Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1: Quality football but no Shield for the Gunners

Pires and Lampard do battle

The minutes silence pre-match for the London bomb victims and the murdered Arsenal fan Anthony Walker was impeccable and as usual about the only thing two sets of fans ever do in unison.

The first half was fairly typical of the two teams; Arsenal showed all the flair, most of the skill, had more of the play and far more of the attacking play but Chelsea parked two buses behind the ball and frustrated us with some excellent defensive play in depth. Chelsea do play decent football but they didn’t set the world on fire this afternoon at Cardiff.

Their only shot (other than a free kick late on) gave them a goal in the 7th. minute when Drogba, alone up front, cut across Senderos to take a long ball well on his chest and then hooked it home with a fine left-foot shot. 1-0 Chelsea. Prior to this Henry had had a shot from range and Lehmann was out fast to take a ball at the edge of his box. The remainder of the half saw Chelsea soaking up our pressure while looking for the long ball counter attack or fast break down their flanks.

Fabregas and Flamini in midfield looked sharp and skilful. While Rob, Freddie and Titi showed their usual class. Dennis seemed a bit in and out. Henry had a flick up and shot on the turn but he never really caught his shots on the button today. There was some good pressure from Freddie down the right and one poor decision from referee Howard Webb when Pires was hit by Terry right on the edge of the box but no free kick was given. That said Webb who is by far the best young ref around had a fine game in a match that was fairly easy to ref except for a brief instance when Fabregas and Makelele were at it and both picked up yellow cards for their trouble. Dennis had a shot with no power and on more than one occasion Lehmann had to act as a sweeper against the Chelsea long ball. Kolo, who had a fine game, did well with a tackle on half way and carried on his run as Henry played the ball on but Toure's shot was saved.

Jens - Choice words for Drogba

Arsenal were trying to carve an opening with ongoing pressure but Chelsea held firm despite our 61% possession in the first half. A naff free kick from Lampard was Chelsea’s only other chance and Henry managed another shot on the turn before the break, but again to no avail.

With six substitutes from seven allowed the second half was somewhat more fragmented but followed the same pattern as the first. Hleb, van Persie and Gilberto replaced Pires, Bergkamp and Flamini. With Gilberto showing good skills within a short time of arriving on the pitch. The pressure was Arsenal’s the breaks were Chelsea’s. Hleb to Henry, to Gilberto for a poor shot that went wide. We continued to probe but couldn’t pick the lock. Then a killer blow as Drogba got another chance when the blues got two on one against Senderos. Drogba held off the challenges well as Arsenal and Lauren in particular got back but he made it two goals from his two chances.

Maureen Yo delayed the restart with substitutions as Crespo came on for Drogba and Tiago was on for Gudjohnson. Some good wide play from Arsenal saw Lauren to Freddie for a cross from close to the byeline and Cesc ran in to slot home from close range. 2-1 and it was game on again. An ongoing series of Chelsea offsides and substitutions broke up the play however and for all our neat build up play we found penetration difficult. The other subs that made it on were Wright Phillips on for Robben,Reyes on for Ljungberg, Cygan for Senderos, Joe Cole for Duff, Hoyte for Lauren and very late on Geremi for Lampard. The play from both teams was fairly relaxed but when the need called the foot went in, as with Del Horno with a trip on Reyes and Lampard on van Persie which earned a yellow card. Lauren also gave Crespo an unnecessary clip following yet another offside decision against Chelsea.

Robin had to stretch hard to make a shot from Hleb’s cross from the right. Gilberto headed over from a Fabregas free kick. A free kick by van Persie was held by Cech. Kolo looked sharp and stopped a half-decent break before Joe Cole messed up a couple of chances. Another Henry shot was on target but not whacked with his normal power. A clever free kick was screwed-up by Cygan when he should have put Henry clear from a fine van Persie pass. More chances fell to Cygan and Gilberto from corners near the death, both chances unfortunately being cases of the wrong men being in the right place at the right time.

Cole - Back in 'the fold'

Arsenal can’t be too disappointed though because we played the better football, looked pretty good in most areas and only really fell to a couple of well taken chances. That said we are not seemingly as capable of mixing up the style as Chelsea are, nor can we defend with such conviction or pull on as many top class substitutes. That said we will surely still be the best footballing team to watch in the coming season. Chelsea look to be setting out their stall to defend their title, and I do mean defend. Soaking up the pressure and breaking seems to be the Maureen Yo way, it’s not pretty but as George Graham can tell you it is effective.

So the Community Shield was won 2-1 by Chelsea, which as we all know means naff-all when it comes to the main event. Bring on the real stuff!