UEFA.com works better on other browsers
For the best possible experience, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

Mourinho's changes choke Arsenal

Members

A second-half tactical reshuffle from José Mourinho was the key to Chelsea FC's 1-0 victory against Arsenal FC in Arséne Wenger's 500th game in charge.

Maybe it was inevitable that when Chelsea FC took on Arsenal FC in the first pivotal Premiership fixture of the season, tactics would dominate.

Chelsea victory
Arséne Wenger, in his 500th game as Arsenal manager, seemed to be gaining the upper hand against José Mourinho's team, the visitors fielding a reshuffled midfield that restricted Chelsea. Mourinho is rarely foxed for long, though, and he gave his own side a different look in the second half - alterations that eked out a 1-0 win with a 73rd-minute Didier Drogba goal.

Managers' concerns
Wenger had never lost a league game against Chelsea before, but Mourinho had up his sleeve €36m record signing Michael Essien - against an Arsenal midfield no longer containing possibly the most important player of the Wenger regime, Patrick Vieira.

Hleb starts
Despite both these teams leaving it late to win last week, there was only one change to each starting lineup. Chelsea’s last-gasp matchwinner against Wigan Athletic FC, Hernán Crespo, replaced Drogba, and Aliaksandr Hleb made his first Arsenal start.

Cautious Wenger
To bolster the Vieira-less Arsenal midfield, Wenger deployed what was for him a cautious 4-2-3-1 formation, Hleb and Gilberto in front of the defence and Robert Pires in an attacking central midfield role, a canny move which forced Claude Makelele to concentrate on marking duties.

Pires revels
Having needed an added-time goal last week, Chelsea attacked from the start and within two minutes had forced Arsenal to clear from off the line. At the other end Hleb, an impressive presence, showed an incisive eye on 12 minutes, his through ball to Thierry Henry allowing the Frenchman to set up Fredrik Ljungberg, who shot over. But it was Pires revelling most in the middle with some surging runs, while Chelsea relied on early balls to Crespo.

Midfield switch
Asier Del Horno was being made to work hard by Ljungberg on the Arsenal right, which meant it was a blow for the visitors when the Swede was taken off on a stretcher 26 minutes in. Wenger moved Pires wide and brought on Robin van Persie, and it was a blow for the game too, because with the Frenchman banished to the flank, the main source of attacking inspiration on either side disappeared.

Senderos concern
Mourinho was obviously frustrated, and Drogba, the two-goal hero of the Community Shield against Arsenal a fortnight ago, replaced Crespo after the break. "I told my players - play with more ambition," Mourinho explained. "Didier is more direct." Philippe Senderos, tormented by the Ivorian in Cardiff, would have felt a shudder.

Further changes
Still, like Crespo, Drogba was too often isolated, and after he sliced a 58th-minute shot, Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips made their Stamford Bridge bows - the latter's arrival causing the Arsenal fans to chant the name of the winger's adoptive father, Ian Wright.

Substitution pays off
Initially, even that €66m introduction did not provide the game with a true spark, but gradually Arsenal were forced back into their own half, overrun in midfield for the first time. And the initial substitute, Drogba, gave Senderos a Cardiff flashback as he ran on to a Frank Lampard free-kick and his knee knocked the ball past the young Swiss defender and then Jens Lehmann. Senderos nearly presented Drogba another in added time, but the goalkeeper came to the rescue.

'Lacked incisiveness'
Still, Wenger had experienced a league defeat by Chelsea for the first time and said: "We lacked incisiveness. We tried to build the game and Chelsea sucked us in." In his duel with Mourinho, however, that is unlikely to be the last word.

Selected for you