A depressing realization took hold in North London today. That was the fact that Chelsea are a significantly better football team than Arsenal. Five years ago, these were even matches, and Arsenal tended to have the edge when it came to the result. Now, the gap is getting embarrassing. I know that Arsenal had injuries, most notably to Van Persie - but I don't think many Arsenal fans will seriously suggest that it would have been different had he been there.For most of the first half, it could have been different. Arsenal controlled more than their fair share of possession, all the while without really creating any decent chances. Whether that was because of a lack of decent forwards in decent positions, or committed Chelsea defending, or something else, who knows. But by the time 40 minutes were on the clock, things seemed to be going fine from an Arsenal point of view.
Then it all went wrong. 2 goals in the last five minutes of the first half. Both from Ashley Cole crosses, one finished by Drogba, the other an own goal, and neither that the defenders will be proud of. All of which won the game for Chelsea, and made the story all about how Chelsea soaked up all we could throw at them, then beat us - and beat us pretty clinically. As the second half came and went, there was no obvious way that Arsenal were going to get back into it - the gap was too wide. Wenger (to his credit) threw on alternative attacking options quite early, but Walcott had a wretchedly ineffective game, and with 7 Chelsea defenders every time we went forward, there wasn't likely to be much of a way back into the game. Dismal stuff.
As an aside, it absolutely was not why Arsenal lost the game, but the referee was appalling today. Over officious in moving free kicks a yard to the exact spot he wanted them taken from. Willing to book Traore for his first foul (thus blunting his defensive game from the first quarter hour), but totally overlooked a litany of Mikel's fouls until the 70th minute. Picked up and ran the width of the pitch to give the fourth official the "missiles" that came from the crowd at Lampard and Drogba - of course they shouldn't have been thrown, but if any referee had done that at Stamford Bridge five years ago when Vieira was getting pelted, they would have done little else for the whole game. Over picky, and it seemed like he gave Chelsea lots of small advantages, and denied those to Arsenal.
Still, none of this takes away from the fact that Chelsea are in something of a different league to Arsenal at the moment, and that is upsetting. It seems hard to imagine Arsenal having a spine with the strength and power of Cech, Terry, Essien and Drogba. We are a million miles away. They soaked up all we could throw at them, and still had plenty more. That's Arsenal out of the title race (as Wenger admitted after the game), and until we have players that are more than just skillful but lightweight, you can't see us winning the title. A big wakeup call, we are still some way away from where we want to be.
