JustChelsea.com

Arsene Wenger and Sam Allardyce always seems to be a grudge match, and yesterdays game started early with the insults flying in left, right and centre during the week, but Wenger got the last laugh when his Arsenal took the points in a 2-1 win.

Wenger admitted that it wasn’t an easy win. He said: “We were a bit lucky at some stages but overall we showed really good commitment.

Arsenal always seem to have lots of injuries before every match, but they had no problem putting out a winning side anyway. Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas played for the last half-hour, but the star of the show was Theo Walcott with a great hat-trick.

Blackpool were unluckily reduced to ten men, which ended any chance they had, but Arsene Wenger was very pleased with the overall performance.

In a very interesting season opener, new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson was given a baptism of fire at home against Arsene Wengers young Arsenal team. Both of these teams are expected to be challenging Chelsea for homours this season.

It was a game of two sendings off, for Joe Cole and Arsenal new-boy Laurent Koscielny, and two goalkeeping errors. Manuel Almunia forgot to cover his near-post for Liverpool’s opener (through Ngog) just after the start of the second half, and Pepe Reina bundled the ball into his own net right at the end to give Arsenal a point.

I know that both Arsenal’s goalkeepers in todays match against Warsaw were Polish, but that doesn’t mean they had to be quite so generous to their fellow countrymen!

Lukasz Fabianski conceded three goals in the first half before Marouane Chamakh pulled one back for the Gunners, and after the break Wojneich Szczesny let in another two. Luckily Arsenals attacking form came back and they scored an incredible five in the second half.

According to reports today, the ex-Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has made his mind up and plumped for a move to Anfield for the new season.

A report on ESPN said: Liverpool have signed former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole on a free transfer.

Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal have all slipped up at various times this season in the ding-dong battle for the Premiership trophy, and after Chelsea’s defeat to Spurs on Saturday it looked like it was wide open yet again.

But Arsenal needed to take all three points at Wigan to take themselves back to within three points of the leaders, and they looked extremely comfortable at 2-0 up with just ten minutes left to play.

The Wigan defender Mario Melchiot spent five good years at Chelsea before moving up north, and thinks that his new team need to be safe from relegation before going to Stamford Bridge for the last game of the season, as he knows Chelsea will be looking to end the season in style.

The Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has been nominated for the PFA Player-of-the-Year award this season, which will be elected by the players themselves.

Wayne Rooney is the hot favourite for singlehandedly keeping Man Utd in the Premiership title race, but if Chelsea win the Double by the end of the season, surely Drogba will give him a run for his money.

The Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti rested his top striker Didier Drogba in the 7-1 demolition against Aston Villa last weekend, and admitted that the Ivorian has a minor groin injury which will probably require some surgery…but not until the season is over.

“He has been living with this problem for three or four months,” said Ancelotti. “Sometimes he has a problem after the game but during the week he is OK. He doesn’t need an operation now. If he has one at the end of the season he will be ready seven days.”

The recently broken story that Arsene Wenger was considering an official complaint over Chelsea’s use of Michael Essien after he was absent for Ghana’s game against Angola, looks like it has run into a dead end.

Wenger was quoted as saying: “Essien didn’t play for Ghana but he still played against us,”

“He was not entitled to do so.”

“We will investigate to see if there has been a breach of the regulations.”