Arsenal salvage a draw in below-par display at Chelsea

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 2    
Premier League    
Saturday 21st October 2023  5.30pm    

In the end, it felt like a minor triumph rather than the tragedy Arsenal’s performance looked like becoming after a disappointing 75 minutes had been played. Two excellent finishes briefly rekindled hopes of a Kanu-style miracle comeback, as happened in this fixture in the late 1990s. It was not to be, although a draw was probably a shade more than the visitors deserved.

 

It was a very wet early Saturday evening at the Bridge, and two weeks after Arsenal’s previous match was played in glorious sunshine, this was a reminder that winter is now just around the corner, as daylight disappeared not long after the game began. The Gunners were sloppy early on, but seemed to have weathered an early storm in which the home side came close to scoring more than once. But their luck didn’t last, as they suffered an unfortunate penalty award against William Saliba when the ball struck his arm. 

 

Although not spotted by referee Chris Kavanagh, Aussie Jared Gilet was the man on VAR duty, so there was a sense of inevitability that a spot kick would be awarded. There was no intent on Saliba’s part, but this isn’t a factor in the rules these days. It didn’t matter that his arm was naturally raised as he propelled himself to head the ball, the fact that it blocked the pathway of said ball towards the goal meant David Raya had the chance to be the hero as Cole Palmer stepped up to take the penalty. He was sent the wrong way and Chelsea were ahead.

 

Arsenal had more of the ball in the spell that followed, with both Rice and Jesus fashioning chances, but for the most part, this did not look like the team we have seen since the start of the previous season. Passes were not coming off and Chelsea were proving hard to break down. This despite the return of Saka and Martinelli to the starting eleven, displacing Nketiah and Trossard from the line-up that began the victory over Manchester City a fortnight before. 

 

Chelsea may have had an abysmal start to the campaign, but you felt it was only a matter of time before Pochettino turned things around, and that had started before the international break. He has some decent players to work with, even if they have not performed well under previous coaches. And in the first half there was no question of how organised they were when Arteta’s team had the ball. 

 

Tomiyasu replaced Zinchenko after the interval, but the mistake that led to Chelsea scoring a second happened on the other flank, as a Ben White pass was intercepted and Arsenal suffered a counter attack. David Raya was caught off his line as a Mudryk cross found its way over his head and into the goal. From bad to worse. At least Arsenal had time to somehow come back from two down, but did they have the quality?

 

It might have been game over as 2-0 almost became 3-0, but Raya got away with a blatant error as Artetaball was collapsing in instalments over the course of the match, the keeper just about getting a hand to block a close range shot after he’d presented the ball to the opposition inside his own area. You felt it was not going to be Arsenal’s day when an obvious corner from a Tomiyasu shot was given as a Chelsea goal kick. Aaron Ramsdale enjoyed the successful delivery of a baby boy the day before this game as his wife gave birth to their first child. Raya’s deliveries were far less healthy, and you have to wonder how much longer Arteta will persist with the Spaniard. As it stands it feels like a gamble that hasn’t worked out. 

 

After 67 minutes, Jesus and Jorginho made way for Nketiah and Smith Rowe. Neither of the replaced players had performed well, but you could say that about any of their colleagues. Chelsea could easily have added a third either side of the substitution and were creating better chances than the visitors. The worst aspect of the game was that Chelsea seemed to want it more. It felt like substance v style. 

 

In the 77th minute, a chink of light as Sanchez, the Chelsea keeper passed out poorly and Declan Rice sent it back into the Blues’ net with interest. It was an excellent finish, accurate from a long way out. Rice was probably the one player that performed to some kind of level over the 90 minutes, and this was a special goal because of his quickness of thinking and execution. He gave his team a much-need lifeline as the game was threatening to end with a whimper. Arteta was preparing two subs to come on before the goal and stuck with the decision as Trossard and Havertz replaced Martinelli and Odegaard. The final cards had been played and Arsenal had just over ten minutes to salvage something from the game. 

 

Chelsea had won one in eleven at home in the League before this game – but such runs cannot last forever. And yet… cometh the moment, cometh the man. In the 84th minute Saka gave Trossard the opportunity to remind us what a class finisher he can be, meeting a cross at the far post to equalise. Suddenly the noise was all coming from the away section as the home fans decided they had seen enough of a familiar story and started drifting away. Nketiah came close to netting the winner a moment after Trossard’s leveller, but his effort went agonisingly wide. The clock ticked down and neither side looked like they were settling for the draw. Seven minutes injury time offered plenty of time for a winner, but neither side were able to find one. Nketiah’s effort proved to be the visitors’ last serious chance.

 

There are two ways of looking at this result – Chelsea have had a poor start to the season and dropped plenty of points to lesser sides than Arsenal, so much so that Arteta’s side were the pre-match favourites for this game. On the other hand, their resources and overall record since Arsenal last won the title makes a draw at their ground a creditable result. And of course, the Gunners remain unbeaten and getting a point from two goals behind felt a lot more like a victory than the other way around. 

 

I’d like to say it was a spirited performance by Arsenal, but the truth is they only came to life in the last quarter of this match. All the same, psychologically this may prove very significant in their season, and if you’d offered me the team being level with Manchester City after nine matches, I’d have definitely taken it. Many fans would have settled for a point before the game, despite the Gunners’ excellent record at the Bridge in recent seasons. 

 

To give some credit, when a team plays badly and gets something from the game, it’s encouraging. On the other hand, Chelsea – at least for 75 minutes – provided a template of how to stop Artetaball being effective. After going one up they were able to frustrate what was pretty much a first choice eleven. It took a howler from the Blues’ keeper to let them back into the game. Time will tell how much other sides will learn from Chelsea’s superiority for the bulk of this match, even if Arsenal had far more possession. They broke with danger and demonstrated the potential brittleness of Arteta’s team. Fortunately, they were not more clinical, although that’s the story of Chelsea going back several months now. 

 

No question about it though, Arsenal got lucky, and will need to play better in Seville if they are to get anything out of the midweek Champions League match.

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