Chelsea vs Arsenal: 999 Games + 1 Wenger Would Like to Forget

Not Kieran Gibbs

You may not have heard, but Saturday was Arsene Wenger's 1000th game in charge of Arsenal. The press had kept it pretty quiet in the roundup, so thought I'd make sure you lot knew. And although I had something pretty special intended for the post-mortem on the match, I thought I'd send in Kieran Gibbs to do it instead.

With the special relationship which the managers have developed over the years, Arsene Wenger was undoubtedly delighted to mark the occasion of his big game against his close personal friend Jose Mourinho. A man he has yet to see victory over on or off the pitch.

Chelsea vs Arsenal is always big match. This one is in the midst of a title fight and a special one for the Arsenal boss. With it also being the dreaded early kick-off, not many Chelsea supporters would have predicted the ease that their team managed to systematically disassemble Arsenal within  minutes after kick-off.

Arsenal were given the same pre-match treatment as their neighbours with two large banners displaying each the Champions League and Thursday Night Cup were dropped from the Matthew Harding Upper to ensure the visitors would get the best view. It's safe to say the visitors enjoyed that as much as the 'European Champions' and 'Specialist in Failure' songs peppered throughout the match.

Just seven minutes into the match, and Arsenal had already had the absolute piss taken out of them found themselves 2 goals down to a Chelsea side that's conceded just 4 in the league in 2014. The only thing worse for Arsenal than Samuel Eto'o's opening go'al had to be his goal celebration in front of the travelling support.

Of course the first two goals were almost all but forgotten as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was out to impress Roy Hodgson as a potential replacement for Joe Hart. The Ox athletically jumped across the front of goal to push Eden Hazard's wide shot even further from goal. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain not Kieran Gibbs. How Andre Marriner or any of his team mixed the two up is arguably one of the poorest decisions of this season -- and there's been a lot to choose from. Gibbs' back was to Marriner when Hazard took the shot, surely the name on his shirt should have been a tip off. And if reading was the challenge, Oxlade-Chamberlain admitting to Marriner that he got handsy should have made it all a straight forward decision for a professional referee.

What should a team do when they go 3 goals down within the first 20 minutes and have had their left-back sent off? Definitely take off any possible attacking threat and put on another defender. Because sod trying to score. Podolski had not covered himself in glory up until that point, but surely there's nothing to lose at this stage. Bringing on someone like Flamini to get better control of their midfield or at least get shouty at his teammates would have made more sense. But Flamini remained on the bench until the second half, replacing goalkeeper Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Mourinho was more incisive about his team selection, even if it was enforced on him thanks to the wonderful world of suspension. Mourinho gave Arsenal an uphill task to get through the man mountains that are Nemanja Matic and David Luiz. Luiz had been shown a picture of Oxlade-Chamberlain before the game and tracked him close enough that concern grew he'd head to the bench when the midfielder was subbed off. And unlike Marriner, Luiz did not confuse him with anyone else on the pitch. Exceptional performances from both of Chelsea's DMs on Saturday.

Fernando Torres expected to enjoy Saturday with some leftover birthday cake, but was called upon to fill in for Eto'o who might have fallen an injured a hip after scoring. And although he's one of the few people who didn't find the back of the net on Saturday he certainly created nothing but trouble for the Arsenal defence and set up a fantastic goal for Oscar.

On a day that Wenger was hoping to get one over on Mourinho, Mourinho got six over on him ruining his day out. So anxious to get back home, Wenger decided that 999 press conferences were enough and he could pass this one up -- probably not to get home in time for Match of the Day.

jb x

ps well done to the away fans in the lower tier who saw the match out. Unbeknownst to them, nearly the entire upper tier had enough after about an hour and beat the rush to the Costa at Earls Court