The three days prior to the London derby all of the media focused on the achievement of Arsene Wenger reaching 1000 games in charge of the Arsenal. Bravo; 1000 games in the modern game is quite an achievement…rather more so considering the last 500 he has been a specialist in failure and yet still retained his job!
Before I get into the nuts and bolts of the game, I genuinely cannot hold back my feelings on that result. That has to be truly one of the most satisfying results I’ve ever witnessed from a Chelsea fans perspective. Winning trophies brings about a special feeling because you have something tangible to show for it. When you humiliate a rival like we did yesterday, it fills you with something far more. Pride.
Of course, when you win a trophy you are proud of that achievement. When you do that to a rival (in a big game too) it just feels indescribable because the pride is flowing out, made even better by the fact that it’s likely we have mates 
who are fans of these rivals. Self-pride, local pride and knowing you have an overwhelming sense of power over them because of that result. Wonderful!
Perhaps I’ve not explained that well enough but I guess my overall point is that results like this are on the same level as winning a trophy but with different types of feelings. It’s not a feeling I’ll ever forget nor will I let any Gooner forget either!
Towards the end of my blog last week, I briefly touched on the Arsenal game, in particular what the weaknesses were in order for us to take advantage. Thankfully, Arsenal didn’t disappoint us.
With the suspensions of Willian and Ramires, the changes were straightforward with Schurrle and Luiz getting the nod. While I’m a fan of the former two, it perhaps was fair to say that those suspensions came at a timely moment, as both replacements were pivotal to our success.
As mentioned in my blog last week, the way Arsenal play was always going to be their own downfall. We hear from every media outlet of how “pretty” Arsenal’s football is. At times, of course, they are an aesthetically pleasing side to watch. The problem with playing that way though is that you have to play with freedom. There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing with freedom, in fact, it’s a credit to a team that do it…but you’ve got to have either a couple of footballers that will sacrifice themselves to allow others to play with freedom or alternatively press all over the pitch.
Arsenal, considering the way they want to play, have neither. I suspect some will make the point that they do well enough most weeks (and they do) with that style. It’s all well and good playing that way against the lesser teams who will treasure a point against Arsenal because you get the freedom to play with freedom. Against us…as the expression goes, if you’re going to play with fire then frankly you’re going to get burnt.
What we did was take advantage of the freedom Arsenal were going to allow us by playing a simple chain reaction pressing game. One player presses the opposition and if the ball moves to another player, the next player begins to press. It’s a very straightforward maneuver, which we see from excellent teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The beauty of this tactic is that while one man presses, it gives the other players the opportunity to look at everything in front of them and read where the ball is going to go and when you have energetic and intelligent players like Schurrle, Matic and Luiz then you’re going to win the ball in key areas.
It’s probably fair to say that 5 out of our 6 goals were produced this way. Our relentless approach to make life as uncomfortable as possible for Arsenal really paid off.
The first goal came from Matic and Schurrle pressing the opposition and the ball coming loose and then counter attacking clinically. Arsenal committed numbers trying to break forward themselves and just left them all over the place. Arsenal’s backline consisted of 3 players diagonally across the pitch (if you look at it again) and cult hero Eto’o did the rest. It’s remarkable how naïve a team can be just 4 minutes in.
The second goal again was caused by pressure on the back 4 resulting in a loose ball that Matic gobbled up in the middle of the park. A quick ball to Schurrle and he slams home from distance. The build up to the third goal was almost a carbon copy with Oscar winning the ball and releasing Hazard onto Torres, who intelligently slipped Hazard in to make the attempt that had everyone talking (more on that later).
The forth goal…what a surprise, was similar again. The ball is won in midfield and one flick from Schurrle gives Torres the room to run in behind and superbly play Oscar in for a tap in; all coming about because we’ve just pressed the opposition.
Obviously after the first half, Chelsea fans are euphoric…not only that, I just could not stop laughing. We played some of the best football we’ve produced this season, but for a team to concede 4 goals virtually down to the exact same reason is hysterical!
It’s fair to say in the second half; we probably took our foot of the gas and only stepped up when we needed to.
There were a number of plays that were prime examples of our success in the first half. Torres and Luiz were denied by good goalkeeping, as was Oscar.
We obviously added to our tally through Oscar and then an excellent 20-minute cameo from Salah added to what proved to be a stunning performance and one that will live in the memory of Chelsea fans for a generation.
In a team performance where we were so tactically good, it’s hard to pick out individuals but I will mention a few.
Oscar, for me, was fantastic. Once again his work rate was pivotal for a number of goals and he also found the end 
product and skill that had a few Chelsea fans concerned. But, in recent weeks, I’ve always praised him in my blog and he has appeared to get a second wind. What impressed me was the way he got into attacking positions. The first and second goal he is timing the runs to follow up any rebounds. He was excellent in the 3rd goal and scored the 4th and 5th.
Andre Schurrle has once again proven to be a lethal addition to our squad. He has really put the work in to improve himself and he is a natural and instinctive finisher. I said briefly before that I’m a fan of Willian…but that’s what he needs to add to his game; a bit more end product.
The last two I’ll mention are the midfield pairing of Luiz and Matic. It’s interesting how the two compliment each other and give us something different.
Matic, it has to be said, has been a revelation to our side. I like Mikel but the qualities Matic has is what Mikel has needed to add to his game over the last couple of years as the team has evolved. His impact has made shockwaves to the way we play because it gives us that other option to play the pressing game but also start attacks much deeper, where as before, we used to have to rely on Oscar and Mata (when he was with us) to drop deep to give us creativity in the lower part of the pitch. Not only that, since the departures of Ballack and Essien (when he was fit), we’ve lacked a proper enforcer.
The Luiz part is interesting…I’m still of the opinion that he is a centre back. That said, because of his “impulsiveness” he is suited to a pressing game up the pitch. I don’t want to sound as if I’m disrespecting Luiz’s role…but his role in the midfield, in my opinion, is to just cause a bit of chaos. He will press, harry and break up play with niggly fouls but more than anything, the way he charges around trying to win every ball in his reach does just make a real mess of any opponents rhythm. That sounds as if I’m making him out to be a poor player (and I’m not) but he makes a wonderful mess of things for opposition. Having said that, his technical ability on the ball is second to none and he is a class option to hit probing passes into our attackers.
Other mentions I guess will go to our forwards and left back. Eto’o has become a real cult hero. Torres I thought was brilliant and deserved a goal and what else can you say about Azpilicueta except he is the best 6.2mil we’ve ever spent. If he isn’t the best full back in the league, someone show me who is…and if you do, I’ll argue all day with you that you’re wrong!
As usual, the media decided to focus on the sending off of the incorrect player instead of our world-class performance. What a complete non issue because it still doesn’t hide the fact that it was a penalty and red card or that we were already destroying them. It’s not like it changed the game was it!?
What we’ve done is made another statement that we’re not going away. It’s a sprint finish now and whoever keeps the pace up is going to win it…one stumble and it’s all over.
With City having to play some big teams, this is probably going to be our only chance to take advantage of any slips and Liverpool aren’t to be overlooked.
It’s Palace next for us, away. That is the game that if we want to see this through, we have no choice but to win. They are going to be physical, scrappy and disruptive…it’s going to be our Blackburn away from 04/05. We come out of it with 3 points and results go our way it could be the weekend the title became ours to lose…just the way Jose likes it.
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By Liam Hawkes
(@LiamHawkes2)
Although alot of of what you say may be true it is insulting for you or your crass unintelligent manager to call Wenger a failure.Please consider it cost Abramovich a net spend of+650.000000 to win 3 titles It cost Wenger +60,000000 to win 3 titles including 2 doubles and a season undefeated.
everything you said is very right especially where you mentioned media focusing on the ref’s blunder instead of praising the classic display of Chelsea team and the genius of Mourinho who once again proved it to the world that he is a long way ahead of Wenger in the coaching department. Sweet article, keep it up!
Again I reiterate that it has cost Chelsea or Abramovich 11 x times that it has cost Arsenal to achieve the same 3 titles and he Mourinho ever gone 49 matches undefeated.