Arsenal 2 – Chelsea 1. Enter the Gypsy King.
To get used to a new team all football players need a lucky break. A goal, a good tackle, being in the right place at the right time. Something to make a player feel like he belongs, and that providence is on his side. Jose Antonio Reyes hadn’t had that in his short time in England – but when he got it today he leapt on it and Arsenal fans and the rest of English football could start to see why Wenger thinks this kid is so special.
Since his arrival in a blaze of publicity at the close of the transfer window, Reyes has looked like a man thrown in at the deep end. With so many forwards out injured Wenger’s hand was forced, and Reyes had to leap straight into the first team. He’s been ok, but has never looked certain where exactly he was supposed to be as Arsenal’s fluid link-up play moved around him. For the first 55 minutes today that looked like a trend which was likely to continue, but then, suddenly he had the one thing he’s needed most: a few seconds on the ball to look up, think, and then know exactly what he was doing. Chelsea backed off, just a little, and after a neat pass from the ever-impressive deputy Edu, Reyes took hold of the ball, stepped to the side and unleashed an absolute howitzer of a shot that could not have gone any more precisely into the top corner.
Right then, all the weight of expectation lifted and he looked like the guy who’d been terrorising La Liga for the last two seasons. Assured, arrogant, deadly. All the things we’ve needed in a new forward. Suddenly he was at the centre of the game, and just 6 minutes later he got his second, moving onto a neat ball through to stroke the ball under Neil Sullivan, and winning the game.
It was as spectacular an intervention as it was timely, because for the first 45 minutes Chelsea had looked the more likely winners today. With Scott Parker and Claude Makelele keeping up a ferocious workrate in the centre, Chelsea unnerved Arsenal. Dependant on long deep balls from the flanks or down the middle, they were never especially creative, but seemed to be closing us out effectively. Cole and Pires linked well off the brilliant quick-feet of Bergkamp to create a couple of half-chances, but other than that we were scrappy, getting drawn too often into fouls and complaints. Chelsea thrive on that kind of competitiveness. They’re not pretty to watch, even at their best, but Ranieri has built a side that will work itself to death to get a result. Over and over in the first half Arsenal players would find themselves caught in a vice as three or more men in blue shirts surrounded them. And when Mutu leapt onto a bad clearance from Lehmann and thrashed home the opener, the tidings were grim ones.
But come the second half, it all changed. Parlour went off after a nasty collision with Bridge. That led Edu onto the field, and the Brazilian, who has been excellent this season, gave Vieira an attacking foil in midfield, leaving Silva out wide to cope quite admirably with the same unfamiliar wing role he adopted against Wolves.
Very soon after, Edu set-up Reyes for his debut goal, and after Vieira nicked the ball from Scott Parker and fed Reyes for his second, the game was up. Chelsea, from then on, looked like a team who didn’t think they could win. And now it’s four years in a row that we’ve beaten them in the FA Cup: have that, Mr Abramovich.
So where does this leave us then? Next week’s league match still has the greatest significance, but the challenge will be the same – and it will need to be the same flaws in Chelsea’s style that we need to exploit to effectively end their quest for the Premiership.
Chelsea play far too narrow a game to prosper against great opposition without Damien Duff. Scott Parker and Frank Lampard will make an excellent combination in front of Makelele, driving, harrying, breaking and scoring. But they need someone in front of them to pose a real threat in the toughest of circumstances. And that player is not Jesper Gronkjaer or Joe Cole, both of whom are far too inconsistent to be relied upon against the likes of us. Duff, like Pires and Giggs, offers magic, but he can also be depended upon in a crisis. Depended upon not only to do great work of his own, but to get others involved.
Gronkjaer and Cole both signally failed to do that today, and it left Lampard, who Wenger has quite rightly praised this week, anonymous. I said before the game that if Vieira could nullify Frank’s threatening runs then Chelsea could be beaten. He did it quite magnificently, but it’s not Lampard who was to blame for it. Gronkjaer and Cole gave him nothing to work with, no-one to link up with, and nowhere to go. So we won, and the most improved English player of the last two years had possibly his worst game in that entire 20 month period.
It’s uncertain whether Duff will be back next week, and if he isn’t we can expect the same story again. Another Arsenal-Chelsea game, another victory. Another step towards the title.
Wenger has today raised the idea that Henry might be missing come next Saturday. Don’t believe it for a second. Thierry might have a bruised foot, but his absence today partly came from the confidence Wenger has in his squad to deal with matches like this. He could only have dreamed – like the rest of us – of the quality Reyes would produce, but he would have been certain that, Henry or not, we had what it takes to conquer a team missing their creative heartbeat.
So it’s still on, a fourth successive final, and a third successive victory in the oldest and greatest domestic cup competition in the world. The draw’s tomorrow, and although simple home ties against Tranmere or Millwall are up for grabs, I have this strange feeling it could well be either Manchester United or Liverpool in the next round. It’s been that kind of year.
To get used to a new team all football players need a lucky break. A goal, a good tackle, being in the right place at the right time. Something to make a player feel like he belongs, and that providence is on his side. Jose Antonio Reyes hadn’t had that in his short time in England – but when he got it today he leapt on it and Arsenal fans and the rest of English football could start to see why Wenger thinks this kid is so special.
Since his arrival in a blaze of publicity at the close of the transfer window, Reyes has looked like a man thrown in at the deep end. With so many forwards out injured Wenger’s hand was forced, and Reyes had to leap straight into the first team. He’s been ok, but has never looked certain where exactly he was supposed to be as Arsenal’s fluid link-up play moved around him. For the first 55 minutes today that looked like a trend which was likely to continue, but then, suddenly he had the one thing he’s needed most: a few seconds on the ball to look up, think, and then know exactly what he was doing. Chelsea backed off, just a little, and after a neat pass from the ever-impressive deputy Edu, Reyes took hold of the ball, stepped to the side and unleashed an absolute howitzer of a shot that could not have gone any more precisely into the top corner.
Right then, all the weight of expectation lifted and he looked like the guy who’d been terrorising La Liga for the last two seasons. Assured, arrogant, deadly. All the things we’ve needed in a new forward. Suddenly he was at the centre of the game, and just 6 minutes later he got his second, moving onto a neat ball through to stroke the ball under Neil Sullivan, and winning the game.
It was as spectacular an intervention as it was timely, because for the first 45 minutes Chelsea had looked the more likely winners today. With Scott Parker and Claude Makelele keeping up a ferocious workrate in the centre, Chelsea unnerved Arsenal. Dependant on long deep balls from the flanks or down the middle, they were never especially creative, but seemed to be closing us out effectively. Cole and Pires linked well off the brilliant quick-feet of Bergkamp to create a couple of half-chances, but other than that we were scrappy, getting drawn too often into fouls and complaints. Chelsea thrive on that kind of competitiveness. They’re not pretty to watch, even at their best, but Ranieri has built a side that will work itself to death to get a result. Over and over in the first half Arsenal players would find themselves caught in a vice as three or more men in blue shirts surrounded them. And when Mutu leapt onto a bad clearance from Lehmann and thrashed home the opener, the tidings were grim ones.
But come the second half, it all changed. Parlour went off after a nasty collision with Bridge. That led Edu onto the field, and the Brazilian, who has been excellent this season, gave Vieira an attacking foil in midfield, leaving Silva out wide to cope quite admirably with the same unfamiliar wing role he adopted against Wolves.
Very soon after, Edu set-up Reyes for his debut goal, and after Vieira nicked the ball from Scott Parker and fed Reyes for his second, the game was up. Chelsea, from then on, looked like a team who didn’t think they could win. And now it’s four years in a row that we’ve beaten them in the FA Cup: have that, Mr Abramovich.
So where does this leave us then? Next week’s league match still has the greatest significance, but the challenge will be the same – and it will need to be the same flaws in Chelsea’s style that we need to exploit to effectively end their quest for the Premiership.
Chelsea play far too narrow a game to prosper against great opposition without Damien Duff. Scott Parker and Frank Lampard will make an excellent combination in front of Makelele, driving, harrying, breaking and scoring. But they need someone in front of them to pose a real threat in the toughest of circumstances. And that player is not Jesper Gronkjaer or Joe Cole, both of whom are far too inconsistent to be relied upon against the likes of us. Duff, like Pires and Giggs, offers magic, but he can also be depended upon in a crisis. Depended upon not only to do great work of his own, but to get others involved.
Gronkjaer and Cole both signally failed to do that today, and it left Lampard, who Wenger has quite rightly praised this week, anonymous. I said before the game that if Vieira could nullify Frank’s threatening runs then Chelsea could be beaten. He did it quite magnificently, but it’s not Lampard who was to blame for it. Gronkjaer and Cole gave him nothing to work with, no-one to link up with, and nowhere to go. So we won, and the most improved English player of the last two years had possibly his worst game in that entire 20 month period.
It’s uncertain whether Duff will be back next week, and if he isn’t we can expect the same story again. Another Arsenal-Chelsea game, another victory. Another step towards the title.
Wenger has today raised the idea that Henry might be missing come next Saturday. Don’t believe it for a second. Thierry might have a bruised foot, but his absence today partly came from the confidence Wenger has in his squad to deal with matches like this. He could only have dreamed – like the rest of us – of the quality Reyes would produce, but he would have been certain that, Henry or not, we had what it takes to conquer a team missing their creative heartbeat.
So it’s still on, a fourth successive final, and a third successive victory in the oldest and greatest domestic cup competition in the world. The draw’s tomorrow, and although simple home ties against Tranmere or Millwall are up for grabs, I have this strange feeling it could well be either Manchester United or Liverpool in the next round. It’s been that kind of year.
