The moment that in my mind encapsulated the essence of Arsenal’s doldrum-shaking, cobweb-removing, well-deserved victory against Chelsea came around 61st minute. Tierney made one of his signature runs down the left flank and delivered a high quality cross in the middle of the box. Gabriel Martinelli – surrounded by Chelsea defenders — controlled the ball superbly, set himself up for an overhead kick which he went on to execute with acrobatic precision. The shot – which was on target and placed well towards the left corner — required a save from Mendy. But there wasn’t enough pace to really trouble the Chelsea goalkeeper. The moment came immediately after that when Gabi was visibly furious with himself for not making this opportunity fully count. It was a delightful display of elite attitude that has been missing through much of the Arsenal team for a while now. (One might even be tempted to say an elite attitude missing through much of the club at every level.) This was Martinelli’s first PL start since his return from long injury, the team was already winning 3-0 to which he has contributed significantly until then. Yet there was not an iota of self-satisfaction, no posturing about “see how cool that was”, no resignation to the fact that such attempts are extremely difficult to score from. Just pure desire to excel at every single action for every single minute he was on the pitch.
That type of positivity, ambition, and drive has been singularly lacking this season. And by their performance today the young Turks of Martinelli, Tierney, Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe demonstrated just how much of a difference that attitude makes. Whereas Tierney and Saka have been the only relatively consistent performers of Arsenal team this season – maybe Gabriel and Leno too can get honorary mention in that category; Partey simply hasn’t played enough yet – this was the first start in PL for both Gabi and ESR, and yet the quality and intensity of their performance brought all the more focus to the paucity of creative abilities from their more illustrious colleagues.
Even though I had approached the match with the customary trepidation with which we have taught ourselves to face watching Arsenal in the league nowadays, once the team was announced I started to feel a bit more anticipation and excitement than what I was expecting to resign myself to. Even though Gabriel, Partey and Aubameyang all were absent for one reason or another, both the 4-4-1-1 formation and the first starts for both Martinelli and ESR at least promised something new, something more adventurous. The rest of the starting eleven looked reasonable enough. Mari was the natural left-footed replacement for Gabriel in defense. Xhaka, as expected, got back his (questionable) automatic position after serving a three-match ban for one more needless red card.
Leno
Bellerin – Holding – Mari – Tierney
Saka – Elneny – Xhaka – Martinelli
ESR
Lacazette
Hector was given the captain’s armband. And I must say throughout the match he lived up to the leadership expectations. Saka more often than not plays on the left but whenever he has been asked to play on the right, he typically makes his ability to deliver precise crosses with his left foot from an inverted winger position count.
Arsenal started brightly with a quick attack down the right flank. Hector’s cross in the first minute was semi-cleared by Chelsea defense and Martinelli, though attacking the middle of the penalty box well didn’t anticipate the drop of the ball accurately enough; his attempt at goal was not on target. A first minute attempt to score! The excitement deepened.
The bright start continued with ESR combining well with Gabi and Tierney down the left. Inspired by such display of attacking intent Granit Xhaka found himself the farthest forward on the left and we witnessed the rarity of a Xhaka cutback from the by-lines. From which we earned our first corner at the 5th minute. We took a short corner and Saka’s promising cross from the left side was well dealt with by Chelsea’s expert defensive duo in Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma.
A couple of minutes later Chelsea made their first foray into Arsenal half, a raking diagonal cross evading everyone including a Timo Werner who found himself with some empty space.
On the 8th minute ESR demonstrated a neat combination of steel and craft – dropping deep in the middle of the pitch he expertly held off challenges by two Chelsea players to come out with the ball and then earned his team a free-kick. A minute later Pulisic ran through our midfield and then at our defense, but it seemed that the defensive set-up was acutely aware of the possibility of the talented American dribbling at ease past defenders and they packed the line dense enough to block him. Moments later Gabi showed his defensive strengths on the left flank, dropping deep, winning possession and turning past two Chelsea players.
By now Chelsea had started to see more of the ball. And a hint of tentativeness crept back into Arsenal’s game. Xhaka made a typical last-ditch tackle that gave Chelsea a freekick from a dangerous position, and Leno was relieved to see Mount’s excellent effort clipping the outside of the post. Couple of minutes later Holding – who had mostly a very good game, as he has known to do against Chelsea :–) – panicked a clearance right onto the path of a Chelsea player in Arsenal penalty box, but Hector saw out the danger by expertly defending against Werner.
On the 16th minute Pablo Mari received Arsenal’s first yellow card for somewhat clumsily bringing Kovacic down to stop against a counterattack. I thought the anticipation of the danger was top notch by Mari, but not the execution of the tackle.
We were pressing noticeably better, and not just by the relentless Gabi who was often the trigger. There was a well-planned orchestrated pressing that Laca, Saka, ESR too were executing pleasingly well. Sometimes Xhaka or Elneny will move up vertically in a darting run to stop any free sidewise rotation of the ball.
Lacazette was dropping deep to create an overload in the midfield and Chelsea was finding it hard to pass through or release their fullbacks. On the 19th minute, from such an overload Laca expertly stole the ball from two Chelsea players but Elneny failed to spring the counterattack which was opening up with Tierney, ESR and Gabi already on their way. Rather it was Chelsea who found a bit of an extra space and Werner drove inside from the wing with the ball at his feet. Holding made a perfect tackle to deny Werner.
A couple of minutes later Holding’s defensive partner managed to clear away a tantalizing cross from Chelsea’s right flank that Tammy Abraham almost got to the end of. From the resultant corner Zouma jumped above everyone but headed over.
In the next few minutes there was a flurry of activities in front of the Chelsea penalty box. Lacazette and Martinelli combined well but Gabi eventually found the Chelsea defensive line too resilient to drive past. Xhaka tried one of his long-distance shots which was blocked by Chelsea defense.
On 25th minute came our most promising attack yet. Saka and Lacazette together pressed expertly, forcing a turnover by Chelsea in their own half. Hector picked up the ball and drove straight into their penalty box. ESR ghosted in with a perfectly timed run into the box – reminiscent of Aaron Ramsey – but couldn’t quite get his feet sorted out for the close-range effort on goal offered by Hector’s precise cutback. Gabi picked up the ball and attempted a shot from the tight angle, the shot was on target but easily blocked by the Chelsea defense.
Lee Dixon and his fellow commentator Arlo White jokingly reminisced about Arsenal’s 94-95 season when even all the way into March Arsenal were still just five points away from the relegation zone. Lee wasn’t entirely convinced that if Arsenal were to find themselves in such a position at the sharp end of this season, they have enough leadership now to actually survive the scare. But I got a feeling he was playing a little bit to the gallery.
By now the match entered a 50-50 stage where both teams were making advances into the opposition box. For us Tierney and Martinelli increasingly were combining well, ably supported by Smith-Rowe who was showing an awareness of space that must have drawn encouraging bravos from a few Arsenal players past and present – watching the match in their drawing-rooms — who were known for their preternatural ability to discover or create pockets of space to operate from. From such a combination we earned a corner on the 31st minute. From the corner – taken by Saka from the left side – the ball was kept circulating by Arsenal players and Xhaka found himself with a bit of time with the ball on his feet. He spotted Tierney’s run and provided a delightful defense-splitting pass to find him. Kieran drove with ease into the penalty box past James, who trying to nick the ball away from Tierney’s fit clipped his left heel. Penalty! VAR did a review, but Michael Oliver’s instant decision stood. There really was no complain from the Chelsea defense and the replay was clear in identifying the foul.
In absence of Aubameyang and Pépé (and if I may say so, one Ainsley Maitland-Niles whose coolness probably overshadows the superb technique of his penalties), Lacazette was the natural option to step up. He sent Mendy the wrong way and scored his fourth PL goal of the season with a clinical penalty.
Arsenal 1 (Lacazette 34’) – Chelsea 0
Saka, Gabi and ESR were rotating their positions quite well with a surprisingly good understanding of each other. Martinelli sent a couple of quality crosses into the box that were well handled by the Chelsea defense. On the other end of the pitch Holding defended well on the ground against Werner, and Mari made an acrobatic clearance from just outside the box.
Elneny, despite the odd mistake in passing, was playing with attacking intent and in tandem with Xhaka was providing a higher degree of verticality than what we have learned to expect from them. Mo worked well with Hector in the right side of the midfield to keep possession which allowed Saka to run at the defense. Saka was brought down by Kanté just a few yeards outside the penalty box. We took a quick corner before the wall was formed but a retake was needed. With both Laca and Xhaka focusing intently on the ball while Chelsea was busy setting up the wall, Xhaka was the one to eventually take the kick and he executed it perfectly. He has scored a few goals for us like this: the freekick had the right combination of power, spin, swerve and dip as it nestled in the top right corner.
Arsenal 2 (Lacazette 34’, Xhaka 44’) – Chelsea 0
Half-time ended with Arsenal again attacking down the left and Martinelli trying to drive through the defense.
Second half started with Chelsea bringing in Jorginho and Hudson-Odoi for Kovacic and Werner. We were unchanged. We started on the backfoot with Chelsea throwing bodies forward in search of an early goal. Bellerin cleared a cross with a great defensive header. Then Elneny and Holding combined to defend well on the ground in the penalty box and Pulisic and Co. tried to thread through.
On the 52nd minute Rob made a rare mistake but fortunately his bad pass across the defensive third wasn’t punished by Chelsea. Leno showed good readings on a couple of crosses to come out and catch early.
After this initial pressure by Chelsea at the start of the second half Arsenal started to move forward again and from our first foray in the Chelsea penalty box Saka scored a sumptuous goal with his right foot. The formation of the attack was quite pleasing too. Hector moved up the flank secure in his knowledge that Elneny is covering for him. Meanwhile ESR had moved towards the right corner whereas Saka drifted inside. Hector passed the ball to ESR who found Saka in some space with his pass. Saka chipped the ball with his right foot over the goalkeeper’s head onto the post and in the net. The commentators simply couldn’t accept that Saka might have meant it and their theory was that it was a cross that fortunately turned out to be this world class finish. However, it looked to me that neither Laca nor Gabi was anywhere close to the far post for Saka to attempt such a deep cross, there were likelier options if Saka wanted to set his teammates up, and the dip on the finish seemed to be quite intentional. In any case it was a fantastic goal by a fantastic young talent.
Arsenal 3 (Lacazette 34’, Xhaka 44’, Saka 56’) – Chelsea 0
Chelsea was throwing tantalizing crosses into the box, but our defense dealt with the flighted balls well. And not just Holding and Mari – whose height and physicality came in handy – even Lacazette joined in heading clear.
Then came Martinelli’s overhead kick attempt – mentioned at the very beginning – at the 61st minute, and at this time it looked like we may be able to score one more goal. And we almost did a few minutes later.
On the 64th minute ESR controlled the ball well on the right side of the midfield and following a quick sequence of passes Tierney found himself with space to attack down the left. He cleverly delayed the release of the ball that allowed Gabi to position himself dangerously. Once Tierney delivered his cutback Gabi made space for his shot through the Chelsea defense. The slight deflection on the shot made the save easier for Mendy.
Immediately after that ESR was replaced by Joe Willock, another of our Hale End graduates. It was a performance of class, poise and intensity by Smith-Rowe and he now deserves to be a serious candidate for a first eleven role in our league matches.
On the 66th minute Xhaka defended well anticipating the path of a cross and calmly cushioning a headed pass back to Leno. A minute later there was another half-chance on the Chelsea end. After Lacazette put Saka through by a delightful one-touch pass, from Saka’s delivery into the box Joe hit over the bar from an acute angle but with only the keeper to beat.
On the 69th minute Pépé replaced Martinelli after an outstanding, scintillating performance on his return to the league starting line-up. Let us hope we can keep him fit, and his energy and attitude inspire the rest of the team, especially those who are in dire need of inspiration.
Chelsea wasn’t looking much threatening as our defense and midfield combined well to cut off Pulisic’s mazy runs or passing lanes for him and Mount. They were increasingly reliant on crosses and corners and our defense did just enough to put off Thiago Silva and Abraham to head on target from such deliveries.
On the 83rd minute Lacazette nearly earned himself a well-deserved second goal. He pressed superbly to force Mendy into a missed pass which Laca intercepted, set himself up and attempted a curler towards the top left corner. Mendy atoned for his mistake with a fine flying save. A slightly more confident Laca I am sure would have attempted a chip over the goalkeeper’s head. He played very well the whole match, pressing intelligently and tirelessly, dropping back to link up in the midfield, creating fast transitions from midfield to attack, passed well in all areas of the pitch, and a second goal earned by diligence would have been fitting.
Mendy’s save earned us a corner. After the ball was cleared from the corner Elneny crashed a thunderous shot against the crossbar and then Rob’s goalbound attempt was blocked.
A minute later Chelsea scored their goal as from close-range Tammy Abraham converted a quality cross. Leno had no chance. The goal was initially disallowed for offside, but VAR decided to overrule the assistant referee’s offside decision. It was a true 50-50 and had we dropped points because of that decision we probably would be spending more time talking about it.
Arsenal 3 (Lacazette 34’, Xhaka 44’, Saka 56’) – Chelsea 1 (Abraham 85’)
Pépé on the left wasn’t displaying the kind of connection and understanding Gabi had with Tierney. And he would do well to learn to press a bit more aggressively. He was merely competent in his 20-odd minutes compared to the intensity of Gabi or Saka in the two flanks.
On the 91st minute Mari made a clumsy challenge in the box to take Mount down. It was a clear penalty. Up stepped the Brazilian-Italian Jorginho, and Leno – unimpressed with Jorginho’s unique penalty routine – judged the direction perfectly and pulled off a smart save low to his left. Leno has been an excellent goalkeeper for us, and in last two seasons he has earned us quite a few points. If we had conceded a goal at that time with 4-odd minutes still to go this could have turned into a very disappointing day.
On the 92nd minute Mustafi came on to replace Laca, who had an excellent overall game.
The last action of the match came through one more corner kick from which Pépé won the challenge in our penalty box, spun around and moved forward sensing a free run at Chelsea goal and was brought down immediately, almost at the same time the final whistle was blown.
Let us hope the performance and the result were as much of a tonic to the squad as those have been to us the supporters. I don’t quite believe that Arteta actually really thinks some of the things he has been saying about too many things going against us for nearly two months now. I am sure he knows we have played well below our potential on paper, and whatever be the many reasons for the woeful performance and results might have been, some changes were evidently necessary. Whether the personnel changes today were forced on him by circumstances or whether they were purely courageous, progressive moves by him is in my opinion a moot point as long as he absorbs the lessons of those changes. There is no alternative to creativity, goalscoring ambition, intensity and willingness to take risks to create chances. Martinelli starting his first league match of the season had more shots on target in 70 minutes of football than his much more illustrious and experienced compatriot in nearly a dozen matches. That is a damning statistic. I am sure in the next 48 hours many such statistical revelations will be made which will all but prove what we saw with our naked eyes: the technical quality combined with a tireless intensity provided by Martinelli, Saka and ESR (and to be fair, also by Laca in this match) against Chelsea far surpasses anything we have seen from our frontline until now, and that reality should find its way through not only the considerations of the manager for the upcoming matches, but also the considerations of the club about how to move forward in the coming days. Who all should stay and who all should go.
We have a sequence of “winnable” (on paper) matches coming up. And I think they would be all the more tricky now because there is always the banana peel of complacency around the corner for Arsenal of the current vintage. Mikel and the squad will now have to do absolutely whatever it takes to win those matches and hopefully move Arsenal up the table to a little bit more tolerable position. If they need inspiration, they can always watch the recording of this match.
