Line-Up
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Willian, Morata, Pedro.
Subs: Hazard, Caballero, Moses, Kovacic, Giroud, Zappacosta, Christensen.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Papastathopoulos, Mustafi, Monreal, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Iwobi, Aubameyang.
Subs: Elneny, Ramsey, Lacazette, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Leno, Welbeck.
What Happened?
Chelsea started the game having an upper-hand over their London counterparts. The Blues looked comfortable rolling the ball and made Arsenal run for the ball. With possession there were those runs coming in from Barkley and Kante backed by Pedro and Willian on the flanks.
Arsenal were sitting back pretty uncomfortably and Chelsea were knocking on the doors.
Chelsea had their break-through when in the ninth minute Jorginho plays Alonso on the flanks who gets better of Bellerin and gets the ball rolling for Pedro. The Spanish combination paid dividends for Chelsea as Pedro comfortably finished past Cech to give Chelsea an early lead. Stamford Bridge was singing on their highest pitch as Mustafi and Sokratis were left red faced.
Arsenal were presented with a simple chance when Aubameyang tried to beat Kepa Arrizabalaga near post but hit it well in the air. Those should go in especially when someone like Pierre is triggering it. A poor miss for Aubameyang and he will certainly be frustrated with himself there.
Just seconds after Aubameyang’s miss – Chelsea continued their domination as Alvaro Morata extend the lead for the home side (to be precise, Fifty-five seconds elapsed between Aubameyang’s dreadful miss and Morata’s goal.) It’s his second league goal for Chelsea and he shows everyone what he is all about.
Just minutes after Morata’s goal, Mkhitaryan did Aubameyang all over again when he missed a similar type of goal which should have been shaving the net on any other day. But the Armenian international covered it up when he netted in for the Gunners into the top left from the edge of the box. Kepa needs to do better there, and Arsenal are back in the game.
Four minutes after the first one, Alex Iwobi nets his first and Arsenal’s second and Arsenal are LEVEL! Bellerin glides in to Mkhitaryan down the right flank. Mkhitaryan pulls ball back and glides a low cross down in the box. And this one’s converted, Iwobi smashing the ball straight down the middle and high into the net.
What a first half we’ve had, four spectacular goals – tagged as ‘Game of the weekend’ and is certainly proving to be one of the games you remember for a long time.
Arsenal bring on Lucas Torreira for Granit Xhaka at the start of second half. Arsenal start second half on a high but were soon left running around to regain possession.
There was not much to look out in the second half until Eden Hazard came on for Chelsea. Chelsea’s hero was warmly welcomed at Stamford Bridge and it just brought in new energy not only amongst the fans but also the players.
Sarri sent former Gunner Olivier Giroud to assist Hazard and Pedro in front. Giroud did make an impact coming on from the bench, but it was Marcus Alonso who scored for Chelsea and Stamford Bridge was singing again.
Olivier Giroud should also have been on the scoresheet against his former side but we can say he was just unlucky.
Who Said What:
Arsenal manager Unai Emery, speaking to BBC Sport: “It is clear the result is not good for us but the process is continuing. Today, one thing in the first half is the reaction after 2-0, and also the efficiency. We had chances to more score in the first half.
“I think we need to control the second half like we want, but we didn’t play like the first half and our chances were less.
“We need to continue working for what we want, our process. Today we had two midfielders – one 19 and one 21 years old. We need to give them the confidence to play but our way, our process, is to improve and give these chances to the young players. I think today will prepare us well for the next matches.”
Alex Iwobi speaking to Arsenal official website. “For the neutral fans watching, it was an amazing game but for us Arsenal fans and players it’s very hard to take, especially after coming back from 2-0 down. It’s not the result we wanted, we just have to forget about it and focus on the positives.”
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri, speaking to BBC Sport: “In this period for us it’s not easy to gain points. Three points is an important target for us. We did very well for 75 minutes but, inside that, 15 minutes were horrible.
“It was very, very difficult because we lost the distances between the players and we were unable to cover the lost balls and press like a team, so we were really in trouble. But I think the players were really very good because at 2-2 it was not easy with Arsenal.
“In the second half we did very well mentally also.”
