Chelsea started yesterday’s game at the Emirates without a recognised striker, but that hardly mattered as it seems obvious that they came to Arsenal to get a draw and they did that job efficiently enough in the end. Jose Mourinho is adept a setting up his defence to stop their opponents from scoring, and although the Gunners came close a couple of times, they just couldn’t put the final ball into the net.
Aaron Ramsey was asked if the Arsenal players thought they had done enough to win the game. “I think so.” the Welshman replied on Arsenal.com. “We created a few chances, got into some dangerous areas but didn’t quite take the opportunities when we did get in there. They were very well organised and were happy with the point in the end.
“Probably this season they’ve done really well in the bigger games where they’ve kept their shape and frustrated teams like they did to us. On another day we may have scored a couple and won the game.
“Full credit to them, they defended well. They came here not to lose the game and they did that.”
Ramsey also pinpointed two particular chances in the second half that could have resulted in Arsenal taking the lead. “A chance fell to Mertesacker which he put wide and the ball went through Mesut’s legs after. Little things like that where on a different day they might have dropped straight into one of our paths and we would have been celebrating a victory. It wasn’t to be. They defended really well and we can take some positives out of that.”
Chelsea are now still a solid ten points clear at the top of the table, and Ramsey believes that they have done enough to deserve to be crowned Champions. “Yes I think so.” he concluded. “If that’s the case and they go on to win. They have only lost twice this season, so their consistency has been the best and that’s what you need. They’ve definitely been the best team in the league.”
“It’s going to be quite difficult for Chelsea to drop the points that we need to go top. Second probably is progression from last season definitely and from a couple of seasons where we have been battling for fourth. We’re in another FA Cup final so maybe you can say that’s an improvement on last season.”
Things could have so much different if Arsenal hadn’t suffered so much from injuries at the start of the season, but now Arsenal have to carry on the fight to secure our second place and to retain the FA Cup. Yesterday’s draw means that we have stretched our unbeaten run to ten games. If we can carry on the run to the end of the season, then Chelsea will be worrying about us even more when the next campaign begins….