A bridge too far for Arsenal at Chelsea? | OneFootball

Arsenal’s visit to Stamford Bridge ended in frustration, but the wider implications may yet prove more revealing than the result itself.

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I believe in always being honest – especially, with you, dear reader and so I’m going to start with a confession here. Are you ready for it?

Okay, here goes –

I couldn’t believe, going into this weekend, anyone would give Chelsea a prayer against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon. Whilst an obviously good side, they are – in my opinion – a couple of levels below us in terms of quality and I was absolutely buzzing for us to show it.

So I can’t sit here and say, today, I’m entirely happy with what transpired at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea played above themselves and we picked a bad day to have, well, a bad day. Not that there weren’t reasons – but of course, when you have a numerical advantage (and how long has it been since we’ve had a player sent off against us in a big game?) for as long as we did, not winning is never going to feel good.

In mitigation for the lads, and I think in the context of the season so far we can definitely allow them some, I’m sure I wasn’t the only Gooner to see the team news drop with no Saliba present and think, “Uh oh…” Especially off the back of what was a great, but surely draining, victory against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.

Whatever you might think of Chelsea, it’s obvious going there without Saliba and big Gabby is sub optimal. Mike Tyson once said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” and Chelsea started Sunday like they meant to punch us in the mouth repeatedly. Estevao coming in off the right flank was doing his best to throw a footballing haymaker but lacked the composure to find a finish, whilst Cucurella and Caicedo – well, they were Cucurella and Caicedo, weren’t they? They were just throwing haymakers.

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It was a bit like being up at Newcastle really. In fact, Chelsea were so clearly keyed up, my mind wandered to the infamous game number 50 at Old Trafford 20 years ago and a day it was so clear early on, we were not going to be allowed to leave Manchester intact. I’m not saying Chelsea went as far as that, obviously, but there were definitely some parallels.

Was there any pizza in the away changing room, one wonders..?

I think, if Anthony Taylor had been refereeing the Chelsea players the way he was ours in the early stages, he might have saved Caicedo the red card he got towards the end of the first half. Caicedo had already pushed Eze over, two handed in full view of the ref, having previously made a foul which, had it been committed in a red and white shirt would surely have been a booking, yet he escaped a card. The tackle on Merino which he flew into, straight legged and just above the ankle felt as inevitable as Gazza’s ridiculous tackle in the early stages of the 1991 FA Cup Final.

The interminable histrionics, pretending that he was just hurt as Merino, were absolutely laughable from the Chelsea man. A fact apparently recognised by the VAR operator – so, well done that man.

From there, Chelsea’s players set about trying to even the numbers up. In fairness, it was a good stratgey given that Arsenal ended the half with 3/4 of the back line on yellows, with Zubimendi joining them having received his standard yellow for nothing very much at all.

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It makes me laugh to think my mate Chelsea Ray regularly cites Arsenal as one of the more niggly teams out there, when all we saw from the boys in blue was niggle. And, the otherwise excellent Reece James trying to referee the game. Joao Pedro, Fernandez, Chalobah. They were all at it. Have you ever seen such a collection of players more suited to their club than this lot?

Chelsea to their rotten cores.

Again, fair play, it largely worked. Arsenal couldn’t really get any rhythm in the game – at half time I was desperate for Odegaard to get on the pitch and try and move the game onto terms we would be more comfortable with. It didn’t feel coincidental to me that our equaliser, Merino’s header from a wonderful Saka cross came after a period sustained possession following the arrival of our skipper.

From there, we tried but it never really felt like it was going to happen for us – Merino forced an excellent save from Sachez and right at the death, in shades of our last trip to Chelsea, Jurrien Timber took a header away from Viktor Gyokeres, the Swede was much better placed to put away. Last year, Leo Trossard taking the ball from Kai Havertz proved to be a mere footnote to the season. Our players will be hoping for similar this time around, albeit for very different reasons.

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Definitely disappointing then, but in the wider scheme of things, not the worst result in the world. For one thing, a win would have seen the football world rushing to crown us champions. In December. As Sunday showed, every victory will have to be earned, especially on the road. And our next away trip, Saturday lunchtime (thank you, TNT) is probably one of the trickiest fixtures Arsenal will have to deal with this season as we head to Birmingham, Villa Park and another reunion with Unai Emery.

Before that, though, Brentford on Wednesday night. I’ll be there with my cousin Josh, across the Clock End from my mate Gabs in the away section. It’s Gabs birthday on Wednesday, I hope he has lovely day, just not for the two hours in which the game takes place. Incidentally, at the time of writing, there are a ton of tickets available on the exchange for members. Get yourself up there.

I expect some rotation here. Mikel Merino, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, and Jurrien Timber in particular have played a lot of football in the last week. We’re all super paranoid about the fitness of our number 7, as well as Jurrien Timber – the best defender in the league, maybe, but also only a year and a half on from his ACL recovery. If you wanted any encouragement regarding Declan Rice’s worth to this team, you need only look at his performances over the last week. Monumental.

I want us to crush Brentford on Wednesday, but having Rice and Saka fresh for Saturday feels very important if we are to remind the rest of the Premier League, but specifically Aston Villa, how good we are.

And let’s have it right. If you’re down about Sunday, that’s fair enough, but you’ve seen the true level of this team over the last week. A NLD where the visiting manager ran up the white flag before the game had even started and then watched his team down tools before the 90 minutes was up. We then got a wonderful performance against Bayern Munich where we crushed them with an exceptional second half, culminating in one of the funniest Arsenal goals I’ve seen since Kanu sat down the Deportivo La Coruna keeper 25 odd years ago, chapeau Messrs Martinelli and Eze.

That performance wasn’t a mirage, it happened and it happened because we are a serious football team. You don’t have to take my word for that, by the way. Look at the expectations placed on a team missing their two starting centre backs, club captain and centre forward on Sunday evening – and look at what we’ve done all season, despite the players we have, and have had, missing.