Stamford Bridge is a stadium where Arsenal have enjoyed plenty of great moments and results over recent seasons. The Gunners last three results in SW6 has seen two wins and one draw. The last of which an impressive and controlled performance in a 0-1 win. Mikel Arteta himself has never tasted defeat away at Chelsea since becoming head coach of Arsenal and would have been feeling confident heading into Arsenal’s latest trip to West London, especially after the brilliant win over Manchester City.
For the first time this season, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka all started to make up the front three. And the rest of the team was unchanged from the win over the champions. However, Arsenal started poorly and went a goal down within the first fifteen minutes when a controversial penalty was awarded to Chelsea following a VAR check that deemed William Saliba to have handled the ball in the area. Cole Palmer stepped up and cooly dispatched the spot kick, giving Arsenal work to do.
But if the Arsenal away end thought going 1-0 down would wake their team up, they were wrong as a sluggish first half performance saw Mikel Arteta’s team struggle to create anything of note going forward, as well as being sloppy at times in possession and letting Chelsea almost completely control the midfield.
In an attempt to change his side’s fortunes, Arteta subbed off Oleksandr Zinchenko at half-time. The Ukrainian had struggled to impact the game as much as usual and found himself on a yellow card. Takehiro Tomiyasu took his place at left-back, however the second half couldn’t of started any worse for Arsenal as they found themselves two goals down in the opening minutes following the interval. Mykalio Mudryk’s mishit cross found the back of the net and Chelsea deservedly led by two goals.
And Arsenal still continued to struggle both in and out of possession, and it could have been 3-0 as Palmer latched onto a poor pass from David Raya, however the Spanish stopper recovered well. But in the 75th minute Robert Sanchez made a similar mistake, his pass fell straight into the path of Declan Rice who shot brilliantly first time from distance and his effort found the back of the net to give Arsenal a lifeline out of nothing.
Minutes later, substitute Leandro Trossard tapped home a brilliant Saka cross at the back post to level the game at 2-2. Sparking wild scenes in the away end as Chelsea were left stunned. They had looked in complete control for the majority of the game however had let the lead slip. And Arsenal could have even won the game as heading into injury time an effort from Eddie Nketiah just went past the post.
The game ended a draw and a point very much gained in the end for Arsenal considering they displayed a performance which probably didn’t deserve the point they got. Mikel Arteta will be hoping for a better showing as Arsenal travel away to Sevilla in the UEFA CHampions League.
Player Ratings:
David Raya: 5 – Some may blame Raya for the 2nd Chelsea goal but the Spaniard made one or two errors in possession which could have cost Arsenal. Claimed some crosses well though.
Ben White: 6 – Not great but not awful. There were worse performances out there in Arsenal red.
William Saliba: 6 – Ok but not quite his usual self
Gabriel: 6 – Same as Saliba
Oleksandr Zinchenko: 5 – Struggled against Sterling and was hooked at half-time
Jorginho: 4 – Just couldn’t deal with the intensity of the opposition midfield. His lack of pace left a lot of space in the middle for Chelsea to exploit.
Declan Rice: 7 – Arsenal’s best player by a distance. Scored a great goal to start the comeback.
Martin Odegaard: 4 – One of the captain’s poorest Arsenal showings. Just didn’t happen for the Norwegian especially considering his usual standards.
Bukayo Saka: 6 – Poor first half but improved 2nd. His cross for the equaliser was superb.
Gabriel Jesus: 5 – Couldn’t get into the game at all.
Gabriel Martinelli: 6 – Looked like Arsenal’s biggest attacking threat when he was on but lacked proper end-product