The Rot Is Over - Now Let's Keep Going

Greetings all,

I'm not going to go beating around the bush tonight. Let's cut straight to the chase. What a magnificent night! You could say something speical has happened on this night. A major mental barrier has been broken, not only broken but smashed. We've taken some critisism over the last year or so for our inability to beat the big sides. I'm not saying it was injustified critisism but I think I speak for all of us when I say I was damn right fed up with it. We no longer have to listen to countless pundits, journalists and even our own fans abuse this club. I've been saying this for a long time and I've never once doubted it. This team has the ability to win the Premier League, I'd go as far as saying we can win the Champions League. The only thing holding us back was this mental weakness which has been so difficult to diagnose. The players have failed to live up to the big occasions in the last year. Even Cesc himself admitted the players were nervous going into these games. This past week I reckon the players just decided to put the foot down and tell themselves - "look this is hit, there's no point being afraid anymore, we've taken a lot of slack, now it's time to respond". I had a feeling we'd get a response tonight. You could just sense that the players really wanted this needless pressure off their backs. I'm so glad they did.

Prior to the game, everywhere you looked, all you would read or hear was "Arsenal can't lose tonight or their out of the title race" or "Do or Die for Arsenal". It gave you a sort of sick nervous feeling in your stomach imagining the amount of shit we'd have thrown our way if we did manage to fuck up. It was up to the players to deliver now.

Arsene made a few surprising changes to the team. Out went Squillaci for the in form Djourou. Walcott actually got the nod for once ahead of the unpredictable Arshavin and Van Persie came in for Chamakh who had been rested by the boss. The first name you looked for on the Chelsea team-sheet was Drogba and as expected, he was there. I really didn't give a shit about who else lined out for the Blues. I knew that if we turned up and played as we all know we can, then there would only be one outcome.

The early signs were good. We kept the ball well and the passing was very sharp, something that's been lacking in recent games. We should have gone ahead inside the first five minutes as Alex Song's beautifully lofted ball somehow evaded Van Persie, he appeared to have been put off by Ivanovic's attempted clearance. Despite our good start, Chelsea fired a few warning signs as Drogba looked to get on the end of long balls. Djourou and Koscielny kept close throughout, limiting him to a minority of headers and when he did control the ball he was quickly closed down and dispossessed.

A Samir Nasri free-kick was the next test for Cech. The ball was firmly hit but the big Czech made the catch look easy. Shortly after Walcott was set through but he miscontrolled the ball allowing Terry to get in and clear. Soon after a challenge on Theo resulted in Cashley Cole been giving a yellow card. Oh how sweet it would have been to have seen him sent off but it wasn't to be. Then a beautiful passing move involving Cesc and Nasri resulted in Van Persie blazing over. You got the feeling that if we didn't take our chnaces, sooner or later we would be punished. That feeling was soon banished. Jack Wilshere picked up the ball on the edge of the box, he played it into Song who turned his man, the ball fell to Cesc who was fouled but Clattenberg allowed the advantage and Song slotted home. My lungs were ready to explode. We all knew how important the first goal was. When we fall behind we tend to sulk if you like and life is made all the more difficult when you go a goal down against the top sides because they just shut up shop and look to hit you on the counter. This time we were leading. Yes, I know its hard to believe. It came just on the brink of half-time too so there was a serious buzz as the players headed into the dressing room.

The main concern for me at half-time was that we would come out, lose all momentum and allow Chelsea to come at us. It is well known that we struggle when we're put under increased pressure. For us, attack is the best form of defence. Chelsea brought on Ramires for Mikel. It was clear they were going to have a go at us. Our job was to expose them, we are the best team in the country at hitting teams on the counter attack after all. Despite the Blues' efforts to drag themselves back into the game, we were the ones to come out of the blocks firing and what a start to the second half it was. Essien's attempt to dispossess Van Persie resulted in him setting Walcott clean through on goal. The winger, who we've often critisised in the past for his failure to produce an end product, pulled the ball back for Fabregas to slot home and put us firmly in the driving seat. Despite the fact that I was celebrating like I'd been relaesed from prison, I knew the game was far from over. However, Theo seemed intent on proving me wrong. Two minutes later Florent Malouda took too much time on the ball, Theo nicked it off him, passed to Fabregas who returned the pass with an exquisite through ball to split the Chelsea defence in half before the Englishman fired home past Cech. At this stage, we were all in dreamland. 3-0 up against Chelsea and there wasn't even an hour gone on the clock, are you being fucking serious!? The Emirates was on the verge of eruption. I haven't seen the fans bounce like that since....I don't think I've ever seen such celebrations at the Emirates. That is how much this game meant to everyone at the club. However, I still wasn't convinced we had the game wrapped up. It was far too soon, there was still over a half an hour to go and as we've already experienced this season, anything can happen in football.

Ancelotti responded immediately by replacing the awful Malouda with youngster Gael Kakuta. It wasn't exactly the substitution that would leave you quaking in your boots. Three minutes before the hour, my worst fear came about. A Drogba free-kick was nodded in by Ivanovic. I was dreading that nervous tension around the Emirates we all know. Credit to the fans though, they kept the atmosphere going and made sure the players didn't collapse. We kept going, if anything the Chelsea goal spurned us on. We fought for every ball as if our lives depended on it. You could see they really wanted this game. The only thing in their head was three points. No bad memories of the Spurs game. No thoughts of our inability to beat Chelsea in recen years. They wanted to win, full stop. The Blues tried to put us under pressure but everything they threw at us was fucked back up the field. We should have killed the game once and for all when Walcott's cross-field ball was miscontrolled by Kakuta who tried to chest it back to Cech. Instead Nasri latched onto it but his shot was poor and easily saved by Cech.

Arsene made two sensible changes as Diaby replaced Walcott and Chamakh came on for Van Persie. Diaby's height of course would benefit us in defending set-pieces and Chamakh's work-rates is fantastic. Chelsea had a goal ruled out for offside as I continued to eat what nails I had left. Diaby had another chance to kill the game but Cech saved well. It didn't matter as the sound of the final whistle was like music to my ears. I celebrated and sang for hours afterwards (which is why I'm writing up this blog so late). This team has answered so many questions with tonight's performance and more importantly the result. There's little time to dwell on the game and think of the great performance we put in. The players have to remain concentrated. We play Wigan away on Wednesday, we're going to get fuck all of a rest. Anyway here's the player ratings:
Fabianski: 7 - Didn't have much to do but was so reliable when called upon. He has come some way.
Sagna: 8 - Bombed up and down the right wing as if he had unlimited energy. Real solid display.
Djourou: 8 - My man of the match. He was incredible, kept drogba quiet all night. Surely he has earned his place in the starting eleven now?
Koscielny: 7 - Very impressive but needs to bulk up fast. His lack of strenght costs us from set-pieces.
Clichy: 8 - Answered a lot of questions tonight. Got protection from Nasri which he didn't get off Arshavin and it made a big difference.
Song: 8 - Best performance from him this season. He didn't wander forward like a headless chicken. Remained disciplined, broke up Chelsea play and opened the scoring.
Wilshere: 8 - Continues to grow in starure and confidence. What he talent we have on our hands.
Fabregas: 8 - Typical from Cesc. Committed, determined and brilliant.
Nasri: 8 - Unlucky not to score. Several moments of brilliance.
Walcott: 9 - Tonight he made a huge statement to Arsene. This boy deserves his place in the side, sorry Andrey.
Van Persie: 7 - For a man who is supposedly lacking in sharpness, he was fantastic.
Subs:
Diaby: 7 - Came on and did his job.
Chamakh: 7 - Ran his socks off to close down the Chelsea defenders.
Rosicky: 7 - Had little time on the pitch but nearly scored.

Well folks I could go on for hours talking about how brilliant we were tonight but I'm sure all of you have seen the game by now and know for yourselves. I'm off to celebrate some more.
Back tomorrow.