Was it okay to just do enough or did we need to see more?

Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League, battering Leeds 4-0 at Elland Road. Due to Aston Villa and Manchester City dropping points, Arsenal sit six points clear at the top. While that is certainly a fantastic position to be in, work is far from over as the club are still competing in four competitions. The Champions League group phase is now over, with Arsenal sitting on top. The FA Cup saw Arsenal beat Portsmouth, setting up a 4th round tie against Wigan. The final competition that the Gunners are still competing in is the EFL Cup (Carabao Cup). Having beaten Chelsea 3-2 in the first leg, all eyes were on the North London side to complete the job at the Emirates.

First Half

The game started as expected, Arsenal controlled possession and Chelsea attempted to disrupt it. The Gunners couldn’t really form a chance, but Chelsea were able to. Liam Delap snatched at a shot that ended up well wide of the post. Opportunities were at a premium in the opening stages, seeing as Arsenal’s first shot was from Piero Hincapie just before the 20 minute mark. His curled attempt was well saved by Robert Sanchez. In the 34th minute, Arsenal produced the best chance of the half. A long ball over the top caught out the Chelsea defenders with Gabriel Martinelli on hand to pick up the loose ball. He drove into the box and decided to check back due to covering defenders blocking his sight of goal. It very nearly worked, but Malo Gusto was on hand to put in a terrific block. The last piece of genuine action for the half fell to Enzo Fernandez who saw his long range strike parried away by Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Second Half

The second 45 minutes was not unlike the first, just with more efforts from range from Chelsea. Liam Rosenior’s men had a couple of half chances with Delap poking wide from close range. Marc Cucurella had a sighter from outside the box, but floated it just wide. Enzo then had another attempt from the edge of the box, but couldn’t angle it on target this time. It took just over 30 minutes of the second half for Arsenal to have their first effort. Martin Zubimendi clipped a delicious cross towards the back post. Gabriel was waiting and unmarked, his powerful header struck Cucurella in the face and fortunately bounced into a safe zone. Chelsea tried to ramp up the attacking threat, but were limited to half chances. Cole Palmer had a shot blocked as did Trevor Chalobah. Wesley Fofana knocked one wide from close range, but the angle never really worked for him. Enzo then skied another shot from outside of the box. But, heading towards the closing seconds of the match, Leandro Trossard was able to pick up the ball and feed Declan Rice. Suddenly a counter attack looked on and Chelsea had one defender back. Kai Havertz was sprinting through the middle and was found by Rice. The German could’ve rolled Martinelli in, but opted to go it alone and took it around Sanchez. All that was left for Kai was the finish and he was never going to miss. 1-0 Arsenal, game over.

Statistics

The statistics show the kind of game that played out. Arsenal had just 5 shots, with only 2 of them on target. This created a 0.91xG, the Gunners had 2 big chances. Chelsea certainly offered more shots with 14, but only 2 of them were on target. They generated less xG than Arsenal with just 0.68. They also only created 1 big chance.

Player Ratings

Starting XI

Kepa – 6 – Chelsea hit the target twice, but nothing that Kepa shouldn’t have saved. The save from Enzo was more theatrical than anything. I felt slightly nervous at corners though, almost punished a couple of times.

Timber – 7 – He did well to nullify the threat that a 3-5-2 formation can pose. Cucurella was constantly available for the wide option, with Timber having to illegally stop him on one occasion. However, not much got past him and that’s what we needed.

Saliba – 7 – He’s become very good at striding out from defence with the ball at his feet. A few times he was able to beat the press with a clever little drop of the shoulder. He battled well with Joao Pedro and kept him relatively quiet.

Gabriel – 7 – He was always on hand to thwart any danger that came near him. He had his hands full with Joao Pedro and Delap, but came out on top most of the time.

Hincapie – 8 (MOTM) – Definitely his best performance since joining us. He battled hard, eliminating the threat of Delap and Estevao when he switched to the right flank in the 2nd half. He was strong, won his headers and kept his clean sheet. Excellent display.

Zubimendi – 6 – Despite his good form at the weekend, it felt as though he retreated back into himself. Maybe it’s just how the team was set up, but he didn’t seem confident enough to step up the pitch to create an option. He wasn’t making those third man runs we saw against Leeds. He did okay, but wanted more from him.

Rice – 7 – I have a similar gripe with him as I did with Zubimendi. He didn’t show for it. You can see he did it sometimes, but often he was comfortable sitting between the defenders and rolling it from one side to the other. However, his engine is incredible and it’s the reason why we were able to win the match. His desire to make that option for Trossard was key to getting Havertz on his way.

Eze – 5 – His game was more about what he did off the ball. He worked tirelessly for the team, but didn’t really provide much in the way of technical ability. I think he was held back by the tactics, but sometimes you have to demand what you need. He didn’t.

Madueke – 7 – I enjoyed his desire to run at the Chelsea defence, it felt like he was the only one willing to take the game to them. However, we didn’t get the ball out to him that much and his delivery let him down, even if it was by a few inches.

Gyokeres – 5 – Worked hard, but was isolated for a majority of the time. He used his physicality to create some touches on the ball, but that was essentially it.

Martinelli – 7 – I feel like Martinelli wanted to do something and his method was looking for the long ball over the top. It was almost successful on a couple of occasions. I liked how he chased after everything, especially in the closing stages.

Substitutes

Havertz – 8 – It was hard for him to contribute loads considering that the game was shifting towards Chelsea throwing men forward, but he still battled away and won his duels. His crowning achievement was of course the goal. He took it so well and won us a game that we didn’t absolutely have to win.

Trossard – 6 – He helped us put a foot on the ball in the final third, but found it hard to carve out something for himself. However, his pass into Rice triggered the goal.

Summary

Is it a game that we’re going to watch again? No, aside from the last minute. We didn’t play well, we just defended better than they attacked. I suppose that’s all we needed to do, but it would’ve been nice to try and put them to the sword and really cut the tie off. I’m sure when we play them in the league, later in the season, we’ll have more desire to win the game. We now have a final to look forward to at the end of March and hopefully the first trophy of the season, maybe the first of a couple. Up next for Arsenal is Sunderland at home. The Gunners will be looking for revenge as the away side held them to a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. Arsenal will be confident of a result, but know that Sunderland will be a tough nut to crack. Here’s my predicted lineup.

Arsenal Predicted Lineup

It’s always important to remember that Mikel Arteta leans on his best players and will select them as often as he can. However, the fact that he only made two substitutes against Chelsea suggests that he has rotation in mind. Ben White is more than competent to start, Riccardo Calafiori is the preferred option at left back anyway, Havertz is growing in fitness and we might be without Martin Odegaard, Trossard is the starting winger in the Premier League and I can see Gabriel Jesus getting the nod over Viktor Gyokeres. That team, despite its rotation, is still more than good enough to beat Sunderland. Especially at home, who will be without Granit Xhaka. Let’s get it!