Arsenal 1 – 0 Chelsea: Gallas Returns To Haunt Cole’s Chelsea
2 comments December 17th, 2007
A good performance; a magnificent victory. On a day when the result was the crucial thing, a player who knows all about winning proved the difference: William Gallas. A man who was an unpopular choice as Arsenal captain has come to embody the fight in this Arsenal side, and Arsene Wenger must be congratulated for his faith in a player whose first season at the club raised more doubts than cheers. Wenger said yesterday of his skipper:
“I feel he pops up when you need it, when you want it, and he’s the leader – that’s the best definition of a leader, when you need it you show the example and he did that. I believe as well that Arsenal is a special club where it takes sometimes a few months to be penetrated by the spirit of the Club. I think William this season has taken that completely on board, and he’s completely the leader because he represents how we want to behave.”
Yesterday, it was in stoppage time at the end of the first half that he ‘popped up’ to nod home what would somehow prove to be the only goal in the game – a Cesc Fabregas corner was uncharacteristically flapped at by Petr Cech, and Gallas nudged Ben Haim out the way before planting a header into the far post for his third goal of the season. Arsene was moved to compliment Gallas’ goal-scoring instinct:
“I’m not sure if I would have jumped behind Cech because I would have thought he takes the ball, you know? And that’s a real striker, they believe if a mistake happens they are there.”
The first forty-five had been a tense affair, with the teams very evenly matched, and I personally felt we were a little lucky to go in ahead. The second half, however, was entirely different. With Chelsea forced to switch to a 4-4-2 and throw men forward, we had plenty of room on the counter-attack, which we exploited to full effect.
Substitute Robin van Persie lifted one shot over the bar when scoring seemed more likely, before finding the net just a few minutes later, only to be flagged offside. Emmanuel Adebayor also tore past Ben Haim and slotted beyond Cech, only to be pulled up for a very dubious foul.
But as long as we didn’t get a second, Chelsea had a chance, and Manuel Almunia made a string of vital saves (this one from Mikel probably the pick of the bunch) to put in a performance that Avram Grant labelled the Spaniard’s best since joining Arsenal. I would be inclined to agree.
On a day when Manchester United won at Liverpool, it was vital that we took the three points and bounced back from defeat at Middlesbrough. And we did, in style. The whole team gave their all, though the lion-hearted Mathieu Flamini deserves particular praise. The sooner his new contract is ironed out the better. The “Gattuso” nickname is becoming more apt by the day.
Aswell as Flamini, Aleksandr Hleb again showed he truly does possess The Fastest Feet In The West, and Emmanuel Adebayor gave the Chelsea backline a day they’ll want to forget as soon as possible.
Chelsea had a little hoodoo over us under Mourinho, and yesterday was the first time we’d beaten the West-Londoners since February 2004. About time too.
Oh, and Ashley: this was from all of us.
