Arsenal staged a stunning display against Chelsea at the Emirates, thrashing their city rivals 5-0 in a postponed Premier League round of 29 match. Mikel Arteta’s side thus moved three points clear at the top of the table ahead of Liverpool and four ahead of Manchester City, who play their matches on Wednesday and Thursday. However, the champions have a meeting less.
The emphatic success increased even more the advantage of the “gunners” in the goal difference over the other contenders for the title, and this is the first thing that is looked at in the event of a tie on points.
As against Wolverhampton a few days earlier, Leandro Trossar gave Arsenal the lead. This time he did it in the 4th minute. And although the chances in front of Chelsea’s goal were lined up one after another, the goal whirlwind became a fact after the break. Then Ben White (52′, 70′) and Kai Havertz (57′, 65′) each scored two goals, which shaped the humiliating result for the “blues”. There could have been a few more to those five goals, but the German made two serious misses and Arsenal finished with 27 shots in total. This is the seventh time since the start of the campaign that the team in red has scored at least five goals.
Chelsea were a pale copy of the team that narrowly knocked Manchester City out of the FA Cup at the weekend. A fortuitous crossbar and a standard pass from Nicolas Jackson alone against the goalkeeper were the highlights of the performance from Mauricio Pochettino’s men. They were even lucky not to be down a man in the opening minutes after a rough tackle by Jackson, for which he didn’t even receive a yellow card.
Thomas Partey started for the hosts and Gabriel Jesus was left on the bench. Tomiyasu was preferred for the left defensive area. Cole Palmer failed to recover from his illness and was not even in Chelsea’s squad. Mihailo Mudrik started instead, and Raheem Sterling was again among the reserves. The club’s 20-year-old youngster Alfie Gilchrist made his Premier League debut in place of the injured Malo Gusto.
The start of the match was brilliant for the hosts, who took the lead in the 4th minute. Then Leandro Trossar was on target from a pass from Declan Rice.
After just a few more minutes, the “blues” had a chance, because they were not down a man. Nicholas Jackson came down heavily on Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu but surprisingly didn’t even receive a yellow card.
In the 10th minute, Kai Havertz squandered an excellent opportunity for a second goal for Arsenal after making a mistake with his pass.
After this “red” assault, the Chelsea team recovered and made several attacks. On a cross from a corner in the 19th, Badiashil and Disasi came close to an equalizer after attempting a combination between them. However, a terrible shot by Rice followed, which, to the joy of the “blues”, went over the bar.
In the 24th, the chance was already on Arsenal’s side, as the ball hit David Raya’s right post. In this case, it could have been an own goal by Gabriel as he deflected a shot from Jackson towards goal.
A further flurry followed in the box for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, with Havertz and Trossard successively failing to clear Petrovic for the second time.
The exchange of dangers continued with two chances on Chelsea’s account just inside the first half-hour, Marc Cuqureia and Enzo Fernandez. However, both failed to sign off.
At the end of the half, the moment of the cards came, and in just a few minutes the referee Simon Hooper officially sanctioned four people, including the manager of the “gunners” Mikel Arteta.
The second part started like the first – with situations in front of Petrovic. In the 49th, however, the goalkeeper reflected a shot by Rice, and then Yodegor shot dangerously.
In the 51st minute, the captain’s magical pass led Havertz alone against Chelsea’s guard, but Petrovic managed to cope this time as well.
From the ensuing corner seconds later, Arteta’s players already managed to reach the second goal. Ben White was on target with his left foot.
The excited “gunners” went up 3:0 in the 57th through Havertz, who this time used another perfect pass by Jodegaard in a perfect way. Seconds before the goal, there was a duel between Madueke and Gabriel, for which Chelsea called for fouls in their favor, but none were awarded.
The visitors had an opportunity to quickly get the one goal back, but in the 61st, Jackson failed again, left almost alone against David Raya.
At the same time, Havertz was unstoppable and in the 65th he brought things to 4:0.
The footballers from “Emirates” had no intention of stopping and in the 70th minute the score was already 5:0 after another accurate shot by Ben White.
Until the end, the “blues” managed not to concede any more goals. Arsenal now face a new test in London – against Tottenham next weekend. Chelsea is ninth in the table and faces a battle with Aston Villa.
