Drogba Sends Blues To Final  (Sky Sports)

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1

A late effort from Didier Drogba saw Chelsea overcome capital rivals Arsenal 2-1 in the first of this weekend's FA Cup semi-finals.

Theo Walcott had opened the scoring for the Gunners at Wembley, but Florent Malouda had the Blues level before the interval.

Arsene Wenger's side survived an early scare as a defensive mix-up almost saw Drogba nod into an empty net, but Kieran Gibbs recovered in the nick of time to hack off the line.

The Gunners then began to take control of proceedings and took the lead on 18 minutes as Walcott volleyed home a Gibbs cross via the aid of a slight deflection off Ashley Cole.

Having fallen behind, Chelsea then suddenly sprung into life and Malouda grazed a post with a drilled effort which squeezed under the body of Lukasz Fabianski.

The Frenchman was not to be denied, though, and he found the target just past the half-hour mark when he beat the Arsenal offside trap and fired low into the bottom corner.

It could have been even better for the Blues at the break had Nicolas Anelka taken advantage of a clear sight of goal, but he saw a low drive cannon back off the post.

The second half was a quieter affair in terms of clear-cut goalscoring opportunities, but both sides continued to pile forward whenever the situation allowed.

Emmanuel Adebayor blazed a good chance over for the Gunners inside three minutes of the re-start, while Chelsea proved to be wasteful with their final ball despite working a number of promising openings.

Frank Lampard did his utmost to force a further breakthrough with a controlled first-time effort midway through the second period, but his radar was slightly off and he could only brush the side-netting.

With only six minutes left on the clock it appeared as though extra-time was a formality, with nothing to choose between two Premier League heavyweights.

However, Drogba had other ideas and he coolly rounded the onrushing Fabianski to slot in a dramatic winner and send the Chelsea support into delirium.

There is bound to be a further clamour for Guus Hiddink to stay on as Chelsea manager beyond next month following this performance, although it had not looked too good for the Dutchman earlier on.

Having conceded seven goals in a week, the last thing Petr Cech needed was to see another flash past him in slightly dubious circumstances.

In fairness, Cech was not the only one culpable. Anelka was caught on his heels as Gibbs nipped past to reach Adebayor's neat pass.

Gibbs' cross was decent, allowing Walcott to let fly with a first-time volley that flicked off Ashley Cole's hand.

The deflection did alter the direction of the ball, yet the feeling persisted that the Cech of three years ago would have kept it out.

Walcott's goal was just reward for a sparkling start from the Gunners.

The young England star was the pick of an Arsenal side whose movement was a joy to watch, even if their end product was not always the best.

Denilson and Abou Diaby had been asked to anchor midfield, but they still found time to push forward.

Composure

Indeed, with a bit more composure, Diaby might have found the net himself.

In contrast, Chelsea were ponderous, their general experience costing them the liveliness that ran through Wenger's side.

Unfortunately, Arsenal in their present form are a flawed concept.

For a start they persist in passing the ball around in tight spaces inside their own penalty area when, in Adebayor, they have the perfect target for a more agricultural clearance.

More pertinently, they do not have significant strength in depth.

True, the Gunners' bench today contained Arshavin, Samir Nasri and Aaron Ramsey. In other areas they were lacking, specifically goalkeeper.

In all probability Manuel Almunia would not have been involved at Wembley even if an ankle injury had kept him on the sidelines.

Only yesterday, Wenger expressed his faith in Fabianski. It looked more like blind optimism judging by the Pole's first-half performance.

On his 24th birthday, Fabianski was the one handing out presents, setting the tone barely two minutes into the game when he lost out in an aerial duel with Drogba and Gibbs was forced to chase back and hack off the line as the Ivorian's header was about to bounce in.

Escape

Fabianski was then fortunate to escape when he failed to get behind a fierce shot from Malouda that skimmed under his body before flashing across goal.

It all pointed to an equaliser, which duly arrived when Malouda cut inside Emmanuel Eboue and beat Fabianski at his near post, although it was hard to quibble with the Frenchman's accuracy.

Anelka hit a post after robbing Diaby inside the Arsenal box just before half-time and Chelsea continued to look the more likely scorers after the break, even though their opponents were, in patches, the better team.

An acrobatic clearance by Alex may have denied Walcott, who was involved in a fascinating duel with England team-mate Cole, but it fell perfectly for Robin van Persie, who could only fire disappointingly over.

Anelka was off target with a header at the other end, before Lampard volleyed an excellent chance wide from Drogba's cross.

Through all this, Fabianski had been relatively stable.

All that changed six minutes from the end when he inexplicably raced out of his area as Drogba brushed off Mikael Silvestre to reach Lampard's long ball.

What should have been a 50-50 duel turned into a walkover as Drogba skipped round Fabianski and tapped Chelsea into the final, where they will meet either Manchester United or Everton on 30th May.

Arsenal	Team Statistics	Chelsea
1	Goals	2
1	1st Half Goals	1
2	Shots on Target	6
2	Shots off Target	8
3	Blocked Shots	4
2	Corners	4
18	Fouls	11
1	Offsides	5
2	Yellow Cards	3
0	Red Cards	0
78.1	Passing Success	79
17	Tackles	36
76.5	Tackles Success	83.3
47.7	Possession	52.3
49.4	Territorial Advantage	50.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teams

Arsenal  Fabianski, Eboue, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Walcott, Denilson (Nasri 86), Fabregas, Diaby, Adebayor (Bendtner 83), van Persie (Arshavin 75)
Subs Not Used Mannone, Vela, Song, Ramsey
Booked  Denilson, Toure
Goals  Walcott 18

Chelsea  Cech, Ivanovic, A. Cole, Terry, Alex, Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Anelka (Kalou 82), Drogba, Malouda
Subs Not Used  Hilario, Mancienne, Belletti, Carvalho, Mikel, Di Santo
Booked  Ivanovic, Ballack, Drogba
Goals  Malouda 33, Drogba 84

Attendance 88,103

Referee M. Atkinson