Sports history
throws up all kinds of weird conundrums that can sometimes make you wonder
whether the prize is actually worth winning, especially if it comes with a winner’s
curse.

Like last
night when Chelsea and Arsenal as reigning Premier League Champion and FA Cup
holders, respectively, squared off in front of 58,000 fans at Cardiff’s Millennium
Stadium in the traditional Charity Shield Cup pre-season pipe opener before the
Premier League kicks off this weekend.

Since Manchester
United beat Newcastle 4-0 in 1996, no-one has won both the Charity Shield and the Premiership in the same season. So you can
bet the rest of the Premier League is now counting on the “poisoned chalice” to
do its work after the Blues beat Arsenal
2-1.

However, putting the
curse to one side, this was Chelsea’s third Charity Shield
win, and was the Blues’ first win over Arsenal in any kind of domestic
match since November 1998. In fact, when both teams meet again in two
weeks’ time at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, Chelsea has to go
back even further – to 1995 in fact – for their last league win in their London
derbies.

But Chelsea
was looking anything but cursed earlier today when it fell to the Blues’ much
maligned $43 million signing last year from Marseilles, the Ivory Coast’s Didier
Drogba, to score early in each half.
Although Arsenal’s forwards failed to score, it will be some
consolation for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger that 18-year-old Spanish
midfielder Francesc Fabregas scored their only goal in the 65th minute.

The Times explores how “Drogba’s double
spells trouble.”

At Highbury and Old
Trafford, some already talk about trying to keep pace with Chelsea as the best
they can hope for. As a tactic for winning the Barclays Premiership title, it is
likely to prove as effective as waiting for Tiger Woods to choke on the last day
of a major or hoping that Lance Armstrong will fall off his bike when leading
the Tour de France.