The London derby was always going to be an entertaining contest but never would you imagine it to be an eight goal thriller. The season is still young but already it has provided us with many high-scoring lop-sided games. Arsenal has been on the wrong end of a battering by Manchester United early on at the Emirates surrendering eight. The flood gates have opened wide in the Premier League as the goals continue to pour in at an alarming rate that has left goalkeepers scratching their heads. Even United suffered a humiliating defeat last week, giving up a surprising six goals at Old Trafford in a heavy defeat to Manchester City proving anything is possible.
Chelsea were coming off a controversial loss to Queens Park Rangers after having to play over fifty minutes of the match with nine men, leaving them without the services of Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba for the match against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Adding more unwanted drama to the mix was the FA probe into alleged racist remarks made by John Terry to Anton Ferdinand during last weeks match that had the club captain's name splashed across the front of every newspaper in the country. Arsenal has slowly started to bounce back from their disastrous start to the campaign, winners of two straight. Distractions off the pitch coupled with a shock defeat proved to be too much for the Blues to handle.
It has been apparent that the Blues can only go as far as the skill of Juan Mata can take them, by far the best player on the team. The Spaniard is playing at the top of his game and is the focal point on attack for Andres Villas-Boas, he is the sole reason why Fernando Torres has slowly found his form and is scoring goals. On the opposite side it has been the tremendous play of Robin Van Persie that has turned around the Gunners fortunes, scoring six of the clubs last nine goals in the league. The Dutchman has been on fire scoring at will guiding Arsenal back up to the top half of the table, only going as far as RVP's boot will take them.
The match was littered with poor defensive play by both teams giving an early indication that this was going to be a high-scoring affair. Torres missed a sitter early after doing well to get in front of his marker on a counter attack but sending it wide of the target. The virus of poor finishing infected Arsenal as well, Gervinho missed a clear cut chance with Petr Cech at his mercy and Van Persie did the same a short time later. Theo Walcott was the provider on both opportunities shredding apart the Blues defensive line giving a glimpse of what was to come.
Arsenal paid the price for not scoring on those early chances when Frank Lampard opened the scoring with an unmarked header right on the doorstep of Wojciech Sczszesny. Mata provided the beautiful cross after shaking off Andre Santos but the spotlight of blame fell solely on the shoulders of Per Mertesacker. The German completely lost Lampard in a dangerous area and looked embarrassingly awkward trying in vain to make up for his error. Chelsea was unfortunate not to double their lead close to the half hour mark. Daniel Sturridge made a fantastic run that caught the Arsenal back four napping from a good first touch pass by Lampard, he ran in alone clear on goal but was let down with a poor touch that sent the ball wide of Sczszesny.
Lazy defending was proving to be contagious and a common occurrence in the match, this time it was Branislav Ivanovic and Terry at fault for Arsenal's equalizer. The duo somehow allowed Gervinho to slip right between them from a fantastic pass by Aaron Ramsey; the striker then calmly slid it to Van Persie who was left unmarked for the easy tap into the empty net. Villas-Boas must have been fuming on the bench at watching his players completely give up on the play and caught on their heels hoping for the linesman to bail them out with an offside call that never came.
Following a disallowed goal for offside by Sturridge the Blues captain came to the rescue to give his team the lead right before the half-time whistle. Terry was allowed to easily volley in Lampard's corner without any hassle. Arsenal is known for their horrible defending from set-pieces but it was amazing to see how much room and space Terry was given by Mertesacker. The defender allowed his marker to get in front of him to score and looked foolish for the second time in the match. It was a terrible way to go into the break for Arsene Wenger after a relatively fine first half performance.
Arsenal quickly scored following the re-start, Andre Santos was surprisingly left wide open and was able to walk in and skip a weak shot past Cech near post. It was a weak goal allowed by the keeper but I was surprised to see how much space Santos had to exploit, Chelsea were caught ball watching and poorly positioned. Soon after Sczszesny produced a wonderful save to deny Lampard his second, diving to send the ball away from the far post to keep thing level.
Chelsea suffered another defensive lapse to surrender the lead before the hour mark. Walcott was having a great game and topped off his performance with the go-ahead goal, showing tremendous hustle and determination on his run after initially going to ground losing possession. Ashley Cole and Jon Obi Mikel comically watched Walcott go down then get up and race right through the heart of defence before unleashing a powerful strike that beat Cech again at his near post. It was a horrible display of defending all-round with Terry and Ivanovic equally to blame for getting split for the second time in the match. AVB must have been pulling his hair out on the sidelines at his team’s lack of aggressiveness defensively.
Controversy reared its ugly head ten minutes from time, following a horrible giveaway by Santos at the back the Brazilian defender looked to be interfered with by Romelu Lukaku before Mata unleashed a wicked strike beating Sczszesny from distance to tie the game. Arsene Wenger was furious on the sidelines and could be seen arguing with the fourth official as to why play was allowed to continue, replays proved the manager right as a foul should have been given but Santos has only himself to blame for the initial giveaway.
With all the drama surrounding Terry before kick-off it was not that surprising he was thrust into the spotlight as the match was nearing conclusion. Florent Malouda played a poor ball back to his captain that unfortunately caused Terry to slip and lose his footing, Van Persie pounced on the opportunity easily going around Cech to score and give Arsenal the lead with five minutes remaining. Stamford Bridge fell completely silent shocked at the blunder they just witnessed. Malouda will definitely be on the receiving end of a verbal bashing by the Blues captain for hanging him out to dry.
AVB was forced to send everyone forward to pressure for the equalizer and Chelsea paid dearly getting caught on the counter-attack, Van Persie scoring his third and earning the hat-trick. It was a powerful strike but considering Cech looked to have the angle covered he should have done better. Defensive follies and a poor performance between the posts condemned Chelsea to the embarrassing home defeat.
The victory by Arsenal pushes them within striking distance of the coveted European places, while the loss has left Chelsea nine points adrift of leaders Manchester City with their title ambitions coming into question. Tension and pressure is finally starting to mount with only three points separating the two clubs after ten matches in the books.
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