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Wednesday, September 29, 2010footballchampionsleaguechelseamarseille

Champions League: Chelsea and Arsenal group stage action

The Champions League lives up to it's title at Stamford Bridge as the reigning Premier League champions take on the Ligue 1 champions. Given that they've only popped over from the other side of the Channel, there can be no excuses for Marseille's defence going to sleep after five minutes. From a corner on the right, John Terry strolls away from his marker and sticks out his left leg ... Photograph: Jan Kruger/Getty Images ... and diverts the ball goalwards, where Benoît Cheyrou realises too late that it is going between him and the near post. 1-0 Chelsea Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images John Terry is a happy man as he celebrates with Gaël Kakuta. Anyone who backed JT to grab the first goal will also be pretty happy too – he was at 25-1 Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images Cheyrou must still have a bit of sleep in his eyes as Mikel John Obi nips in to take the ball Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images This time Mikel comes off second best as Lucho Gonzalez turns inside Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images Just before the half hour mark Chelsea get a chance to double their lead, the referee awarding a penalty and giving Stephane Mbia a yellow card, for handball. It was a bit of a harsh decision against the Marseille defender as he couldn't do much about it – the ball was booted at him from 10 yards away Photograph: Jan Kruger/Getty Images Nicolas Anelka strolls up to the spot and, as cool as you like, sends the keeper the wrong way and slots the ball home Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images The (former) French international striker shows a bit more emotion as he celebrates with Florent Malouda Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images Chelsea's Alex and Mikel take on Brandao in the air Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters The Marseille fans display a unique way of getting behind their team. Unfortunately it doesn't spur the French champions on and the game ends in a straightforward 2-0 victory for the Blues Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images Over in Belgrade there's a bit of a delay as the floodlights are playing up, but it doesn't get in the way of the Partizan fans enjoying themselves Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters This might though. After 14 minutes Andrey Arshavin picks up the ball 30 odd yards out and runs at the Partizan defence. He plays in Wilshere inside the box, who turns and backheels the ball into Arshavin's path, allowing the Russian to hammer the ball home Photograph: Henry Browne/Action Images Wilshere turns inside Marko Jovanovic Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images Johan Djourou and Cleo both keep an eye on the ball Photograph: Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images As does Pierre Boya, with Kieran Gibbs for company Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images Arshavin goes close to grabbing his second when he breaks through but is denied by the on-rushing Vladimir Stojkovic Photograph: Darko Vojinovic/AP Alex Song is held off by Radosav Petrovic Photograph: Ivan Milutinovic/Reuters Uh-oh ... Arsène Wenger would have been hoping that he can put Saturday's defeat to West Brom behind him and get an easy three points in Belgrade. However, after half an hour Partizan are handed a chance to get back in the game when Denílson handles in the box. Belgrade's Cleo sends Fabianski the wrong way and slots the penalty home for the equaliser Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters That doesn't go down well with the Arsenal manager Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images Just before the hour mark Arsenal have a chance to re-take the lead when they themselves are given a penalty after Jovanovic has a bit of a hack at Marouane Chamakh's ankles, allowing the Arsenal forward to theatrically fall in the penalty area Photograph: Marko Drobnjakovic/AP ... Arshavin steps up and slams his penalty down the middle. Stojkovic dives to his right but sticks out his legs to block the shot Photograph: Henry Browne/Action Images Arsenal's pressure finally tells and they do go in front again after 70 minutes, courtesy of a Chamakh header which is made possible by a pin-point cross by Tomas Rosicky. The Arsenal midfielder floated a perfect ball from the right and Chamakh climbed high to power a header against the bar and then reacted first to prod the rebound home Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters Sebastién Squillaci makes it 3-1 when he gets in front of his marker to get his head on the end of Samir Nasri's cornwe and power his header home. That should be game over ... Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images ... but maybe it isn't. With six minutes to go the home side are awarded another penalty after Gibbs brings down a Belgrade attacker on the edge of the box. It's Cleo v Fabianski: The sequel. Cleo goes for the other corner this time but the Arsenal keeper pulls of a fine one-handed save. He'll be extremely happy with that, and with the classy save he made in the dying seconds of the game, especially after Wenger had said that today was his big chance Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

Source: The Guardian ↗

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