Arsene Wenger making Jose Mourinho look small and pathetic

It took Cesc Fabregas a moment to put into stark perspective Arsenal’s futility in opening up another dimension with their incessant passing. In the 77th minute, Chelsea got the ball back and Fabregas from behind the half line looking up found Diego Costa coasting between Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny and airdropped the ball perfectly. Costa finished coolly lifting the ball over the out of position Szczesny for his ninth goal in eight matches. It reminded one of this. In the first half, Eden Hazard’s brilliant burst of acceleration tore through the heart of the defense was rewarded with a penalty as Koscielny brought him down. The Belgian nonchalantly waited for Szczesny to make his move and then put the ball into the opposite corner. Two moments but that’s all it took.

In some sense this was a worse loss because unlike the six nil drubbing during their last Stamford Bridge visit Arsenal promised much but delivered little. They did not implode and for large parts of the match buzzed around the Chelsea goal trying to find their way through a disciplined and well organized defense helped out by Oscar dropping deeper and putting in a yeoman shift with timely tackles and blocks. Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere did a lot of the spadework as once again Mesut Oezil found himself stuck out on the flanks to really affect the game.

Chelsea let them have possession as it began to dawn on Arsenal fans there could be no end product. Danny Welbeck so bright and fast earlier this week disappeared in a blizzard of blue jerseys. At the end one could not remember Petr Cech having been tested even once. A more ruthless club would have seized the opportunity to make life harder between the sticks for Thibaut Courtois’s replacement. The Belgian tried hard to shake off the after effects of a nasty collision with Alexis Sanchez but had to leave dazed and bleeding from the right ear after about 10 minutes.

There were plenty of subplots. Most of all, Fabregas, the former Arsenal captain painfully reminding us of meat on the bones impact compared to Oezil’s disappearing acts. His display revives the grievance Wenger was wrong allowing Chelsea to have him when available to the Gunners. On the sidelines Wenger got fiddly with Jose Mourinho after Gary Cahill drilled Alexis Sanchez with a two footed tackle which Martin Atkinson failed to penalize. A legitimate shout for handball after Fabregas failed to keep his arms down but Atkinson did not see it that way. On the other side the divide Calum Chambers flirted with a second booking – he’s already got four. Welbeck smashed into Fabregas towards the end and was fortunate to stay on. The match was delayed for 15 mins as police did not allow porno with pyros into the stadium.

A narrative has been set. Jose Mourinho will find a way to win against Arsenal no matter how improved the personnel and the performance. There is a simpleness to his plan. Use Arsenal’s overelaboration to his advantage. Use the Chelsea spine to hit at its weakest. On a fundamental level we play with the cumulative ghosts of encounters past which means losing 50-50s and continuing the inability to score (3 matches against Mourinho since his return and we have let in 8 against none scored).

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