Buzzin Football Blog

Arsene Wenger

Free scoring Arsenal, who have demolished lesser teams with their mesmeric football this season, drew a blank against Chelsea on Sunday, while their London rivals produced an emphatic three nil victory to consolidate their position at top of the Premier League.

Three nil may have been harsh and Arsenal will feel hard done by, particularly after having a ‘goal’ disallowed for a foul on Petr Cech with the score at 2-0. But realistically Chelsea showed the commitment and resilience that is required to lead the championship race and frankly never looked like losing the game at the Emirates.

Despite the obvious quality of the young Arsenal team they were easily matched and too often beaten in the midfield battle in the pouring rain at the Emirates and when they did find a way through the resistance of Chelsea’s defence kept them at arms length.

Arsene Wenger said after the game that Arsenal are not out of the title fight yet and that he was convinced that Chelsea would drop points throughout the season, something that it is difficult to argue with.

He also accused Chelsea of being too defensive and playing on the counter attack, which doesn’t quite make the same sense, although he may still have been angry at such an emphatic scoreline in his post match interview.

For me Chelsea looked a much stronger team throughout the contest, not just in defence where they generally looked solid, but all over the pitch and particularly in midfield.

There were many mistakes by both teams but Chelsea were able to rectify theirs more often on the day and looked to attack Arsenal at every chance. I seem to recall Chelsea had five shots on goal to Arsenals two.

Rather than bemoan the loss Wenger should focus himself and Arsenal on the job in hand and if the team are genuine title contenders the talking needs to be done on the pitch.

There was little sign of the flamboyant Arsenal on Sunday, Chelsea and the weather made sure of that and now it is time for the young Gunners to stand up and be counted if they are to be taken seriously.

There is still plenty of time in the title race and league leaders Chelsea will be one of the clubs hardest hit by players leaving for the Africa Nations Cup in the new year, so now is the time to respond.