[Adam11111]

Chelsea faced Arsenal last night in their first pre-season friendly. A match that promised perhaps a performance from new signing Deco.

A boring first half produced only one highlight, a yellow card for Gilberto Silva of Arsenal just on half time for a horrendous tackle on Lampard.
After half-time, Chelsea fans got that moment they had been waiting for. Deco was brought on in th 47th minute for Schevchenko but palyed in the CAM position allowing Lampard to play up front.

In the 57th minute the game finally became interesting. Robin Van Persie forced an inspirational Petr Cech save in a 1v1. Three minutes later, Arsenal were defending. And a great run down the side of the box from Drogba right to the by-line, where he made a lob cross to an unmarked Lampard who volleyed it along the ground and into the bottom corner, giving Chelsea a rather deserved lead.

In the 64th minute Van Persie was given another chance 1v1, and this time hit the post, and really should have scored. However in the 70th minute Chelsea let Van Persie through once to often, and he produced a perfect finish to level it 1-1 with 20 minutes to play.

If Chelsea could've written the perfect fairytale ending, it would have been this. In the 85th minute a Joe Cole run from the wing turned into a cut inwards towards the middle, about half way into the Arsenal defence, he spotted a gap and immediately passed to none other than Deco. Whom right in front of Lehmann controlled and shot into the bottom corner, scoring on his Chelsea debut to make it 2-1 to Chelsea. Ballack was brought on shortly after the goal. And it finished 2-1 to Chelsea.

Deco: "Well it was great to play in the opening friendly and to score, I was quite happy to silence my critics who said the EPL was to physical for me"

Scolari: "A good result, very promising and I hope this will help us set our sights for the season"

William Gallas(Arsenal captain): "Well I think through some of the game we desered better than we got and perhaps played well enough to win it, it was disappointing for us none the less."


Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal