the impact on the visitors is more profound. They are nine points adrift and, barring unlikely triumph in the Champions League, this will be a fifth consecutive campaign without a trophy since Arsene Wenger’s team landed the 2005 FA Cup.
Arsenal dominated possession for much of the time yesterday but Chelsea were content for the opposition to have as much of the ball when so little use was made of it.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team were as devastating as they needed to be, with Didier Drogba preying on these opponents as usual. The Ivorian was close to a hat-trick with a free-kick that cracked against the crossbar but his impact had already been sufficient. If anything, John Terry might have been frustrated by the anodyne attacks. The centre-half would have relished more opportunities in which to prove he is undiminished by disappointment after being stripped of the England captaincy.
Arsenal’s opportunities were sporadic and this loss was of a piece with the 3-1 defeat by United at the Emirates the previous weekend. Wenger’s team did suggest fleetingly they would set this game on a different course. With the match goalless, Andrey Arshavin was set up by a Cesc Fabregas pass but the volley was not aimed well and it rebounded from the foot of Petr Cech.
The Russian is not cut out to be a centre-forward and had the job because of the ankle problem that has sidelined Robin van Persie. Resources are slim in that area and Wenger is gravely affected by the lack of a convincing contender. No manager could be blamed for snatching the €29 million that Manchester City offered for Emmanuel Adebayor but the price of failing to find a replacement is now looking steep.
Wenger was trying to maintain morale when he spoke of Arsenal’s domination. In essence Chelsea were happy to allow that possession, knowing they could deal with the consequences and cause havoc on the break. Ancelotti has a range of alternatives, too, that his opposite number does not enjoy.
Here, for instance, Deco was on the bench and his recent duties as a holding midfield player were assumed by the more authentically defensive Mikel John Obi. Fabregas was not entirely nullified but his threat was at its keenest from a late free-kick that was pushed away by Cech. The substitute Nicklas Bendtner’s appeal for a penalty in the aftermath was dismissed.
After seven minutes Florent Malouda’s corner from the right was headed back by a virtually unmarked Terry and Drogba waited to fire the ball home easily past the static goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.
A spell of pressure by the visitors was interrupted as Chelsea extended their lead. Arsenal’s fallibility often stems, as United had shown, from a lack of resilience in midfield. It was ludicrously easy, in the 23rd minute, for Frank Lampard to break forward and work the ball to Drogba on the right. The Ivorian had room to tear into the penalty area and race across the hapless Gael Clichy, as well as Thomas Vermaelen, before blasting to the net.
The best that can be said of Arsenal is they had not come to Stamford Bridge in the expectation of being watertight. Abou Diaby was back to add physical presence in midfield but Wenger had also decided to pick Theo Walcott on the right wing in a strategy that thereby invited Fabregas to pose a threat just behind Arshavin.
The plan had no effect. Wenger, in his present anguish, probably cannot spare a moment to agonise about England’s chances in the summer. He will be keenly conscious, all the same, of Walcott’s decline. This outing was his first start in the Premier League since mid-December.
Chelsea had a great reserve of know-how to draw upon and produced the clean sheet that has not been quite so common as it once was.
That might signal a deepening level of concentration as the key moments approach in the bid to wrest the title from United.
Guardian Service
