Lightweight lads outgunned again

SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Richard Williamssays Arsène Wenger has built a side which still cannot cope with the game's heavyweights

JOHN TERRY took a personal lap of honour at the final whistle, throwing his shirt to the fans, but the newly deposed England captain’s presence had long since ceased to be anything more than a sideshow in one of the few utterly predictable contests between the Premier League’s top four sides this season. Didier Drogba won the individual accolades for coming within an inch of a hat-trick but it was Chelsea’s overall strength that determined the course of the match, just as it had when the two teams met in north London in November.

There was an ovation for Terry when he emerged for the pre-match warm-up. From the Arsenal fans in the old Shed end, a chant arose: “You’re not captain any more.” It was soon drowned by an antiphonal response aimed at the entire visiting team: “You’re not English any more.” And that was about the extent of the personalised hostilities.

Terry played, as he always does, with a sort of controlled fury. Against Arsenal’s lightweight threat his defending was so impeccable the eye was drawn to his occasional interventions at the other end of the pitch. When Florent Malouda took a corner from the left in the seventh minute, Terry’s delayed run produced a powerful header from a deep position, perfectly angled towards the far post for Drogba to fire home from point-blank range.

Chelsea’s dominance was never more clearly expressed than on the stroke of half-time, when most sides with a 2-0 lead would be content to hold on to their advantage until the interval. Instead of playing it safe and running down the clock, Terry took the opportunity to lead a counter-attack up the left, playing the perfect diagonal ball to Nicolas Anelka, who found that he had Ricardo Carvalho making ground in support. At that moment Chelsea’s two central defenders were marauding on the edge of the Arsenal area – an astonishing initiative in open play at such a delicate moment.

With 25 minutes of the second half gone, Terry took control of a difficult moment in his own goalmouth and cleared an awkward ball with a sideways header, stumbling and falling as he attempted to chase it out towards the touchline. His left thigh was heavily strapped to counteract the effect of a dead leg but he completed the match with only the merest hint of a limp, evoking memories of the day in April 2006 when he played through virtually the whole of a vital home victory against Manchester United with blood seeping through his sock from a deep gash on his ankle. The injury will be assessed today.

Whatever his social defects, Terry is a remarkable footballer whose leadership has been fundamental to Chelsea’s success over the past half-dozen seasons. Capello must be hoping that, despite the unpleasantness of the past week, his former captain chooses to give the kind of performance in South Africa that we saw in west London yesterday.

“I believe he wants to win every time he plays football,” Arsène Wenger responded when asked if he had been impressed by Terry’s display. “Sometimes for people to play football can be a kind of diversion from what’s happening in their life off the pitch. I’ve had players who had problems in their personal lives and it made them stronger on the pitch.”

His opposite number praised Terry’s “fantastic attitude”. “For the team it’s very important to have this leadership,” Carlo Ancelotti said. “He’s always in control of the game. He has a very strong mentality.”

Ancelotti said he was not disappointed by the outcome of the meeting between Terry and Capello. “It’s not my decision,” he said. Nor did he feel that it would serve to increase Terry’s motivation in his games for Chelsea. Their ambition to win the Premier League, he said, was motivation enough.

Since the 22 players who started the match included no fewer than nine Francophones, it may be appropriate to point out that it is a French phrase without an exact English equivalent which most perfectly sums up the current difference between these two teams. Peser sur le jeu, literally to weigh on the game, is what Chelsea do and what Arsenal are so incapable of exerting in an encounter such as this.

For Wenger to emphasise the difference between the teams’ average ages – Chelsea’s 29 years to his side’s 23 – is simply not good enough.

Weight – in the sense of size, strength and power – is the quality that he has decided to do without and yesterday the consequences could hardly have been made more damagingly explicit.

Guardian Service