Arsenal ended their run of poor form against Chelsea in spectacular fashion by putting them to the sword in a 3-0 win at the Emirates. Quick-fire goals from Alexis Sanchez and Theo Walcott established their early dominance before Mesut Ozil practically wrapped up the points with a third goal before half time.
Arsenal came into this game in better form than their opponents; the Gunners had won their last three league games on the spin, while Antonio Conte’s men had drawn against Swansea and lost to Liverpool in their last two league encounters. Arsene Wenger started the same team that had beaten Hull City convincingly last week, with Alexis Sanchez spearheading the attack, a midfield axis of Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla, and Alex Iwobi retaining his place on the flanks.
Conte rewarded Cesc Fabregas’s performance against Leicester in midweek by handing him his first start of the season. The ex-Arsenal man had combined with Diego Costa to great effect against Arsenal in the past, his quick releases providing ample fodder for the pugnacious striker to latch onto.
But there was to be no repeat of the Cesc-Costa show on Saturday. Arsenal dictated the tempo of the game right from the off, closing Chelsea’s defenders down quickly as they tried to play out laboriously from the back. Cazorla and Coquelin – their partnership stop-start so far this season – distributed their duties smartly this time, playing quick passes to Arsenal’s front-line and not allowing Chelsea’s midfield to settle.
The pressure paid off pretty quickly. As Gary Cahill dithered on the ball, Alexis Sanchez picked his pocket with swagger and swoosh before bearing down upon Courtois in goal. The Chilean waited for the Chelsea keeper to go down and dinked the ball gently into the corner of the net. Arsenal had scored their first league goal against Chelsea since 2013. And like London buses, the second came soon after.
With nine Chelsea men behind the ball, Arsenal displayed none of their usual caution and prevarication in the face of packed defenses. Alex Iwobi found space between the lines and exchanged a series of rapid passes with Ozil before feeding Hector Bellerin, who had escaped Eden Hazard and was free in the box. The full-back passed it to Theo Walcott with one touch, and the winger didn’t need to break stride as he swept the ball home.
A shell-shocked Chelsea tried to regroup and muster a riposte. They came close when Willian found himself with a sight of goal after good work from Hazard and Costa. The Brazilian fizzed the ball across goal, sending it wide by a few inches in what would turn out to be a pivotal moment in the game. Had Chelsea scored there, the story could have been entirely different.
As it turned out, the story had quite a red-and-white hue. When Mesut Ozil turned away beautifully from Kante after a Chelsea attack, he faced a two-on-two situation against the Chelsea centre-backs with Alexis Sanchez by his side. Sanchez timed his run perfectly to meet Ozil’s ball before crossing it back for Arsenal’s string-puller to scuff past Courtois and into the goal. Arsenal went into half-time 3-0 up — very much the stuff of dreams and the ideal 20th anniversary setting for Arsene Wenger.
The second half was not quite as electric, with Arsenal content to sit back and invite Chelsea pressure before trying to catch them on the break. Theo Walcott had a great chance around the 55th minute after being set through by a sumptuous Xhaka through ball. He neither shot nor crossed convincingly however, spooning the ball just over the head of Sanchez and sparing Chelsea further misery.
Conte changed Chelsea’s shape in the second half, choosing to play three at the back and bringing off Fabregas for Marcos Alonso. Despite the tweaked formation, Chelsea’s slowness of thought and cloven-hooved passing persisted, with balls constantly being mishit and wrongly measured. It was only after Michy Batshuayi and Pedro came on that the Blues started finding gaps in Arsenal’s defence.
First Pedro raced towards Arsenal’s goal after a mix-up between Koscielny and Mustafi, only for Hector Bellerin to switch on the afterburners and steal the ball away with a crunching tackle. Then Batshuayi went clear on goal by running on to an excellent David Luiz pass, his shot bringing out a good save from the otherwise undisturbed Petr Cech.
Wenger responded to Chelsea’s increased threat by bringing on Kieran Gibbs, and the Englishman was at hand in the box to clear a dangerous low cross after some good Chelsea wingplay. The closing minutes saw more attrition than expansive play, and Arsenal comfortably saw out the win to register their first league victory over Chelsea since 2011.
The Gunners have seen false dawns like this before, the most recent one being their 3-0 demolition of Man United last season before they petered out in the spring. They will look to carry this momentum and confidence through for longer this time and hope to claim a first Champions League win of the season against Basel in midweek.
For Chelsea, the game threw up a lot of worrying questions. Conte will no doubt want to spend the week figuring out the best system for his squad and work towards arresting this decline before it mirrors that of last season.
