Cesc Fabregas returned to haunt his former club as he helped his new club Chelsea to extend their lead at the top of the league to five points following a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.
Fabregas played a key role in the match, setting up the winning goal for Diego Costa as the Spanish pair's partnership continues to flourish. It is still very strange seeing Fabregas in a Chelsea shirt, with many Gunners' fans frustrated their club didn't take up the option to sign the midfielder as they did actually have first refusal on the former Barcelona man. I can half understand why Wenger didn't decide to bring Fabregas back to the Emirates, mainly because midfield is an area we actually have a large amount of players in, but that doesn't stop me being frustrated and wondering what might have been had the 27-year-old had the correct shirt colour of red on in the October clash.
The Gunners, who had been unbeaten in their last 11 league games, made an unsurprisingly cautious start to the game, which kicked off 15 minutes late for security reasons, as they were keen to avoid a repeat of last season's 6-0 hammering by the Blues.
There was little to choose between the sides until the opening goal, with the most worthy incident of note before that coming when Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois collided with Arsenal's summer signing Alexis Sanchez inside the opening 10 minutes.
The Belgian was eventually forced off after 24 minutes and his replacement Petr Cech was rarely threatened by the Gunners attack. Just three minutes after entering the action Cech saw one of the key moments of the game. Luckily for him it came at the other end of the field. Laurent Koscielny stuck out a leg to clumsily bring down Eden Hazard in the box. The Belgian forward made no mistake as he sent Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way and fired his spot-kick into the bottom corner.
Arsenal almost hit back soon after when Santi Cazorla set up Jack Wilshere with a fine pass but the midfielder's control in the box took the ball away from him to sum up the visitors' frustrating afternoon. The Gunners were showing some promising signs, with some lovely passing moves but their lack of a killer final ball and not getting enough shots in prevented them from causing too much of a threat to their opponents.
In fact the main highlight for the visitors in the first half came when manager Arsene Wenger squared up to his Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho, with the latter having the last laugh with all three points. The pair fronted up to one another with Wenger appearing to shove Mourinho after Gary Cahill's clumsy lunge on Sanchez, with some supporters thinking the card should've been red. Things evened themselves out later in the match when Danny Welbeck received just a yellow for his two-footed challenge on Fabregas.
Arsene Wenger's men started the second half brightly and should've drawn level within four minutes of the restart. A sweet passing move ended with Sanchez passing across the edge of the box for Cazorla, but the Spanish international sent his effort just wide of a post.
Arsenal continued to try and find a way back into the game but were reduced to half chances as Wilshere's shot deflected over the bar for a corner amidst shouts for a handball against Fabregas, in an incident that potentially could've changed the game, as the hosts appeared to be showing more urgency. But that urgency was failing to turn into enough clear cut chances on goal.
The Gunners' failure to test Cech enough proved costly as their London rivals grabbed a second goal to wrap up all three points. Fabregas played an inch perfect ball over the top for Diego Costa, who lifted a fine finish over Szczesny for his ninth goal in seven games 12 minutes from time.
Chelsea did superbly to defend their lead but neither side did much to really test the goalkeepers and it was ultimately the hosts' ability to convert chances when it mattered that decided the contest.
As for the Gunners, it was only a first league loss of the season and a huge improvement to the away displays against the big guns from last season, but in the end it had the same outcome - defeat.
Welbeck, who had scored a hat-trick against Galatasaray in midweek, again looked lively in attack although he didn't really have any clear cut chances to grab a goal this time around. Fellow striker Lukas Podolski failed to produce any kind of spark when he came on for the final 11 minutes of the match. But in fairness to the German international it must be hard to build up any kind of momentum when you are not given much game time. Given the injury to Olivier Giroud, Podolski should have played a lot more even since the arrival of Welbeck. Podolski deserves to be given more chance to prove himself this season and am unsure why he isn't being given that.
The midfield didn't do too badly and Wilshere showed a lot of potential at times, while Santi Cazorla also looked a threat. But that threat failed to amount to anything. The Gunners will have to be a lot more ruthless in attack when they return to action after the international break with a home match against Hull.
The defence weren't too bad, aside from the two goals, and they restricted Chelsea to fewer chances than expected and Szczesny didn't have too much to do. However, the few they did get the hosts made count and ultimately that was the difference between the sides as Mourinho's men continue to look odds on favourite for the 2014/15 Premier League title.
If somebody doesn't beat Chelsea soon to put a blip in their unbeaten run the title race may not be as open as in recent seasons as they really do look like running away with it at the moment. Meanwhile, the Gunners must regroup and forget about their first league defeat of the season and focus on beating Hull and getting their season back on track.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
No comments:
Post a Comment