Guus Hiddink's Chelsea carry on their undefeated win as they beat 10-man Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates.
If you look at the statistics for previous meetings between the two, then it would have been obvious that the game would end with a Chelsea win; Arsenal have failed to beat Chelsea since 2011 and Chelsea are yet to lose a game since Jose Mourinho left the club.
However, Arsenal have been in excellent form this season and if they had won today, they would have gone back to the top of the table which would have been the best way to celebrate Theo Walcott's 10 year anniversary at the club. It just wasn't meant to be though.
In the first 2 minutes of the match, both teams had already registered a good chance. Joel Campbell was played in by a great cross from Walcott and he had to adjust slightly to get to the ball but he didn't catch it right and his volley ends very wide of the target.
Down at the other end seconds later, Laurent Koscielny plays a slack pass straight into the path of Oscar who was just outside the penalty area. With little time to get his shot away, the midfielder hit the shot to catch Petr Cech out, but the keeper got down low to turn it away.
Out of the two sides, it was Arsenal who looked the most likely to score. Campbell played a one-two off Olivier Giroud on the edge of the box and found Mathieu Flamini in the middle of the box. His touch is poor though and he lost control of the ball, leaving Thibaut Courtois with an easy save.
Not long after, that's when things started to heat up in the match. A brilliant ball is played over the top to Diego Costa and his first touch allows him to go past the defender and he was in the clear. Per Mertesacker, as the last defender, rashly slid in to the back of Costa, which left the referee no choice but to send him off the pitch.
Following Mertesacker's dismissal, Arsene Wenger decided to bring on Gabriel Paulista for Giroud to try and keep some defensive solidarity in his team. This decision wasn't received well from both the fans and Giroud, but the need for another defender seemed to weigh on Wenger's decision.
The manager's decision didn't have the desired effect. Branislav Ivanovic was left in some space down the Chelsea right and he played an excellent ball into the Costa in the box. The forward got around Gabriel without much difficulty and easily stroked the ball past Cech at the near post.
From there, it was all Chelsea in the first half. Cesc Fabregas swung a cross towards the far post which cleared the head of Hector Bellerin and landed with Costa. He tried to hit the shot on the volley but failed to get a clean connection with the ball and the shot finished off target.
Costa stepped up again not long before half time when Willian played a square ball into him. The forward took the ball around the defender to get a one-on-one with the keeper, but he couldn't direct the ball past Cech at his near post.
The pressure mounted minutes later as Chelsea swung a corner into the box and it was Ivanovic who rose best to power a header towards goal. Cech was diving across his goal line, and he would have got there, but Nacho Monreal cleared the ball off the line to keep his team in it.
Chelsea had the upper hand in the second half, and they will feel that Arsenal got very lucky just before the hour mark. Fabregas got away from his defender and drifted into the box and with no other cover, Koscielny went across and barged into him, causing him to topple to the floor in the penalty area, but the referee simply waved play on.
Arsenal were still pushing for a goal though, and it looked most likely to come from a corner. As the ball was into the box, Chelsea made a huge mess of defending it. Arsenal had a few shots on goal, but the ball pin-balled off the defenders and they eventually cleared the danger out of their box.
Towards the end of the match, Chelsea struggled to deal with another Arsenal corner. This time it was the keeper as he failed to hold onto the ball twice and just about managed to shield the ball from the Arsenal players while his defenders cleared the box.
It was Arsenal who finished the match the stronger of the two. After the introduction of Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsenal seemed to see a lot more of the ball and cause problems for the Chelsea midfielders and defenders.
The last big chance of the game came when Oxlade-Chamberlain took a swing at the ball in the penalty area and instead of hitting the target like he planned, the ball bounced into the path of Flamini. He couldn't sort his feet out quick enough though, leaving Courtois with an easy catch and a quick clearance.
So, Arsenal missed their chance to go back to the top of the league table after falling behind both Leicester and Manchester City. Nobody is writing off their chances of winning the Premier League trophy just yet, but if they want to keep up with the other title challengers, they will need to bounce back from this loss pretty quickly.
As for Chelsea, they have bounced back very well in the past few weeks and have put more space between themselves and the relegation zone, which they will feel they were too close to. If the results continue this way, then they might be able to push for a higher finish in the table than many people thought possible only a couple of months ago...
If you look at the statistics for previous meetings between the two, then it would have been obvious that the game would end with a Chelsea win; Arsenal have failed to beat Chelsea since 2011 and Chelsea are yet to lose a game since Jose Mourinho left the club.
However, Arsenal have been in excellent form this season and if they had won today, they would have gone back to the top of the table which would have been the best way to celebrate Theo Walcott's 10 year anniversary at the club. It just wasn't meant to be though.
In the first 2 minutes of the match, both teams had already registered a good chance. Joel Campbell was played in by a great cross from Walcott and he had to adjust slightly to get to the ball but he didn't catch it right and his volley ends very wide of the target.
Down at the other end seconds later, Laurent Koscielny plays a slack pass straight into the path of Oscar who was just outside the penalty area. With little time to get his shot away, the midfielder hit the shot to catch Petr Cech out, but the keeper got down low to turn it away.
Out of the two sides, it was Arsenal who looked the most likely to score. Campbell played a one-two off Olivier Giroud on the edge of the box and found Mathieu Flamini in the middle of the box. His touch is poor though and he lost control of the ball, leaving Thibaut Courtois with an easy save.
Not long after, that's when things started to heat up in the match. A brilliant ball is played over the top to Diego Costa and his first touch allows him to go past the defender and he was in the clear. Per Mertesacker, as the last defender, rashly slid in to the back of Costa, which left the referee no choice but to send him off the pitch.
 |
| Mark Clattenburg shows Mertesacker a red card for a bad challenge Image from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-centre/arsenal-vs-chelsea-live-reaction-7209910 |
The manager's decision didn't have the desired effect. Branislav Ivanovic was left in some space down the Chelsea right and he played an excellent ball into the Costa in the box. The forward got around Gabriel without much difficulty and easily stroked the ball past Cech at the near post.
From there, it was all Chelsea in the first half. Cesc Fabregas swung a cross towards the far post which cleared the head of Hector Bellerin and landed with Costa. He tried to hit the shot on the volley but failed to get a clean connection with the ball and the shot finished off target.
Costa stepped up again not long before half time when Willian played a square ball into him. The forward took the ball around the defender to get a one-on-one with the keeper, but he couldn't direct the ball past Cech at his near post.
The pressure mounted minutes later as Chelsea swung a corner into the box and it was Ivanovic who rose best to power a header towards goal. Cech was diving across his goal line, and he would have got there, but Nacho Monreal cleared the ball off the line to keep his team in it.
 |
| Costa getting the better of the Arsenal defence and slotting the ball into the back of the net Image from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-centre/arsenal-vs-chelsea-live-reaction-7209910 |
Arsenal were still pushing for a goal though, and it looked most likely to come from a corner. As the ball was into the box, Chelsea made a huge mess of defending it. Arsenal had a few shots on goal, but the ball pin-balled off the defenders and they eventually cleared the danger out of their box.
Towards the end of the match, Chelsea struggled to deal with another Arsenal corner. This time it was the keeper as he failed to hold onto the ball twice and just about managed to shield the ball from the Arsenal players while his defenders cleared the box.
It was Arsenal who finished the match the stronger of the two. After the introduction of Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsenal seemed to see a lot more of the ball and cause problems for the Chelsea midfielders and defenders.
The last big chance of the game came when Oxlade-Chamberlain took a swing at the ball in the penalty area and instead of hitting the target like he planned, the ball bounced into the path of Flamini. He couldn't sort his feet out quick enough though, leaving Courtois with an easy catch and a quick clearance.
 |
| Chelsea remain in the bottom half of the table but also have an unbeaten record under Hiddink Image from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-centre/arsenal-vs-chelsea-live-reaction-7209910 |
As for Chelsea, they have bounced back very well in the past few weeks and have put more space between themselves and the relegation zone, which they will feel they were too close to. If the results continue this way, then they might be able to push for a higher finish in the table than many people thought possible only a couple of months ago...
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