Written by George Sezer Tuesday, 28 December 2010 00:13

GunnerTalk Blog

By George Sezer

It is no secret that we have been struggling against the top teams in recent years. We needed to change that tonight and it was a night of changes as Mr Wenger made a lot of shrewd changes to the team to change it tonight... if you get my drift.

Chamakh was rested as Van Persie started the game, fit again Fabianski kept the goal, captain Fabregas back from hamstring injury replaced hapless Denilson in the midfield but for me, the most important changes were; Djourou replacing Squillaci and playing Walcott in place of out of form Arshavin. It worked a treat, especially playing Walcott from the start was a master stroke by Le Boss as the England international was hungry and gave their left back – you know who - enough trouble and pegged him back. That meant one of their major outlets was almost nonexistent. Djourou was a colossus all night too and should keep his place in the team from now on.

The signs were there when Walcott chased back ‘youknowwho’s’ run down our right, outpacing him easily and stopping the danger within 5 minutes of the start and also got him booked later on the first half.

We were on top of things from the start but what impressed me more was that we were not being bullied. We were having the better of the position and chances as RVP missed a sitter by his standards when Fabregas found him with one of his special over the top passes.

The Dutchman nearly made amends by playing Nasri in but the Frenchman pulled his shot high and wide, he too nearly made amends but was very unlucky when his delicious chip was tipped over brilliantly by Cech. The inevitable goal came when Nasri and Song combined on the left edge of their box and the ball ended up with once again impressive Wilshere just outside the D. At this point we had all our midfielders in or around their 18 yard box; Wilshere tried to find Fabregas inside the box who was sliced down but luckily Song was on hand to slot the loose ball in just before the break. According to ref he had played an advantage and would have given a penalty if we had not scored but I am not so sure, given his performance throughout the game, awarding them free kicks in every opportunity but somehow missing blatant fouls on us.

More of the same in the second half as we dominated possession and proceedings and it didn’t take us long to capitalize on it. Van Persie hassled their defence into an unlikely mistake; Walcott was on the loose ball like a flash, zoomed into their box in a blink of an eye and found Fabregas in support to make it 2-0 six minutes into second half.

The young forward was ‘in the zone’ now and it only took him another 2 minutes to inflict more damage to the last season’s Champions. He sneaked in to steal the ball meant for Maluda near the halfway line, passed it to once again readily available Fabregas; the captain marvel (so good to have him back) played a perfectly weighted ball back to Walcott to place the ball into Chelski’s net.

Although it was 3-0 and we were on top I never felt at ease as we struggled to deal with the high and long balls as per usual and there were plenty of them. They scored their goal from one of those when Drogba put an harshly given free kick high into our penalty area, Fabianski didn’t know whether to stick or twist, Ivanovic headed in.

The rest of the game they bombarded us with high balls for Drogba without creating a lot, Djourou dealing with most of them brilliantly. We hit them hard on the break and should have scored at least a couple more; Walcott found Nasri at the far post after another one of his runs but the Frenchman preferring to chip the 6’7” goalkeeper from 2 yards instead of slotting the ball low and hard and Diaby, who replaced Walcott in the 73^rd minute missed a sitter after going around the last defender but refusing to shoot with his chocolate foot when one on one with their keeper.

Chamakh replaced Van Persie in the 76^th minute and did a stern job defending from front and Rosicky come on for Fabregas in the 88th minute as we closed in for a very welcomed win.