Opinion – Arsenal and Chelsea have switched identities

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Just Arsenal News

·2 March 2026

Opinion – Arsenal and Chelsea have switched identities

Near the end of Sunday’s first half at the Emirates, Gary Neville labelled Chelsea as being ‘naive’ and ‘too nice’.

The irony for those old enough to remember is that for so long in this fixture, that’s how Arsenal would be described.

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At half-time, the visitors will feel they haven’t done too much wrong. They might even argue that at full-time they had been the better side in the second half; they certainly had the better chances.

The Gunners scored in periods that felt against the run of play. Outside of set pieces, how many great saves did Sanchez have to make?

A lot of the pressure the keeper had to deal with during open play was self-inflicted.

The home team simply waited for a corner, at which point we bullied our opponents with our physicality.

Switching Identities

I never thought this would happen …the two London neighbours switching identities.

I had grown from a teen into a man with this derby being dominated by the side in red passing the ball sideways but struggling to break down a blue wall. The majority of possessions would count for nothing when our rivals could go direct and bulk our defenders.

That’s part of why Mr Wenger’s and Jose Mourinho’s professional animosity grew personal. The Frenchman’s ethos was you could win while playing the beautiful game, meaning the Portuguese’s principles were the opposite. Such was our reputation for playing free-flowing football; I never would have believed you if you had said the day would come where the roles would be reversed.

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Arsenal Now The Bullies

In their private moments I wonder what Mr Wenger and Jose think of the role reversals in the English Capital .

We are now the ruthless machine, we are now the bullies’.

At the weekend we out-Chelsea’d Chelsea.

Dan Smith

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