“They wanted the draw more today,” notes Jeremy Dresner.
Quite so, Jeremy. Quite so.
That’s your lot from this one. Cheers for reading, and for holding hands and getting us all through.
Updated
Well, who saw that coming, eh? The Chelsea players punch the air and their fans celebrate, while the Gooners present boo and sing ‘BORING BORING CHELSEA’ once again, like they’re in any way surprised about what they’ve just seen. Still no win for Wenger against Mourinho, and that means two wins in their next two games - against Leicester and Crystal Palace - will see them crowned champions.
Full-time: Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 4: Welbeck cuts in from the right but his effort is pretty weak, and Ramires bursts through and tries to counter. He skips past a couple, but Monreal takes him out, and that’s a free-kick and a yellow card.
90 mins + 3: Cazorla is booked for a foul on Hazard, and Juan Cuadrado comes on for Willian.
90 mins + 1: Ah, so close for Arsenal. The ball squirts across from the left as Monreal cuts back from the byline Özil swings a foot and miscues from about six yards out at the near post, it bobbles across quickly to Welbeck but he doesn’t really have enough time to react and can’t stab into what was an ostensibly open goal.
90 mins: And here’s Zouma, replacing Fabregas who is sent on his way by an Arsenal crowd roughly split down the middle by boos and applause. It’s like Elia Kazan at the Oscars.
89 mins: Ramsey picks up a booking for an entirely pointless tug back on Hazard.
88 mins: Looks like Kurt Zouma is coming on to really spice things up a bit.
86 mins: Terry is fouled, then takes the absolute maximum time to get to his feet, a small smile playing upon his lips as he eventually hauls himself up.
85 mins: Piss and whine all you like about Chelsea being negative, but this has been another impressive defensive display. If someone eventually broke it down, Mourinho might actually stop doing it.
84 mins: Another change for Arsenal, as Theo Walcott replaces Giroud.
83 mins: From said corner, Courtois comes through a sea of players and catches the ball, but drops it as he hits the turf with some force. A free-kick, as it always is in these situations, is given.
Updated
82 mins: Welbeck tries to inject a bit of life into things by dashing down the right, he nearly gets round Azpilicueta but the full-back manages to put his cross behind for a corner.
80 mins: Ramsey finds himself a little bit of room and shoots from range, but instead of troubling the goal it hits Giroud in the stomach on the edge of the area.
79 mins: Chelsea keep the ball for a bit. I don’t know about you, but I reckon they might be trying to kill the game off, here.
77 mins: And here comes Welbz, replacing Coquelin.
76 mins: Sanchez gets the ball but is swarmed on like the Rebel Alliance fighters by the Imperial Forces in Return of the Jedi, and can’t get the shot away. The ball breaks to Koscielny on the left, who makes a nice run and finds Cazorla in some space, but he drags a left-footed shot well wide.
Updated
75 mins: ‘Boring, boring Chelsea,’ sing some Gooners keen to shove that historical zing down the throats of the nation.
74 mins: Looks like Welbeck is indeed the man coming on.
73 mins: Chelsea break into some space, and Fabregas slips the ball to Drogba, who doesn’t quite control it properly but still manages to get a shot - of sorts - away, which is deflected away for a corner.
Updated
72 mins: Ivanovic, who should’ve been booked in the early stages, does get a yellow card for a horrible studs-up challenge, right through the back of Sanchez.
Updated
71 mins: Subs are warming up for both sides now, Welbeck and Walcott with some gusto for Arsenal.
68 mins: Ooof. A ball drops between Koscielny and Willian, which the former goes for with head and the latter with foot. You know what happened next. Yellow card for Willian. From the free-kick, the ball is tossed into the box, Courtois gets a not entirely convincing punch on it, the ball drops to Mertesacker but he shoots just wide.
Updated
67 mins: A nice little passing interchange between Özil and Ramsey creates a half-chance for the former, but a slightly heavy touch takes it away from him and Terry nips in to challenge and clear.
66 mins: A thousand terrifying memories flash before the collective eyes of Arsenal as Willian tees up Drogba for a shot on the edge of the area, but much like most of the big man’s play, it doesn’t have quite the same power as it used to and Ospina saves quite easily.
65 mins: That’s a bit more like it. Some neat work by Arsenal creates some space for a cross from the left, aimed for Sanchez but Terry gets there to snuff out the danger. He really is still very good.
63 mins: Bit of a dip in the game. Özil controls a pass from Sanchez with his arm, then looks around like it’s someone else’s fault.
61 mins: “At risk of (gleefully) reopening old wounds,” writes Matt Dony, (gleefully) reopening old wounds, “Chelsea fans might want to remember the whole ‘getting away with taking players out after they shoot’ malarky when they bang on about the ‘Ghost Goal’. IF the ball didn’t cross the line, then it was a penalty and a red card for Cech for taking out Milan Baros. Happy memories.”
60 mins: Coquelin is down and needing treatment after a clash of heads with Drogba. In other CESCWATCH news, he’s taken his protective mask off.
59 mins: Nice work by Arsenal as Coquelin plays a nice ball to Giroud with his back to goal in the box, but his layoff to Bellerin can’t be taken advantage of as Azpilicueta shepherds the ball out of play.
57 mins: A spell of possession for Chelsea, as they dominate the ball in these first few moments of the second half. Starting slow after the break is a bit of a habit for Arsenal.
56 mins: Ramires gets down the right and tries a cross, but that’s easily cleared. The ball finds its way to Hazard out on the left, but he tries a shot that sails gaily way, way over the bar.
54 mins: Sanchez attempts a burst through the middle but is sort of bundled over by Fabregas. The crowd call for a second yellow, but nothing doing there.
Updated
51 mins: The ball is clipped over the top for Fabregas to chase, but Ospina comes out and gathers. There’s a collision and the keeper looks hurt initially, but a bit of spit on a hankie/a rub with the magic sponge and he’s OK.
Updated
50 mins: Sanchez feeds the ball out to Monreal on the left, who in some space tries to cross over to Giroud in the middle, but he slices it and it almost turns into a shot, going just over the bar.
49 mins: Looks like Chelsea are, as you might imagine, going 4-2-3-1 with Fabregas just behind Drogba.
48 mins: The Arsenal fans are still booing Fabregas, if case you were after an update to CESCWATCH.
46 mins: We’re off again, and word comes through that Oscar was taken off because of a ‘possible concussion’ after that ‘collision’ with Ospina. Hmmmmm. If that’s the case, one does wonder why he carried on playing after the incident.
Didier Drogba has been doing some limberin’ at half-time, and despite his advancing years, you’d imagine the collective Arsenal bottom is fairly twitching at the sight.
And indeed he is coming on, in place of Oscar, who had a knock.
Ooof...
In the 1,125 minutes Wenger has faced Mourinho, Arsenal have been in the lead for just 73 minutes. Same story again today so far.
— Matthew Stanger (@MatthewStanger) April 26, 2015
Some more advice for our man in China, from Chris Hall: “If Rob Coughlin is in Shanghai, the back wall of the urinal in the gents of the Camel bar is a vast TV screen, he can enjoy watching his team winning or, um, aiming his frustration at the opposition players if they’re not. I definitely did NOT do so all over Gary Neville a few years back while Liverpool were suffering yet another mauling at Old Trafford. It may be stretching things to say it was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts, but it felt good, damn good.”
Anyway, here’s another joke...
So, as one might have predicted, Arsenal have had most of the ball but are struggling to break down the massed and well-organised Chelsea ranks. They’ll need a little more wit and perhaps a little more pace (Theo Walcott is sitting forlornly on the bench) to break through. Chelsea have no striker but have had a few decent chances, and surely should’ve been given at least one penalty.
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins + 2: Fabregas loops a pass down the right side of the area, but Oscar can’t quite control it and Koscielny ushers the thing out of play.
Updated
45 mins: Two minutes added time.
44 mins: The ball bobbles around the Chelsea area for a couple of seconds, including an mishit clearance attempt by Azpilicueta, but it falls to Özil who turns, shoots right-footed but it’s straight at Courtois.
43 mins: Cutting Through The Treacle with Jacob Steinberg: TalkSPORT, 7pm...
That's a penalty and that and that and that's a penalty and that one is a penalty but not that one and that's a penalty and that's a penalty
— Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) April 26, 2015
42 mins: Another Arsenal backheel - that’s three now, by my count - relays the ball from Giroud to Sanchez, but the latter’s slipped return pass doesn’t find the former as he simply stops running.
40 mins: Neat work by Arsenal on the left presents a shooting chance for Sanchez, but he drags it rather meekly wide of the near post. It’s been a nearly good game, this. A few chances but not many, a bit of needle but not much.
39 mins: A beautiful touch by Ramsey, controlling a high ball then volley-backheeling it inside, gives the ball to Özil in a promising position on the right, but instead of cutting inside and going for goal/a cross the German simply gives it back to the Welshman, taking the impetus out of the attack altogether.
Updated
38 mins: Huge chance for Chelsea as Willian threads a superb ball through the Arsenal defence for Ramires, who’s clear on goal but his flicked shot is fairly weak and Ospina saves comfortably.
37 mins: Brief moment of hi-jinx and Courtois comes out of goal to collect the ball near the right corner flag, skips around an attacker then slices the ball clear.
35 mins: Arsenal attack down the left, Özil flicks inside for Sanchez but his pass went right as Giroud, the man he was looking for, went left. Coquelin got booked a minute ago for pulling back Hazard, by the way. Apologies for the slight delay in letting you know.
34 mins: Another strong penalty shout, this time from Arsenal. Bellerin knocks the ball back to Cazorla nicely on the edge of the box, Cahill slides in to block the shot and does so with his arm, that is raised but not in an entirely unnatural position. File under ‘you’ve seen them given.’
33 mins: “Another thing that rugby has over football is that John Terry doesn’t play it,” says Owen from Cambridge.
I’ll give you that.
32 mins: Oscar cuts into the area from the left and is faced by Mertesacker, but the Chelsea man goes for the maverick approach of trying to run directly through, rather than around the defender, who as anyone who knows the song will testify, is big, so that one doesn’t quite work out.
Updated
30 mins: Stop sending in suggestions of what football can learn from rugby. We’ve already established there’s only one thing.
29 mins: Monreal whips one of those balls betwixt defence and keeper that Andy Gray always used to lose his brain over, the trouble being that there were no attackers actually there, and John Terry clears.
28 mins: Jose already has his post-match press conference sorted, you’d imagine. Fabregas receives the bird again from the fans, and fails as he tries to thread a pass through the Arsenal defence.
26 mins: Sam Huscroft has another thing that football can learn from rugby: “Er how about respect for the officials (and rules) and not behaving like a set of jumped up pompous whatsits?”
Be that as it may, but I would guess anyone from football being lectured by someone from rugby on pomposity would be given reasonably short shrift.
Updated
24 mins: “|Ian Copestake (11 mins) is wrong,” writes Adrian Riley. “I want both sides to lose heavily. At the very least a 20-man punch-up, preferably involving the two managers too, ending with at least 3 red cards for each side.”
Now that would be magnificent.
23 mins: Oooooooooooooooh! Big moment for CESCWATCH: Fabregas goes down in the box after Cazorla dangles a leg, there seems to be a little contact but the child Oliver, rather than blowing for a penalty, gives the free-kick the other way and books Fabregas for diving. 60,000 Gooners laugh.
Updated
20 mins: Cazorla plays a pass down the right, nominally for Bellerin, but it’s errant. Rather than chasing the ball down, Bellerin complains about the poor nature of the pass, which seems a bit off, young man.
Yogesh P writes, on the ‘penalty’ incident: “Well if it was a foul then the referee would have stopped play. As it were, he gave play on to Chelsea, but they didn’t score. Can you imagine the furore if he had stopped play and if they has scored, and the goal had been disallowed ? Perfect call by the referee.”
Playing the advantage, perhaps? The one and only thing football can learn from rugby, that.
18 mins: Oscar’s up and looks fine. Cahill heads over from the resultant corner.
The old rule that you can do whatever you like to an opponent as long as he shoots.
— Adam Bate (@ghostgoal) April 26, 2015
16 mins: Closest we’ve come to a goal so far. Fabregas plays a wonderful ball over the top for Oscar, who gets there just ahead of Ospina and flicks it over the keeper, but Bellerin gets there just in time to head away from the goal. However, Ospina completely wiped the Brazilian out after the ball had gone and he’s still down receiving treatment. Anyone want to explain how that wasn’t a penalty?
Updated
13 mins: Özil flips over a corner from the left, which is cleared as far as Bellerin, but his long ball into the box, aiming for Giroud, doesn’t find its target.
11 mins: Coquelin barges Hazard to the ground, but while a free-kick is given, there’s nothing stronger from the bairn Oliver.
“Would I be misreading the pulse of the nation/entire global audience to say that EVERYONE wants Arsenal to beat Chelsea today?” asks Ian Copestake.
Well, everyone?
10 mins: Brief moment of excitement as Courtois has to deal with a very spicy backpass which he has to deal with rapidly, as Sanchez closes him down at pace. Well, he sliced the ball out of play, which is technically ‘dealing with it.’
9 mins: Ivanovic is very lucky to get away without a booking after he takes out Sanchez with a late, sliding challenge that could have done some damage. The infant Oliver gives Ivanovic and John Terry a very stern ticking off though, so that’s all OK.
Updated
8 mins: Fabregas, with the boos getting a little louder, slips Oscar in down the left side of the box and he tumbles to the turf under a faint push from Bellerin, but child ref Michael Oliver says no dice to that one.
7 mins: Said corner is thumped away by Courtois, then Chelsea win a free-kick as Coquelin clips Willian.
Updated
6 mins: Cazorla starting on the left here with Ramsey in the middle. Sanchez gets the ball over on that side and cuts in on his right foot, shoots, but it’s deflected and bounces wide for a corner.
4 mins: Giroud makes a minor mess of a backheel but it still dribbles into Sanchez’s path, but he’s fouled by Bran Ivanovic before any harm can come to the Chelsea defence. Santi Cazorla curls the resultant free-kick into the welcoming arms of Thibaut Courtois.
2 mins: Writes Ian Copestake: “If Sky or some other sporting entertainment provider follow your lead with the Cescwatch and devise a button for following the fortunes of a returning player, it should be called the green button, for envy, or the black button, in the case of bile.”
Bellerin heads back to David Ospina neatly. Not much else has happened thus far.
1 min: And we’re away. Looks like Oscar through the middle for Chelsea for now, but who can say what the following 89 minutes will hold.
CESCWATCH: A few boos, but we’re not exactly in Luis Figo territory here.
Updated
A minute of silence for the Bradford fire...
CESCWATCH
Admir Pajic writes: “RE: ‘Maybe Jose is going down the 4-6-0 approach, of course pioneered by the visionary Craig Levein in the Great Prague Experiment of 2010.’
“Not even close. Justice for Bata Djora! Milovan Djoric, the former coach of FR Yugoslavia, switched to 4-6-0 back in April 2001 qualifiers against Russia when Yugoslavia needed victory. Djoric might have lost the game but his idea has lived in many other tacticians world-wide ever since.”
Told.
CESCWATCH
Quite a few Arsenal fans clapping here when Fabregas's name read out. He's going to be booed today, but certainly not by all.
— Daniel Taylor (@DTguardian) April 26, 2015
FAO Rob Coughlin in China, Jeff B has some info for you: “CCTV5 should show it. In Shanghai one of the channels with the 3-leafed flower in the upper right shows it. If he’s in any of the big cities, there will be multiple sports bars showing it (In Shanghai, The Shed and The Camel, to name just 2).”
If anyone else needs any advice about where to watch this...well don’t ask us. We need people to read the MBM.
“The plan is to win the game,” says Jose Mourinho to the man from Sky, with a look on his face as if to say ‘away with you, silly little boy.’ He also refuses - REFUSES! - to tell us who’ll be the nominal centre-forward.
Something to keep in mind...
20 - Chelsea have scored first in all 20 of their games in all competitions in 2015. Eager.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 26, 2015
And if you prefer old Jews telling jokes to pre-match football reading, here are some old Jews telling jokes from the TV show Old Jews Telling Jokes...
And here’s Amy Lawrence, discussing the combo of Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal:
With around £35m reserved for a marquee signing, Wenger prioritised logic over sentiment. He could not afford two of the talents Barcelona were seeking to offload from their collection and Sánchez offered a dynamic Arsenal did not possess. In theory, they already had their Fàbregas-type in Mesut Özil, even if it required a substantial show of faith for Wenger to express that after an inhibited first season.
That decision is starting to bear fruit. It is reasonable to wonder if Chelsea might have garnered fewer points this season without the precision passing of Fàbregas. But as far as Wenger is concerned, the evolution of his team has taken a positive turn with the connection that has grown recently between Sánchez and Özil. It has been a key component of Arsenal’s recent sequence of nine Premier League wins and a run to the FA Cup final.
Some pre-match reading now, firstly from Daniel Taylor on Jose Mourinho:
Back in London, the aesthetics might not always have been just as the Russian would have wanted either. Abramovich, in an ideal world, would like football of butterfly beauty atChelsea. He is after a version of Barcelona-blue and the fact it has never quite worked out that way has become a popular choice of artillery for the regiment of critics who find it difficult to accept why, in Luís Lourenço’s biography of José Mourinho, there is a foreword by Manuel Sérgio, his professor on a sports science degree at the Technical University of Lisbon in 1984, describing Chelsea’s manager as “a coach of the stature that Maradona and Pelé were as players”.
Think of Maradona and Pelé and the things that instinctively come to mind are the joys of the sport. Mourinho is harder to embrace, with his need for conflict, the putdowns, the hypocrisies, the long line of exaggerated grievances, repeated so often that you eventually start to think he actually believes them, and that unending habit of making enemies of people who never wanted to fight in the first place. He operates by his own rules, with his own code of behaviour and ethos, and that is a killer line in the book Manchester City’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, wrote in his years at Barça. Mourinho, Soriano explained, could not be employed at the Camp Nou when he always made everything so personal. “His method generates media conflict almost permanently and it is also a potential source of conflict within the club.”
Rob Coughlin, in China, is after some help: “Can anyone tell me what channel to tune into to watch this match? I’m in desperate need of some help here!”
Anyone?
Maybe Jose is going down the 4-6-0 approach, of course pioneered by the visionary Craig Levein in the Great Prague Experiment of 2010. Obviously, Scotland lost that game to the Czech Republic, but sometimes this game is about artistry rather than the result. You have to look past such petty things as winning and losing.
Or perhaps he’s going full Spain, with Cesc Fabregas as the fals...sorry, erm, stand-in forward. Or perhaps he’s just deliberately trying to annoy people. Hopefully it’s the latter.
Some interesting nuggets in the team news, then. Hector Bellerin is preferred to Mathieu Debuchy at right-back for Arsenal, given that the latter was, if you’ll pardon the expression, blowing out of his arse towards the latter end of the FA Cup semi-final against Reading. We might well see Aaron Ramsey playing on the left too, with Santi Cazorla next to Francis Coqeulin in the middle.
But obviously the stand-out bit of info from all that lot is the lack of a striker in the Chelsea team, presumably with Oscar, Willian and Eden Hazard taking it in turns to run around a bit towards the middle of the pitch. Promise to try not to use the phrase ‘false nine’ at any point during proceedings. Oh Jose, you old scamp, you.
Team news
Arsenal
Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey; Ozil, Alexis, Giroud. Subs: Szczesny, Debuchy, Gibbs, Wilshere, Walcott, Flamini, Welbeck.
Chelsea
Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas, Ramires; Oscar, Willian, Hazard. Subs: Cech, Filipe Luis, Zouma, Mikel, Loftus-Cheek, Cuadrado, Drogba.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Ashington)
Preamble
A few years ago, American sportswriter and Red Sox fan Bill Simmons wrote about the rivalry between his team and the New York Yankees, in the days when Boston were perennial nearly-men, before they won the World Series three times in nine years. It’s frequently described as the biggest rivalry in American sport, but Simmons quibbled with the language used:
Still, “Sox-Yankees” is the greatest feud in sports. I’m using the word “feud” instead of “rivalry” because, in order to have a rivalry, both sides have to win. Well, the Red Sox never win. So for now, it’s a feud.
That sprung to mind this week when Jose Mourinho commented that there was no rivalry between he and Arsene Wenger. He might have meant that perfectly innocently, as in ‘we’re actually really good pals so there’s no tension here, you scampish gents of the press, trying to stir stuff up where there is nothing’, but a quick look at the pair squaring up to each other during the game earlier this season, plus, you know, all those times they’ve laid down some serious smack talk, would indicate otherwise.
Still, as Simmons says, it can’t really be a rivalry if one side wins every time. It’s a bit like calling the fearsome tussle between shooter and clay pigeon a rivalry; the shooter might miss occasionally, but the pigeon never genuinely wins. Wenger has never beaten Mourinho, his record reading a vaguely embarrassing P12, W0, D5, L7, F6, A21. It’s not a great look for an Arsenal side who, if you ask them, think themselves as genuine title-challengers.
That might well change this afternoon, mind. Arsenal are on something of a tear, winning their last eight league games, while the champions elect are rather carefully edging towards the league title, inch by inch, pragmatic performance by pragmatic performance. If your shrewd MBMer has learned nothing else over the years, it’s that Jose Mourinho sometimes likes to shut games down (yeah, sure - someone needs to stick their neck out and give you the big opinions), and it would be something of a surprise if he didn’t try that out this time. (One of) Arsenal’s problem(s) over the years has been an inability to break down teams that don’t want to be broken down, so with the massed ranks massing in front of them, will they have the wit, style, joie de vivre, aptitude and spunk to break through?
And then of course there’s the Cesc Fabregas Narrative. Logically you might think that Arsenal fans couldn’t really have a great deal against their former player: he stuck it out with them probably a season or two longer than he could/should, then went to his boyhood club and when the time came to leave Barcelona, Arsenal didn’t want him. Wenger politely asked them this week for Fabregas “to be respected like he deserves”, which admittedly gave Gooners a little wiggle room to decide for themselves exactly how much respect Fabregas deserves. But y’ know, he was just asking them to be nice to an old mate, and who isn’t nice to an old mate? And it’s nice to be nice, isn’t it?
A win for Arsenal would obviously blow the door to the title race wide open. Well, it would move the door slightly ajar. Well, it might tell someone where the keys are. Well, tell them where the door is. Well, tell them what a door is. OK, a win for Arsenal will make absolutely no different to the title race, door or no door. But it would perhaps make next season a wee bit interesting. Maybe. I dunno.
Kick-off: 4pm BST
Updated
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Dom Fifield’s preview:
Arsenal have their opportunity to nibble at Chelsea’s lead, with Arsène Wenger seeking a first victory over a José Mourinho side at the 13th try, and to postpone the visitors’ coronation for another week at least. The focus will be drawn towards Cesc Fàbregas on his first return to the Emirates as a Chelsea player with Mourinho’s sales pitch having lured him from Barcelona last summer. “I promised him he’d be an important player in our project,” said the Portuguese. “And that, normally, good projects end with titles.” The home support will be pained that their former favourite is close to achieving that aim. Dominic Fifield
Kick-off Sunday 4pm
Venue Emirates Stadium
Last season Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0
Live Sky Sports 1
Referee M Oliver
This season G24, Y85, R5, 3.96 cards per game
Odds H 7-5 A 2-1 D 9-4
