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Drogba plunders Arsenal's hopes for the season
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Didier Drogba and Bono at the global launch of the partnership between Nike and (RED)
It is about that time in the season when a Gooner sets his sights on the League Cup, the FA Cup, or whatever over-hyped competition Arsenal find themselves still in the hunt for silver in. Perhaps a bit early this season, but after a 3-0 pasting by Chelsea at the Emirates, it's men against boys time again for Arsene Wenger and his no longer young Gunners. And, like before, that is meant literally, and anyone that saw Armand Traore bouncing off Didier Drogba like a spinning pound coin can attest to that.
Shipping three against the league leaders, who now sit 11 points above Arsenal, isn't the killer for the Gunners' EPL campaign. It's more the loss to Sunderland in the previous week. You can point to the lack of a cutting edge in Robin van Persie's absence, or perhaps the loss of Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs at left back. But still, if Arsenal are any bit of the team that had been fizzing goals in before the international break, they should have taken care of business at the Stadium of Light. That, for me, is the defining performance for the north London side.
Nobody really expected Arsenal to demolish the Blues, but they were hoping for a good match. As usual when the Gunners play top sides, they looked mercurial until they entered the last third of their opponent's half. Wenger's side pressed Chelsea well, had much possession, but didn't have the clinical efficiency that Chelsea and Gunner-killer Didier Drogba exhibited. Or even as Manchester City did earlier in the season.
And that is where Wenger's pithy comments about Drogba are more than just spiteful indignation. In a few words, the Arsenal gaffer summed up his side's shortcomings (at least offensively). Claiming the Chelsea striker "doesn't do a lot", and that "Drogba is in a period where he kicks the ball and it goes in", Wenger again did little to endear himself to an objective point of view. The Frenchman's words are of course twisted, but though he may speak rashly shortly after a loss, he knows how they'll be perceived.
Sure, there was a dig in there, regarding Drogba's work rate, but that doesn't change the fact that Wenger himself rues missing out on buying the Ivory Coast frontman before he ended up at Stamford Bridge. In fact, if Wenger's philosophy is indeed realized, those words would be spoken about his own side, in his quest for winning something, anything with his vision of Barcelona Light. Only on Saturday, once again, there was more Light than Barca.
[Mirror, The Sun]
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