For all the histrionics, all the fake tears and all the fake injuries, Didier Drogba really really can play football. His two goals for Chelsea this afternoon brought his tally against fierce London rivals Arsenal to a stunning 12 goals in 10 games, propelling the Blues to the top of the Premiership Table and condemning bitter Arsene Wenger to another season of nearly but not quite cutting the mustard.
Where Drogba’s first on 8 minutes was opportunist, being in the right place at the right time to prod home John Terry’s onward header, his second was sensational. Latching on to Lampard’s pass, Drogba left Gael Clichy and Thomas Vermaelen for dead before firing a vicious left foot shot past the hapless Almunia. Only the cross-bar denied him an emphatic hat-trick in the second half.
In recent years Wenger’s teams have played some sublime passing football at points during the season and again in this match they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession. However, in the encounters that really matter, against Manchester United, Chelsea and the big clubs in Europe, they are struggling to make possession count and deliver actual goals. Players in the Wenger mould like Nasri, Eduardo and Arshavin tend to be skillfull, but physically slight and in the big encounters they seem to lack incisive presence.
Drogba has that Big Man, Big Game presence that Wenger’s side so lacks. All the grimacing, the clutching of body parts in mock agony, the going to ground and the remonstrating with the referee make us love and hate Drogba. He is like the wolf dressed in Grandma’s floral tunic in Little Red Riding Hood; all that faffing around is a distracting nuisance and we want to right him off as a soft, clownish idiot, but give the guy a sniff of goal and it’s like hitting the accelerator of a growling Ferrari: he’s an absolute beast, a complete animal, he regularly delivers the sensational. He has power, pace, strength in abundance, is strong in the air, with a deft touch and an explosive shot to finish.
Wenger, we all know that you are a bad loser, so it is a pleasure to remind everyone that yet again you’ve been Drogged.
