Our winless run against Mourinho's side continued on Monday as the teams shared the points at the Emirates. I gotta say, I expected more from this game. Had I not supported Arsenal, I would have gone to bed at half-time. As it is, I sat there watching the game till two o'clock in the morning.
Arsene made a couple of changes to the side, that went down to City nine days prior to this encounter. Vermaelen came in for injured Koscielny, Arteta replaced Flamini, while Rosicky started on the left at the expense of Cazorla. Podolski remained an unused sub throughout.
Maybe the relentless rain played it's part, but neither team never built any kind of momentum. Chelsea sat deep and tried to catch us on the break, while Arsenal probed around, trying to find an opening. Both sides didn't succeed in their respective missions.
The best chance of the first half fell to Chelsea. Hazard (I think) played a ball over our defense, but Lampard cracked his shot against the bar. Arsenal defenders saw off the remaining threat.
The Blues had another chance, when they finally caught us on the counter, but Willian's tame effort only found Szczesny. Arsenal, meanwhile, had a shout for a penalty, after Walcott was tripped in the box, but Mike Dean pretended not to notice.
In the second half we were on top and created three good chances as a result.
In the first episode, Ramsey played a lob pass to Giroud and the Frenchman needed to hit the target with only Cech to beat. He failed, slashing his shot wide.
He was then presented with another opportunity, after a great move down the left saw Gibbs fire his low cross towards Giroud. This time, however, it was more a case of brilliant defending from Terry, rather than a poor piece of play from our striker. In the dying minutes, Sagna's shot was cleared off the line following a corner.
Chelsea was absolutely toothless in this second half. When Mourinho took off Torres to replace him with Oscar, we knew the Portuguese was content with a point.
Wenger, surprisingly, made no substitutes, which I think was a mistake. Walcott wasn't all that great, for example, and replacing him with Cazorla seemed an obvious thing to do. It just wasn't a game, in which Walcott could help us. He needs space he can exploit and Chelsea's defending provided him with none. Cazorla would have fared better in my opinion.
Another player I expected to come on (and I don't think I'm alone here) was Podolski. He could have replaced either Rosicky (who faded towards the end) or Giroud (who gave it all, but wasn't provided with enough service). I also suspect, Podolski would have buried that ball from a Ramsey pass.
Now, a word about individual performances. Firstly, Mike Dean. I think he had an atrocious game. I don't know, whether we really have won just 7% of the matches he refereed, but some of his decisions were, to say the least, controversial.
He didn't point to the spot, when he should have done so. He also gave Chelsea's players way too much freedom, something that could have twice resulted in a serious injury for Arteta and an Ozil with a shredded cheek.
We cannot, however, put all the blame on Dean. As much as I like Giroud, he played his part in this draw. The chance he missed is what separated one point from three and he cost us two points. The manager really should consider an alternative during the transfer period or, at least, give Podolski a chance in that position.
This result leaves us with 36 points and in second place. trailing Liverpool on goal difference. Tomorrow we'll have the chance to regain the top spot, cause the Mugmashers face City, while we play West Ham. Hopefully, we will get a result this time around.
Till tomorrow, when I'll be back for a preview