06/09/2000  Chelsea 2 Arsenal 2
 
If a battle royal had been predicted at Stamford Bridge on 
Wednesday night, all that transpired was the royal as 
Silvinho's spectacular swerving 20-yard rocket-shot four 
minutes from time completed Arsenal's two-goal comeback.

True, there were four yellow cards and a continuing 
personal feud between old rivals Graeme Le Saux and Arsenal's 
Lee Dixon with the Highbury man getting the worst of it with a 
kick on the knee that effectively took him out of the 
game.

But the rest was a roaring, driving example of a 
red-blooded English game even though, apart from referee Mike 
Riley, there were only six Englishmen on the field at the 
start.

Gianfranco Zola buried a superb shot to put Chelsea 2-0 up 
on the hour shortly after Dixon was reduced to a limping 
passenger, adding to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's first-half 
strike, and the Blues must have envisaged their first 
Premiership win over the Gunners in five years and ten 
meetings.

But from a seemingly lost cause - much like when Kanu 
struck a 20-minute hat-trick on the same ground last season to 
give Arsenal an unlikely triumph - Arsene Wenger's team 
dragged up deep resources of courage and commitment to earn 
equality.

Delightful touches by substitute Dennis Bergkamp and 
Silvinho worked a passage through Chelsea's penalty area in 
the 76th minute for Thierry Henry, who rarely misses from the 
kind of position he almost instinctively took up.

Arsenal would have been buried again if Hasselbaink's 
stunning drive clipped the inside of a post instead of the 
outside a few minutes later but then Highbury's tiny boy from 
Brazil took the stage and confounded Chelsea with the power 
and guile he put into an explosive finish, his second goal 
this season.

The first half was almost a gentlemanly affair even though 
there were two bookings, Silvinho for a sloppy tackle on 
Christian Panucci and later the Italian defender for 
apparently celebrating Hasselbaink's goal too liberally.

Martin Keown and Marcel Desailly, main protagonists in the 
France-England dust-up at the end when they were reported to 
have shook each other warmly by the throat, settled for the 
more orthodox handshake when the teams came out this time.

The only sign of real malice was when Frank Lebouef 
ticked-off Lauren for a studs-up challenge that referee Mike 
Riley missed and some silly pushing and shoving between Dixon 
and Le Saux. The Chelsea man was starting for the first time 
since badly damaging an ankle in a crunch with Arsenal's 
stand-in captain last winter.

It was a nervous start by both sides with Gilles Grimandi 
having to extricate himself from trouble after a spectacular 
mis-kick and then Lebouef presenting the ball straight to 
Henry at the other end. The striker tried his luck from 30 
yards but Cudicini was alert to the danger.

Henry received poor service from midfield where Ray Parlour 
and Grimandi were doing a poor impression of the suspended 
Patrick Vieira and the departed Emmanuel Petit.

When he did receive a good ball - from Lauren - Henry 
turned Desailly neatly but fired across the face of goal.

That was in the 35th minute when Chelsea, having injected 
some extra pace into the game, were ahead with Hasselbaink's 
sweet strike, the £15million signing's third in his new 
colours.

But the Arsenal defending which led up to it in the 31st 
minute was a total disaster, Silvinho and Luzhny colliding 
with one another trying to clear a hopeful through-ball by Di 
Matteo.

Hasselbaink should have scored earlier, rising to beat all 
challengers in the 17th minute to nod down Wise's cross. David 
Seaman made a superb plunging save to his left but Hasselbaink 
should have buried the chance.

Seaman also did well to come out and block Roberto di 
Matteo on the fringe of the area when the impressive Panucci 
played his compatriot in.

For the Gunners, Robert Pires came into the game in fits 
and starts, supplying a corner which Grimandi headed firmly 
but just beyond the far post.

But Arsenal's attacks lacked bite with Kanu seemingly 
involved in a complicated dribbling game all of his own and 
Henry often having to go solo to create his own 
opportunities.

The interval signalled a big improvement, though. Grimandi 
headed another corner just off target and then Kanu had 
atrocious luck to crash his shot against the underside of the 
crossbar when he pirouetted onto Lauren's low cross after a 
storming run by the Cameroon flanker down the left.

When Dixon was forced off for treatment it seemed to 
unsettle Arsenal, and he had just limped back into the fray 
when Zola bagged Chelsea's second goal.

Leboeuf drilled a free kick to the edge fof the box, Wise 
laid it off and Zola had time to measure a powerful volley 
past Seaman.

It became a little fractious after that and the rabble 
rousers must have thought they would get their show after all 
when Panucci and Grimandi pushed each other around after a 
clash on the touchline, but Riley handled the situation 
sensibly without further need for a card.

With a two-goal cushion Chelsea seemed to assume control, 
absorbing Arsenal's increasingly laboured-looking advances and 
probing to puncture an uncertain-looking defence on the 
breakaway.

Without the injured Tony Adams alongside him, Keown had to 
carry a manful burden and did it stoicly but even he cracked 
when miskicking a clearance straight to Hasselbaink in the 
68th minute. The Dutchman should have done much better with 
the gift than earn a corner.

Wenger could delay the entry of Dennis Bergkamp and £13 
million new boy Sylvain Wiltord no longer, removing the 
injured Dixon and the ineffective Parlour from the action.

On paper at least, he knew considering Kanu's amazing 
20-minute hat-trick at Stamford Bridge last season after 
Chelsea led 2-0, his team must still have had a chance.

And when Bergkamp chested the ball into Silvinho's path for 
the Brazilian to put Henry in behind the home defence and pull 
a goal back with 14 minutes left it looked the signal for 
another grandstand finish between these two neck-and-neck 
London rivals.

Wenger added Freddie Ljungberg to the equation in place of 
the tiring Pires and Chelsea were struggling to hang on in the 
finish when Henry almost won it, shooting over the bar after 
Silvinho's raid on the left provoked a careless slip by 
Lebouef that should have been punished.