Chelsea - on the bus. Not even close
Arsenal held to a draw by a motivated ten-man Chelsea.
Worst first half
Arteta rolled out a quite predictable starting eleven, though the total absence of Saliba from the match day squad was a shocker. This meant a Mosquera and Hincapie centre-back partnership. Reading the team sheet, I felt pretty confident in the lads, given their rare performances this season. I clearly underestimated the situation they were thrust into though.
Chelsea’s game plan was crystal clear: three midfield battlers tasked with closing space and winning the physical contests in the middle, sacrificing a number 10, and pinning their attacking hopes on those quick wingers. The strategy was to make it an absolute scrap in midfield and halt Arsenal’s progress there. And to their credit, it worked! We saw loads of niggly fouls, our midfield lost the ball too many times, and several Chelsea breaks resulted in either dangerous shots or yellow cards for our side. By the half-hour mark, Zubimendi, Mosquera, and Calafiori were all in the book, you see.
The refereeing was frankly rubbish – Chelsea’s players, Caicedo especially, were routinely shoving people with no punishment. The atmosphere from the stadium also clearly got to the ref; I wouldn’t say he was one-sided, just completely out of his depth.
Mosquera looked somewhat swamped by the pressure without a senior calming head nearby like Gabriel or Saliba to keep him steady. There were a couple of misplaced passes, but the real shocker was a daft backheel flick that stopped the ball in our box for an Estevao shot, practically a Christmas heel. That just goes to show why Saliba is world-class and Mosquera is still learning his trade. Estevao’s inexperience definitely showed there, though, as he ballooned the ball on top of the stands.
Hincapie seemed a bit more composed, and his distribution was better, but he’s not exactly a rock when battling against speedy wide-men. They were able to get past him, and only a cracking sliding tackle from our midfield warrior Rice prevented a goal in the 20th minute.
Overall, we were sloppy with passes, losing physical duels, and getting beaten in sprints. Chelsea sensed our lack of belief and kept pushing us. Their so-called ‘star man’ Caicedo was also pushing people, getting into their faces, until he finally shot himself and our hero Merino in the foot. He was simply drunk with impunity the ref seemed to grant him. After some dithering and a proper VAR check, the Ecuadorian thug was sent packing. Naturally, the referee then seemed desperate to dish out more yellow cards to Arsenal as some sort of compensation. The next one was for Hincapie for elbowing an opponent on the edge of the Chelsea box. Even if it was debatable, given the recent sending-off, it was not too smart to make such a move right before the interval.
Caicedo’s sheer stupidity finally brought a touch of calmness to our play, and the only sensible change Arteta needed to make at the break was to sub off one of our booked defenders. Having two centre-backs on a yellow was far from ideal and left us no wiggle room after the break. Ben White coming on with Timber shifting to right-sided centre-back seemed the obvious shout. Yet, to everyone’s amazement, it was Myles for Calafiori, leaving both booked centre-backs still on the pitch.
The first half was probably the worst we have seen from Arsenal last season.
Too many lost duels, no proper danger before the red card—it smelt like the result of a gassed-out side that gave their all in two knackering performances. We weren’t used to being bossed about in the middle like that, and that led to some dodgy, nervous play. The new centre-back pairing didn’t exactly help matters either.
Big Hopes for the second half?
Right after the interval, Chelsea kept on with their cheap tricks to try and get Hincapie sent for an early bath. But more importantly, they showed a much bigger appetite to win the match than us, while we were still jittery—Arteta hadn’t managed to settle the lads down. During the free kick, Raya was apparently going for some Christmas mulled wine, which saw him making a bit of a heroic save (caused by himself) that led to a decisive corner. That corner was won through sheer will, and that desire fuelled their goal. Chalobah, their constant scorer from set-pieces, leaped over everyone and thumped it into the far post.
About five minutes later, Lewis-Skelly picked up another caution, trying to halt James on the break. I’m dead sure Arteta and his staff whispered in his ear all break about the importance of not getting booked, but nobody was surprised he lasted only ten minutes. Fair play to our defenders though, they somehow managed to avoid another act of stupidity and stayed on the pitch until the end.
Arteta reacted with the most obvious changes—reducing the number of bookings back to three by swapping Zubimendi for Odegaard, and bringing on Madueke for Martinelli, who’s usually not much use in games where we keep the ball, despite Gabi being the only one truly bothering Sanchez in the 41st minute.
This meant Madueke was sent on the left, where he was hardly convincing before, and wasn’t convincing today. He was also constantly swamped by two or three Chelsea players without any proper support from Eze or MLS, even though there were open gaps. I can’t fault Eze, who has put in some decent shifts this week, but Myles was a real let-down today. Madueke was also completely unprepared for the wave of hate from the stands and his former mates. He didn’t come onto the pitch meaning to prove he used to be “the man” at Chelsea who bagged a move to a better side. His teammates, however, were extra fired up to stop him, and it worked like a charm.
Bukayo Saka, who was made captain for the day, was clearly feeling the heat to produce the goods and started trying to overdo his efforts, either holding onto the ball for ages or lashing off shots when it was never on. Until he found Merino’s head after yet another successful dribble, which sent the Arsenal crowd into believing again. Sadly, that was his last bit of proper threat all day.
Funnily enough, Chelsea scoring early actually did us a favour. They dropped deep, hoping to cling onto the result, lost their initial momentum, and it wasn’t easy to get it back after our leveller. My hope was that Arsenal would take the buzz from Merino’s goal and turn it into another 10 to 15 minutes of pressure that would wrap up the win for us. In the end, the match completely calmed down, and it was not clear whether Arsenal had enough danger in a squad patched up with players either knackered from their third tough game in a week or only just back from the treatment room.
The answer was a resounding NO. Saka’s passes went nowhere, Odegaard sometimes passed it straight to the Chelsea lads, Madueke was physically dominated, Myles was invisible, and Gyokeres couldn’t get a touch, apart from that possible winner that Timber blocked with his own effort.
The one bloke who stood his ground right to the final whistle was Declan Rice. He put in vital tackles, covered for our full-backs by dropping deep, and drove forward with the ball. All that overblown “Caicedo versus Rice” talk—which I never believed was the real story of the game—had a very interesting conclusion. Caicedo seriously let his side down (with Reece James being their actual leader, winning most of the duels and playing out of position), while Rice was simply Arsenal’s man of the match. It wasn’t even a close call.
Where do we go from here?
Well, on the one hand, it’s hard to blame Arteta for not making more substitutions, as the players he did bring on actually seemed to make us somewhat worse. The only name I had in mind was Nwaneri—he was never injured, and I’m sure he could manage 15 minutes of defensive graft. I would’ve definitely had him instead of Saka or Ødegaard, to be honest.
But the general feeling is that the team didn’t look fresh. Playing the same starting XI three times in a week definitely has a negative effect. The players also didn’t look aggressive as soon as we equalized; they looked subconsciously ready to settle for just one point. Ten-man Chelsea actually showed more desire to win, we were not even close. The draw was likely discussed internally as an acceptable result before the match. That would be correct, but it felt like a bit of a downer, especially since we played against ten men for a full 60 minutes. I guess if the players’ legs aren’t up to executing the extra man advantage, it stops being such a big advantage.
Arsenal managed just eight shots in today’s draw (7 after the red card), their fewest in a Premier League game since October 2024 at Bournemouth (6). Meanwhile the Gunners faced 10+ shots (11 today) for only the second time in the league this season, along with MD1 against Manchester United (22).
Game against Bournemouth was one of the worst last season, but that’s the one where we played second half with 10 men.
We are five points ahead of City and six clear of Villa and Chelsea. That’s not too bad, because none of those teams currently looks capable of pulling off an unstoppable winning run. That said, the gap is small, and we need to keep growing it until our rivals stabilise their form. And we can do that by learning the most important lesson from today.
The next game is Brentford at the Emirates on Wednesday. Given that the one after is in-form Villa away, it is imperative that we implement a noticeable rotation and bench the crucial players who have been working non-stop recently, specifically Timber, Saka, Eze, and Rice or Zubi.
White at right-back, Madueke at right-wing, Ødegaard or Nwaneri at number 10, and Norgaard should all start. It is Brentford, for God’s sake! I watched their second half against Burnley on Saturday. They stick to the same principles as Frank’s Brentford: compact in their own half and relying on counterattacks. However, instead of Mbeumo and Toney leading their lines, it’s not even Wissa; it’s Thiago, Dango, and Damsgaard—by no means the scariest players in the league.
They really did struggle to open up Burnley’s defence at home until they managed to earn a penalty that ultimately opened up the game. And they have Henderson ruling their midfield. Henderson, for God’s sake! Surely even our ‘not convincing’ players can handle that level. Plus, we still have the ability to bring on all our big guns in the second half.
For the next six weeks, we practically have a competitive match every four days. So, we need to utilise our wider squad, constantly rotating—two to three new names coming into the squad EVERY single time: White, Myles, Nwaneri, Madueke, Martinelli, Ødegaard, Havertz, and even Jesus. And none of the players (except the centre-backs) should be playing four games in a row within two weeks.
That is the way to win against Brentford and the way to win the league!