My view on an inspirational performance from our players

Quite an incredible game yesterday. Packed full of incidents, it was utterly absorbing.

Arsene went with the youngsters, Chelsea went with their multi-million pound superstars. Low and behold in the first half we killed them. We were unbelievable. Completely dictating the whole half. Many had spoke of us being over powered but that could not have been further from the truth. They were made to look so ordinary, our movement was frightening. Baptista could have opened the scoring if it was not for a top class save from Cech.

Then on 12 minutes came the moment we had all, including Theo, been waiting for. Our corner was cleared, shock, then Walcott picked it up, rolled it into Diaby who waited. He waited until Theo darted into the box. Theo took two wonderful touches and then buried into the corner. A brilliant goal. I went completely crazy. As did Thierry on the sidelines, those that have doubted his love for the club recently need only watch back his reaction. He loved it. And to those who have doubted Theo’s ability need to have a good look at his goal. The skill involved was world class. I was delighted for him.

Frustratingly and undeservedly Chelsea hit back on 20 minutes. Drogba was clean through, I am still unsure if he was on or off. He seemed to have an eternity to decide what to do, in the end he just slotted under Almunia. 1-1 then, annoying. We were not deflated though, we continued to play beautiful football. Traore burst down the left and created a half opportunity. Half time and I was absolutely drained.

In the second half Robben was introduced, it became apparent that he was to give Traore a tough time. Traore in the first half was superb, he got forward well and even barged Essien off the ball as if he was not there. After the break we should have really scored again, Fabregas intelligently took a quick free kick, Baptista slid Diaby in who shot pretty much at Cech. A huge chance, for me it was the difference, Chelsea always looked like they had the end product whereas in front of goal we lacked a little bit of experience in that department.

Then came one of the major talking points, Chelsea’s corner fell in the six yard area and Terry launched his head it. Diaby swung a boot to clear but connected with Terry’s head/jaw. He was out cold. Without creating the picture all over again, just to summarise that John Terry is fine now, which is of course the most important thing. Diaby looked mortified (see right). It was completely accidental. It has become apparent that Diaby injured himself during, sustaining damage to his ankle. I hope he is alright, he really looked incredible. I loved it when he spun past Ballack and literally left him for dead, leaving the German treading water in an attempt to cover the lost ground.

Changes were made, Hleb and Eboue on but we were tired in the second half and I was growing more and more concerned about the fact we had missed some key opportunities. Adebayor came on in a further attempt to give us options but shortly after they scored. A cross was met by Drogba and it nestled into the far corner. Heart wrenching. I was gutted, mainly for the youngsters who had battled so hard. However there was still time left. The injury to Terry meant plenty of injury time, instead of creating chances a mini brawl erupted. Mikel pulled on Toure’s shirt, Kolo got annoyed so they pushed each other about. Everyone then got involved, including Fabregas who had a right go at Frank Lampard – brilliant. Bizarrely in my opinion, Adebayor got sent off, as did Toure and Mikel. None of those players deserved reds. Poor refereeing, I am worried that the referee’s report will be even worse. Might we be without Toure for even longer than 3 games? We should know soon. In my opinion Adebayor’s card should definitely get rescinded.

The final whistle followed soon after. That is it pretty much from me. I would post links to the other stories but I get the feeling that most of you will have already read all about Arsene’s’/Adebayor’s/Toure’s reaction. Back to work for the team as we have the small matter of Blackburn away in the FA Cup on Wednesday. That discussion can wait until tomorrow, I think we are all emotionally shattered after a dramatic day yesterday. Anyway my hat goes off to the lads yesterday, they were inspirational…