Chelski 1 - 2 Arsenal

Gael Clichy impresses as Arsenal extend their lead at the top to seven points

1 - 2

After going down to Chelsea 1-0 after only 28 seconds at Stamford Bridge this morning, Arsenal pulled another magical performance from their hat, repeating last week’s scoreline of 1-0 down, 2-1 up.

Patrick Vieira scored Arsenal’s equalizier in the 15th minute, after a beautiful ball by Dennis Bergkamp sent him through on goal.

Edu scored from a corner about five minutes later, a goal which ultimately proved to be the winner.

Despite all the scoring taking place in the first half, the second was not without incident. Chelsea striker, Eidur Gudjohnsen, who had put Chelsea ahead in the opening moments, was sent off for a second bookable offense, and that sealed the win for the Gunners.

The majority of the credit for today’s win will undoubtedly go to Paddy Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp, and they are quite deserving. However, attention should be paid to young Gael Clichy, one of the unsung heroes of the match.

Clichy, who is only 18, filled in admirably for the injured Ashley Cole, and played with a maturity not often associated with players of his age and experience. I believe we can expect great things of him in the future.

Theirry Henry played the full ninety minutes of today’s match, but it was obvious that he is still feeling the effects of the foot injury he picked up against Southampton a few weeks ago. If anything, these past two wins over Chelsea disprove the theory by many a football pundit who purport that Arsenal are a one man team.

Freddie Ljungberg made a subsitute appearance late in the second half, a sign that perhaps his rib injury is finally behind him.

Jose Antonio Reyes was on the subs bench today, and was thankfully left unused. This adds support to my theory that we will see Jose start the Champions League match against Celta Vigo in Spain this Tuesday.

Speaking of the Champions League, the second round kicks off this week, and like I stated above, Arsenal get things started away to Celta Vigo. Kickoff is 2:45 PM ET on Tuesday, and is being shown live in the US on ESPN Deportes and via Setanta Sport at select pubs.