march 25th
So it’s slight advantage to Arsenal after a 1-1 draw at the Bridge, which gives us a vital away goal to take to the second leg at Highbury.
It seems to be par for the course for Chelsea to take the lead, and they did again last night when Jens Lehmann failed to clear a hopeful punt upfield. Gudjohnsen finished smartly to put Chelsea 1-0 up. It’s the fourth goal this season to come from a pretty obvious Lehmann error, but Sol Campbell and Lauren need to look at their defending for the goal as well.
Directly afterwards Chelsea had us on the ropes a bit and made a couple of decent chances, one of which was stopped by the increasingly impressive Kolo Toure. Considering how well he’s been playing all season, to say he’s still improving is just fantastic and he had a very, very good game. Arsenal equalised through the rarest of goals, a Robert Pires header, and a very nice goal it was too. Ashley Cole chipped a ball through for on rushing Pires who climbed above John Terry and planted a sweet header into bottom corner. That’s 17 for Le Bob this season and I just wish he was a few years younger. This man is just top class. Chelsea ended up with 10 men after Marcel Desailly picked up two yellows within minutes. The first was a stupid one as he hit the ball out of Lehmann’s hands as he was throwing it out, and the second was for a challenge on Vieira which if it had seen an Arsenal player sent off I’d have been seriously pissed off.
We threw on Gilberto – who in 20 minutes showed exactly why he’s not in the first 11 anymore (when is Ray Parlour back?) – and Jose Reyes who still has a lot to learn about the way we play and how even the forwards are expected to help out the defence. We never looked like we really wanted to go for the second goal, and with United on Sunday that’s understandable I suppose.
Arsene Wenger reckons the away goal gives us the advantage, saying “We have a good opportunity. It was important for us to score a goal to come back. It was a great result for us. When we gave the goal away we needed to show a lot of character.”
The captain also feels we have the edge, even though it wasn’t one of best performances this season. He said after the game, “I think we played all right. We know how important it is to score a goal away from home in the Champions League. We are still a long way from where we want to go, but we are quite happy with this result.”
So it’ll be plenty of rest and relaxation before the game on Sunday. I don’t expect any changes from the line-up last night, injuries allowing. I do think we’ll see a different team in the FA Cup game though, with the second leg of the 1/4 final following so soon afterwards.
Ok, I’m away to teach. Till later.
