CECH MATE TO ARSENE
Petr haunts Chelsea as Ox bags winner
FINALLY, agonisingly, Arsene Wenger has addressed one of the biggest psychological hurdles standing in the way of winning a fourth Barclays Premier League title. Just as Jose Mourinho sensed on Friday, the law of averages suggested that Arsenal would finally lay a glove on Chelsea at some point. After all the skirmishes between this pair over the past 11 years, this is a bit more than a scratch.
What better place then, what grander setting than Wembley, to inflict Wenger’s first defeat on the defending champions’ irksome manager in 14 attempts. ‘Our rivals have spent considerably more on transfers this summer and we have the same team,’ lamented Mourinho, and with that you know something is already bubbling under the surface at Stamford Bridge.
Wenger has put one over on him; beaten a man who gets under his skin like no one else, beaten Chelsea with the formidable figure of Petr Cech in the colours of Arsenal, and beaten the champions.
There have been times during this 11-year hoodoo when it looked as though Mourinho wanted to finish off Wenger, to unseat the Arsenal manager who he labelled a ‘specialist in failure’. In March 2014, when Arsenal were beaten 6-0 at Stamford Bridge, Wenger went a disturbing shade of grey on the touchline as the goals rained in. His colour is back.
Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain’s belting 24th- minute strike, cutting in from the left to beat Thibaut Courtois from inside the penalty area, was a beautiful goal.
It was a fraction short, perhaps, of the quality of Alexis Sanchez’s strike in the FA Cup final against Aston Villa last May. But this pearler surely carries greater historical significance, even if the Community Shield’s many detractors, swollen by a large batch of Chelsea supporters this morning, will tell you that it is meaningless.
This is not an Arsenal team to compare with the Dennis Bergkamp-inspired class of the 1998 and 2002 Double-winningg tea teams,s, o or the Thierry Henry vintage when Arsenal’s Invincibles went a season unbeaten in 2003-04. But it is coming together rather nicely, all the same. Arsenal had to work hard for this victory, sacrificing their attacking instincts after Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal and settling down to defend for the rest of the afternoon.
Despite Mourinho’s remarkable e claims of superior quality, Chelseaa were made to look ordinary and d functional. All that improvisation, , the darting runs of the match-winners — Willian, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas — looks to havee finally been coached out of them. m. This is no way to play.
Loic Remy, favoured by Mourinho o because of his telling contributions ns last season, was isolated and anonyymous. Radamel Falcao, his seconddhalf replacement, fared no better.
Wembley is Arsenal’s playground nd now. They have won successive FA Cup semi-finals and finals here, plusus Community Shield victories over er Manchester City and now Chelsea. Dare it be said, they look the part.
This was a triumph for Arsenal’s application in the final third, where the runs of Theo Walcott and OxladeChamberlain turned this game in their favour. Mesut Ozil, as ever, provided the intelligence.
The challenge for Arsenal is to replicate this over 38 league games, starting with West Ham on Sunday lunchtime, and to finish it all off by lifting another trophy against Aston Villa on May 15.
They now possess a keeper of class and pedigree, certainly their best since Jens Lehmann and possibly even Safe Hands himself, David Seaman. ‘Cech is a Gooner,’ they piped up from behind his goal after the 33-year-old denied substitute Oscar with a smart save to his right.
In front of him were 10 determined, organised outfield men, straight off the success of the Emirates Cup last weekend and into this fiery Community Shield fixture.
It started nice and niggly, with Ramires catching Ozil early on and one or two nips on the ankles of Walcott as he darted between the lines.
This was a strange and subdued Chelsea, perhaps play playing catch-up after a whirlwind trip to the United States to play in Washington, Charlotte and New Jersey.
Arsenal earned their stars and stripes, playing with the ingenuity required to strip down a team carrying the defensive class of John Terry in their ranks.
A header from Walcott had already been saved comfortably when Arsenal put the first-half move together that led to the only goal of the game.
Ozil found Walcott in space in the centre, and he played one more pass in to the feet of the onrushing Oxlade-Chamberlain. The Arsenal flyer, in the team because of Jack Wilshere’s ankle injury, finished off the move by lashing his left-foot effort into the roof of Courtois’s net.
They deserved to be in front, as Francis Coquelin rattled bones in Chelsea’s midfield with a couple of thunderous challenges. Sometimes even Arsenal have to mix it up.
There was a response by Chelsea, of sorts. Ramires bent an effort around Cech’s post and perhaps should have done better with a free header from Willian’s cross.
‘Boring, boring Chelsea,’ chimed Arsenal’s supporters, a reminder of last season’s strangulation on the way to Mourinho’s third Premier League title.
After the break, Chelsea’s best chance arrived as Fabregas shuffled away from his marker and sent Hazard clear. The Belgian bore down on Cech but fired his shot over the bar.
Soon after, Oscar struck a free-kick towards the top corner but Cech, with years of experience on the training ground saving shots from these boys, was equal to it.
Victory meant so much to Wenger after the savaging he has had over the years from Chelsea’s coach.
This time, it is Mourinho’s turn to wonder how all this happened.