Arsenal’s title pretensions shot down by Drogba

Arsenal 0 Chelsea 3. The question was asked of Arsenal's young Gunners yesterday whether this season would see them mount a serious title challenge, and again, humiliatingly in front of 60,000 in their own stadium, their pretensions were proved to be just that by a Chelsea side that steamrollered over their London rivals.

Arsene Wenger had to claim, unbelievably, that he couldn't see what all the fuss about Didier Drogba was, even after the Ivorian had scored a brace against Arsenal, his ninth and 10th goals in just 11 appearances against them and also had to endure the pain of seeing his former charge Ashley Cole set up two goals for Chelsea, who have now notched up eight goals in their last two visits to the Emirates.

The match was done and dusted by half time, although it took 41 minutes for the first goal to be scored. Arsenal started brightly enough, but their slick passing game could find no way through the resolute Chelsea defence. The first proper chance saw Nicolas Anelka - another former Arsenal player - have a shot blocked by Manuel Almunia, but the Frenchman could conceivably have had a penalty as his international teammate Bacary Sagna appeared to impede him.

Drogba headed straight at Almunia a little later, and while the ball was often at an Arsenal player's foot, it rarely troubled back four led superbly by John Terry. The first goal came from a Cole cross which Drogba finished emphatically, then minutes later the hammer blow came. Another Cole cross was turned in for an own goal by Thomas Vermaelen, and the contest was effectively over.

Arsenal came out for the second half knowing they had to attack, and the replacement of holding midfielder Alexandre Song with Theo Walcott saw the hosts play with no little style as they chased the game. But as the first half, they ran into a brick wall every time they tried to get the ball into Petr Cech's net. Andrei Arshavin thought he had reduced the arrears to 2-1 but Eduardo was punished for a foul on Cech, a decision that incensed his manager ("I personally believe that that wasn't a serious decision," said Wenger. "How can he see Eduardo kicking the ball out of Cech's hands when there was a Chelsea player in front of him?")

Didier Drogba stepped with minutes left on the clock to compound Arsenal's woes, hammering home a free kick from 25 yards for his 11th goal of the Premier League campaign. It was also Chelsea's 36th of the season, putting them equal top scorers with Arsenal. Carlo Ancelotti's men look unstoppable this year.