On a day when Theo Walcott scored his first senior goal for Arsenal, Arsene’s juniors just didn’t have enough to hold off a full strength Chelsea, and it was Didier Drogba’s goals that spared the blushes and lifted the glasses of the “highest-paid” club in Europe.

It was an intriguing cup final throughout, poised between a traditionally sharper, ever-green Gunner side and a smoldering heavy weight Chelsea side, that need to rely on all its experience to claim the cup against the run of play.

After falling behind to Walcott’s early, clinical finish, Chelsea responded quickly through “The Drogba” with an equalizer only minutes later. The African striker pulled up trumps again late in the 2nd half with the winner as his snap header (set up by Robben’s cross) beat Arsenal no. 2 keeper Alumnia.  

It was also a match overshadowed by extra-ordinary incidents as Chelsea’s captain John Terry suffered a horrible head injury in the 2nd half, as he bravely went searching for a header in the box from a corner kick, only to find Arsenal’s young midfielder Diaby’s boot square in the jaw, and had to be stretched off with the application of neck restraints and an oxygen mask. 

The final minutes also darkened the match when player confrontations boiled over into controversy with both teams and managers running on to the field to join the fracas. Chelsea’s Mikel Obi and Arsenal’s Kolo Toure were shown red for their initial bust up, but Adebayor was also shown red for his involvement in the melee while young Fabregas and Frank Lampard were each shown the yellow card. 

Of course Chelsea celebrate as champions, yet it was easy to see the purpose of each club before kick off with each managers’ starting 11. Chelsea, perhaps impelled by their struggling league form, came at the game with all their aces, yet it was the craft and style of the Arsenal youth that showed clearly the different levels of “class” between these two EPL giants.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Soccer World, England. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.