Although JOse Mourinho started with no recognised striker in his Chelsea team, they were not really as defensive as we expected. THey still had plenty of men behind the ball and worked hard to close the Gunners down and give us no space, but they also tried to get forward when they could and get a goal to hang on to.
Arsenal were also careful not to expose the defence but were the team trying to go forward more in the first half, esopeciall after the opening 15 minutes as we began to dominate possession and force Chelsea to sit deeper. Coquelin was doing his usual sterling work to give our more creative players a platform and Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla and Alexis were zipping the ball around and trying to break down a very strong defence.
There were also four penalty claims in the first half, Fabregas betting booked for a dive in one of them, although replays show there was a little contact. The two before that on Oscar could have been given as well, with Bellerin brushing Oscar and Ospina clattering him after he had got his shot off.
Our own shout for a Cahill handball, which clearly struck his arm from Cazorla’s shot, was probably rightly called ball to hand and not given, although I’m not sure if it should have been as the shot was goal bound. All in all though it was probably a fair reflection for the game to be level at halftime.
Drogba came on for the second half and surprisingly, Chelsea came forward more and Arsenal dropped back and conceded possession but maybe that was a tactic to get us more space at the other end. We defended well and gave them few real chances but were also unable to create that golden moment at the other end.
On a few occasions it looked like we might be in but there were always blue shirts there to block, intercept or make a tackle. Or we could not get the run of the ball, like in extra time when it just would not fall for Welbeck. A creditable draw which helps in our quest for second but it still leaves Arsenal searching for a victory over Mourinho. Next season perhaps?