A long pending Football post

And what better time to write this, than when Arsenal go back to Emirates after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho's multi-million team could just manage to draw against a team which had Henry, Toure and Gallas missing. I do agree that Arsenal was lucky to get away with a draw but this is like a value-for-money team full of budding young talents beating a stinking rich team of over-achievers...I like it.

I am sure Arsenal dont have the firepower to win the Premiership this time, but they will give their fans a lot to cheer about by the end of the season. The match even before it started had been a controversial point for ex-gunner (C)Ashley Cole, who left the club to win more titles and have a better bank balance. I t would suit him fine if Chelsea dont win anything this year. Then I would like to know what he would like to say on that.

So with specially printed notes(I mean these English fans will go to that next level when it comes to patronising or booing their players) the fans made their point. Notes from Bank of Russia (to mock at Abrahmovich) and signed by Peter Kenyon (the CEO of Chelsea) were thrown and waved all over the field. He is a wonderful left-back but I think yesterday his under-study Clichy played better!


In the match against Tottenham, the man or should I say boy who stood out was the fabulous Fabregas. He is a class apart when it comes to passing skills, vision to see the openings and tackling. Only thing he has to improve is his shot taking. If he has a deadly long ranger to his repertoire, then he will become the finished product that Viera once was. Cashley Cole it seems has written in his book on the role of Fab to take over from Viera as "Passing the gloves of a heavy-weight to a feather-weight". I mean nobody can match the physical presence of 6 foot and more Viera but Fab proved in last years Champion's league match that he was more skillful than Viera by stealing the ball from the master and setting up the goal.

Going into this match with the back four who were aged 21,21,23 and 19 Arsenal took a big risk. But in the end it paid off. Djourou maybe in-experinced but what he will learn from this 90 mins will make him more experienced by couple of years. Toure was a towering presence not letting anything slip between him and Gallas is a strong man who will not go down under challenge. Ebouoe has his own problems of getting into altercations too easily and Clichy is a pacy left-back who commits to tackles and sometimes seems to be off guard. But they stoood the test of the great Chelsea-attack.

The goal came from the unlikeliest of the sources, Flamini. As usual Arsenal was upto over-passing around the box patiently making every fan sit at the edge of the seat. The problem with Arsenal is that there might be 10 shooting opportunities but they will only take 1 or 2!And when Flamini did, it sure was against the run of play but Arsenal deserved it for persisting so far. One look at the time and I realised that they had scored a bit early for comfort. But anyways this point at Stamford Bridge was not expected in the first place :)

But the man who stood out was Gilberto Silva. The Brazilian played the role just in front of the back four but was defending behind the error-prone Senderos often and came up with many a save. He was there defending, threading the ball to mid-field and giving his piece-of-mind to Ebouoe, who was getting into a lot of tiffs with Lampard.

So Arsenal look good to finish 3rd this season and if they do then its a good enough start for this young team. Champion's League is anybody's game from now onwards.