Dominic Fifield’s match report has landed! And that signals the end of this MBM report. It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride. Congratulations to Chelsea, commiserations to Arsenal. Hope you enjoy the rest of your Saturday night, whoever you support.
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Maurizio Sarri speaks! “It was a wonderful game, a wonderful match. It was very hard for us, but we did well. We were in control of the match. We have to work, because in 15 minutes we conceded four or five opportunities, so we have to work.”
Unai Emery speaks to BT Sport. “The first half, we created good chances to score. For that I am happy. They had chances to score, and it was 2-0 for them, but our reaction was good. The half-time was good for us. We tried to gain control and create chances, but we did not keep possession. We had more chances, but we didn’t do it. We are playing with midfielders who are 19 and 22 years old, they will improve with experience.” Huge credit to Emery, who isn’t hiding from the media despite Arsenal’s tough start to the season. He could easily claim his English isn’t quite up to speed yet, and give the TV the big bodyswerve, but he comes out and communicates very well.
Eden Hazard is asked whether Maurizio Sarri should be given time to implement his ideas. His answer suggests nobody at Chelsea is hiding behind the age-old Transitional Season excuse. “In the Premier League we don’t have time. We just want to win game after game. But he is a good manager, like we had before. We just want to enjoy winning games.”
Chelsea were deserved winners of a very strange match indeed. They were the dominant force throughout, against a team whose defence can most charitably be described as a work in progress. They should have had a hatful. But then, so should Arsenal, whose performance was beyond erratic: as a creative force, there’s not much wrong with them. Despite being overrun for most of the game, Arsenal could have ended up, absurdly, as winners had they shown even basic competence in front of goal. Just one of those odd affairs. Given we’re so early into the reigns of both Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery, it’s unfair to draw too many conclusions. Expect both teams to be put through some more defensive drills in training on Monday morning, though.
FULL TIME: Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal
And that’s that. What a trip.
90 min +3: One last chance for Arsenal to launch a Hail Mary. Guendouzi sends it long. It’s intercepted, and Hazard and Giroud tear upfield, two on one. Hazard dribbles into the box, then lays off to Giroud on his left. Giroud’s desperate to score against his old club, but his low bang is smothered by Cech.
90 min +2: Kante bursts down the left and nearly opens Arsenal up. Not quite.
90 min +1: It’s gone scrappy, and Chelsea are more than happy as the clock ticks on.
90 min: Nearly! Ramsey latches onto a loose ball, bouncing to the right of the Chelsea D. He unleashes a screaming looper past Kepa and inches over the bar. There will be three added minutes.
89 min: Bellerin crosses deep from the right. Too deep. Time is seriously against Arsenal now. Is there one last twist to this berserk match?
87 min: Alonso embarks on basic run down the left. There’s nobody in red anywhere near him! Where is Bellerin (pt. XXXVIII)? Alonso reaches the byline, meanders into the box, and cuts back for Giroud, whose attempt to find the top left is denied by Cech.
86 min: Giroud flicks the ball down the inside-left channel to release Hazard into the area. He shoots low from a tight angle, but Cech is equal to it.
85 min: Bellerin makes a determined romp down the right wing, but Alonso refuses to let him glide inside.
83 min: Arsenal win a free kick out on the left, and parlay it into a corner on the right. That comes to nothing, and Hazard very nearly romps up the other end on the break. Arsenal are grateful to the promising young midfielder Guendouzi for putting a stop to his gallop.
GOAL! Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal (Alonso 81)
Lacazette plays a poor backwards pass that puts Chelsea in. Hazard dribbles down the left, and makes it to the byline. He flicks low, towards the near post, where Alonso sidefoots powerfully past Cech! So simple. But what was Lacazette doing?
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78 min: Mustafi is booked for coming through the back of Hazard. Then Pedro is sent skittering down the left. His cross finds the head of Kante, ten yards out. Kante flashes his header over the bar.
77 min: Ramsey, just inside the Chelsea box on the right, has a low diagonal whack at goal. Kepa fumbles, then recovers. Aubameyang, having gone for the loose ball, lightly clatters the keeper. Kepa is furious, but the striker had every right to go for that. The referee agrees. We play on.
76 min: Arsenal shift the ball right to left through Ramsey and Lacazette to Monreal, who has space in front of him as he enters the box. A heavy touch allows Azpilicueta to block. A chance gone.
75 min: Alexandre Lacazette comes on for Alex Iwobi. Chelsea make a change too: Olivier Giroud comes on to face his old club, Alvaro Morta making way.
73 min: Luiz sends the free kick up over the wall and back down towards the top-left corner. It’s punched clear with great purpose by Cech.
72 min: Torreira is booked for a cynical trip on Kovacic as the Croatian dribbles down the inside left. This is a free kick in a very dangerous position.
71 min: Chelsea have had 88 percent of the possession during the last five minutes. Right now, there’s only one team winning this. But we’ve been fooled by this game before.
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70 min: Hazard spins down the left and zips clear of Bellerin. He reaches the byline and fizzes a low ball across the face of goal. There’s nobody in blue lurking to snaffle an easy goal.
68 min: Mesut Ozil is replaced by Aaron Ramsey. He takes an age to troop off.
67 min: Chelsea continue to ping it around. Azpilicueta curls in a cross from the right, but Morata can’t beat Ozil to the header at the far post.
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65 min: Arsenal are being pinned back in their final third right now. Papastathopoulos has a couple of chances to clear, but his headers upfield aren’t particularly useful. Pedro has two digs from distance. Neither come off.
64 min: Corner for Chelsea on the left. The ball’s worked to Jorginho, who is in a ludicrous amount of space on the edge of the box. He takes a touch and shoots ... not particularly well, given the time he had. His shot, sent towards the bottom left, takes a wicked deflection but Cech is able to change direction and gather.
63 min: Chelsea ping it around patiently. Hazard suddenly slips a ball down the middle and Morata is free in the box! His low shot is blocked by Cech, and he’s offside anyway.
62 min: Some pinball in the Arsenal box. Azpilicueta can’t find anyone with a low cross; Pedro has a shot that’s immediately blocked.
61 min: A double substitution by Chelsea, as Willian and Ross Barkley are replaced by Eden Hazard and debutant Mateo Kovacic.
60 min: Iwobi bursts with great belief down the middle of the park ... then with options either side, plays a slide-rule pass out of play for a goal kick.
58 min: A loose backwards header in the midfield by Jorginho. Ozil latches onto it and helps it forward to Aubameyang, who scoots free of the last man and buries a shot into the bottom left. But the flag’s up, correctly; the striker needlessly went too early.
57 min: Pedro has a belt from the edge of the area. Papastathopoulos blocks, but Barkley picks up the loose ball, gently chips it down the inside-right channel, and chases after it himself. Breaking into the area, he sends a low diagonal shot towards the bottom left. Cech, at full stretch, fingertips round the post. That’s a glorious effort, and an even better save. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
56 min: Morata wins a corner off Mustafi down the right. Willian hoicks it long, but nobody in a retro 80s blue shirt can get their head to it at the back stick.
54 min: Alonso and Willian try to open Arsenal up with some neat one-twos down the left. Not quite. “This is like watching an episode of Robot Wars,” opines Hubert O’Hearn. “Two mindless, defenceless, attacking machines absolutely bludgeoning one another. Can we get Dara O Briain on play-by-play please?”
52 min: Arsenal are caught out playing from the back. Pedro robs Mustafi and lays off for Kante, who has a shot from the edge of the box. Papastathopoulos blocks, then falls on the ball. Chelsea claim a hand ball and a penalty, but there’s no way they’re getting that: there was little contact with ball and arm, and there was no intent anyway.
51 min: Bellerin races down the right and loops a cross into the centre. Aubameyang and Monreal confuse each other as the ball drops towards them, level with the left-hand post. Chelsea are able to clear.
50 min: Guendouzi lofts a pass down the middle. More juice on it, and Aubameyang was tearing clear on goal. As it is, Luiz is able to intercept.
48 min: Barkley bustles out of a pocket on the left and makes off towards the Arsenal box. The ball’s rolled across to Pedro, to the right of the D; he attempts a curler into the top left. It’s high and wide. And this game is still as open as it was in the first half.
47 min: The ball’s launched long for Aubameyang, who dribbles past Luiz with great ease, then fires a low cross through the six-yard box. Ozil wasn’t far away from meeting that and running it into the net.
Right, we’re off again! Chelsea get the ball rolling for a half of football that can’t be more outré than the first 45. It simply can’t be. Surely? Anyway, Arsenal have made a change, bringing on Lucas Torreira for the trundling Granit Xhaka. Meanwhile here’s Kári Tulinius: “Smart people like to say that the World Cup is a lagging indicator, and no longer sets the tone for football globally. But this game is only a politically motivated pitch invasion and a rain-soaked president short of being as weird as the last World Cup final. Let’s hope this is a trend.”
Half-time listening:
HALF TIME: Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal
How on earth do you parse all that information?! Chelsea could easily be leading 6-2. Arsenal, an absolute shambles at the back but in their element up front, probably should be leading 6-2. As it is, it’s merely 2-2. Merely 2-2! That was less a half of football, more a 47-minute hallucination.
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45 min +1: This is getting really silly now. Bellerin feeds Mkhitaryan down the right. Mkhitaryan reaches the byline and cuts back ... whereupon Iwobi becomes the third Arsenal player to clank one over the bar from the penalty spot, missing an open goal!
45 min: There will be two added minutes of this first half. Can there be another 22?
44 min: Iwobi twists and turns down the left. He crosses low towards the near post. Aubameyang sends a first-time slapshot inches wide of the bottom left. Arsenal are utterly transformed! As are Chelsea. This half of football has been positively psychedelic.
43 min: Guendouzi cuts in from the left and forces Arrizabalaga to scrabble around by his right-hand post. It’s only fair to point out how poor Chelsea are defending now.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-2 Arsenal (Iwobi 41)
Bellerin slips in Mkhitaryan down the right. Mkhitaryan pulls a ball back. It’s Arsenal’s third gilt-edged chance from the penalty spot! And this one’s converted, Iwobi smashing the ball straight down the middle and high into the net. Arsenal are level!
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40 min: Arsenal have visibly grown in confidence, though. An awful lot of pinging around in midfield. Then ...
38 min: This game is weird. Arsenal have been so bad at the back, yet they’re only a goal adrift of Chelsea and have missed two open goals. Kante goes romping down the right and lays off to Morata, whose curling effort from 20 yards, aimed for the top right, is tipped over spectacularly by Cech. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal (Mkhitaryan 37)
Monreal robs Willian 30 yards from goal. He feeds Iwobi, who drifts left before pulling a ball back for Mkhitaryan. He pearls a shot into the bottom left from the edge of the box, Arrizabalaga left with no chance!
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36 min: Pedro tries to curl one into the bottom right from the edge of the box. Cech snaffles that one easily. Pedro had options either side then; it was maybe the wrong decision to shoot.
34 min: Willian is found in acres down the left again. Bellerin was running infield at the time. Willian wanders to the byline and cuts back for Kante, whose shot from the penalty spot is blocked. Arsenal’s right wing is being ripped to shreds. Bellerin is freestyling all over the place, and he’s not getting much support from Mkhitaryan further up the flank.
33 min: The thing is, Arsenal have been outplayed thoroughly, and yet should be level: they’ve carved out two magnificent chances. There’s not a lot wrong with them going forward, when they slip into attack mode. Unfortunately, they don’t just have one job.
32 min: Another absurd Arsenal miss! Ozil has a shot from the edge of the box. It’s blocked by Jorginho, but the rebound is worked wide left to Iwobi, who reaches the byline and pulls one back for Mkhitaryan. And it’s almost a facsimile copy of the Aubameyang miss, as he leans back and shins his shot over the bar. For goodness sake!
30 min: Bellerin runs the ball straight out of play as he makes his way down the right. In the dugout, Unai Emery is bent over staring at the floor. He snaps back up, but looks thoroughly disheartened right now.
28 min: Willian floats it towards the right-hand post. Alonso rises highest, but can’t find Morata with his knock-down. Every time Chelsea go forward, they look like scoring. Arsenal are a shell-shocked shambles right now.
27 min: Xhaka, who has a face on, is booked for a late slide on Pedro. Then Mustafi is late on Morata, though he’s not punished for that one. A lot of frustrated Arsenal players out there. Anyway, this is a free kick in the middle of the Arsenal half.
25 min: Willian is allowed an absurd amount of space in the midfield. Eventually Papastathopoulos steps in to dispossess him, but the Chelsea man was given far too much time to consider what to do there. Another second and he was setting Morata on his way again.
24 min: Willian dribbles down the middle, drawing three red shirts then flicking forward with a view to releasing Morata down the middle. Mustafi makes a last-ditch interception, or Chelsea were through on goal again.
22 min: Fifty-five seconds elapsed between Aubameyang’s dreadful miss and Morata’s goal. It’s a thin line between success and failure in the Premier League all right. Arsenal will need to take succour from the way they carved out that chance; there’s little else for them to feel good about right now.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (Morata 20)
Azpilicueta launches long down the right. One ball, and Morata is running at Mustafi, the only Arsenal defender still in the game! Where is the Arsenal defence?! Morata cuts inside, turning Mustafi and immediately slamming a low shot into the bottom right past the rooted Cech! So, so easy for Chelsea.
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19 min: What a miss! Arsenal have a golden opportunity to equalise. Guendouzi cuts Chelsea’s back line to ribbons with a glorious pass down the inside-right channel. Bellerin is free. He reaches the byline and pulls one back for Aubameyang, who is free on the spot, Arrizabalaga out of the picture. But he casually flicks his shot over the bar! And what a costly error, because ...
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17 min: Aubameyang goes racing down the right, enters the Chelsea box, and tries to beat Arrizabalaga at his near post. That’s not going to happen. The keeper claims. But that’s a bit better from Arsenal, whose best form of defence may well be attack today.
16 min: Willian slips a pass down the left for Alonso, who again has a start on Bellerin. Arsenal are very lucky that Alonso blooters a wild cross out of play on the right.
14 min: Arsenal are seriously rocking here. Willian, deep on the left, curls a diagonal pass towards Pedro, who nearly latches onto it just inside the box. Cech is out quickly to spot the danger. On the touchline, Unai Emery is doing quite a lot of hard frowning.
13 min: Arsenal are all over the shop! Luiz lifts a pass down the inside-left channel and releases Kante, who has nipped between Papastathopoulos and Mustafi. Kante reaches the area, checks, and tees up Barkley, who sends a looper over Cech from the edge of the box ... but just over the bar.
11 min: Not sure where Mustafi and Papastathopoulos were there either. The derby atmosphere in Stamford Bridge has now segued into Party Mode.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (Pedro 9)
And this is the opening goal, very much with the run of play. Jorginho is deep inside his own half, and slides a pass down the left for Alonso, who is in acres on the wing! Bellerin away walkabout again. Alonso races towards the box and rolls a ball across for Pedro, who calmly sidefoots into the bottom right. Cech had no chance. Arsenal’s defending was pitiful.
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8 min: But suddenly Arsenal break forward. Iwobi makes off down the left, and feeds Monreal on the overlap. Monreal whips low to the near post. Ozil meets the cross, opening his body and sidefooting towards the bottom right. Just wide. So close to the opening goal against the run of play!
7 min: Arsenal are struggling to keep hold of the ball in these early stages. Chelsea stroke it around in the speculative style. The derby atmosphere meanwhile keeps bubbling away.
5 min: Jorginho drops deep to quarterback. He wedges a chip down the inside-left channel. Bellerin has gone walkabout, and Barkley is in acres, romping towards the box! But Jorginho’s pass is a little bit too heavy, dropping in front of Barkley then spinning off for a goal kick. Lovely idea by the Italian playmaker; terrible defending by Bellerin.
4 min: Pedro sashays in from the right and looks to send a power curler into the top left. It’s high and wide, but not by much, and it elicits a few ooooooohs from the crowd.
3 min: Now it’s Luiz’s turn to have a whack from a long way out. He strides down the middle and larrups an effort over the bar from the best part of 35 yards. Full marks for ambition, if nothing else.
2 min: Apart from that speculative effort, there’s been no early drama. Chelsea stroke the ball around the back awhile, in order to reacquaint themselves with the old place.
30-odd seconds. Aubameyang has a dig from distance. He doesn’t get any power behind the shot, and the most expensive keeper in the world, Kepa Arrizabalaga, has an easy first save to make at his new home.
And we’re off! Arsenal get the ball rolling. “A key battle of styles will be Luiz-Guendouzi. Their hair, I mean. Who was it who said that football is a game that you play with your hair? Johan Coiffe?” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week, try the Burton’s Fish & Chips.
The teams are out! Chelsea are in their famous blue shirts; Arsenal sport their iconic red tops with white sleeves. There’s a fantastic derby-day atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, as the Liquidator pours out of the stadium speakers. We’ll be off in a minute!
Pre-match repast pt. II. In lieu of Observer Food Monthly interviews with former Chelsea stars, here’s a picture of Maurizio Sarri sucking on a cigarette butt. It’s the taste!
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Pre-match meal. Pie? Hotdog? Burger? Wagon Wheel? Or something else entirely? Tony Adams would plump, every time, for fish and chips. The real stuff, not the eye-watering baked snack produced by Burton’s and purchased in disproportionate quantities by a certain generation of football supporter. The Arsenal living legend talks to Observer Food Monthly.
If it ain’t broke ... Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri names the same team he sent out at Huddersfield last week. If Olivier Giroud wants to match Cesc Fabregas’s feat of scoring Premier League goals for both sides in this fixture, he’ll have to come off the bench. He’s still not quite up to full match fitness after his lengthy World Cup adventure; the same applies to Eden Hazard and Mateo Kovačić, who also kick back in the dugout.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery makes two changes to the team named against Manchester City last weekend. Ainsley Maitland-Niles is injured, while Aaron Ramsey drops to the bench. In their place: Nacho Monreal and Alex Iwobi. Still no start for midfield dynamo Lucas Torreira.
The teams
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Willian, Morata, Pedro.
Subs: Hazard, Caballero, Moses, Kovacic, Giroud, Zappacosta, Christensen.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Papastathopoulos, Mustafi, Monreal, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Mkhitaryan, Ozil, Iwobi, Aubameyang.
Subs: Elneny, Ramsey, Lacazette, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Leno, Welbeck.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
Preamble
Unai Emery’s deep-end introduction to English football continues at Stamford Bridge. For history is not on the new Arsenal manager’s side today. This is not a place Arsenal have enjoyed of late: Chelsea have beaten them on five of their last six visits. Throw in the fact that the Gunners have lost seven of their last eight away fixtures in the Premier League, and it would appear they’re preparing to enter the lion’s den this evening armed with neither whip nor chair.
Arsenal have kept clean sheets on their last two trips to Fulham Broadway, mind, in league and cup. They also enjoyed threatening spells against the champions Manchester City last weekend. And there’s a sense that this is something of a free hit for Emery, a game he’s not expected to win as it’s come so early in the cycle, before he’s had a chance for his methods to bear fruit.
Chelsea can claim the same, of course. They’re two games into the Maurizio Sarri era, having impressed against Huddersfield Town last weekend, but, like Arsenal, come off resolutely second best to Manchester City the week before. It’ll take a while for Sarri’s ideas to become ingrained too. So with both teams taking baby steps towards a brave new world, and neither defence in perfect nick, this has the potential to be a very entertaining match indeed. Settle down, open a can of Saturday Pop, and enjoy. Kick-off’s at 5.30pm. It’s on!
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