Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal: Wow

Well, that was certainly spectacular, wasn't it?

The thing about a game like this is that the scoreline will always overshadow the actual events of the game. So as the one analysising this, it's my job to point out the things Arsenal didn't do well and did do well beyond just scoring and conceding, and it's not as pretty as it may seem.

A change of approach for Chelsea and defensive troubles all round
A feature of Arsenal/Chelsea games in the past few years - since Chelsea have become a force in the league, really - has been Chelsea adoping a more defensive approach, allowing us to have more on the ball and hitting us on the counter. Under Villas-Boas, however, Chelsea played differently. This time, their play was more posession based and they had the clear intention of attacking us from the beginning. Included in this strategy was a high defensive line which has been a key feature in Chelsea's games so far.

In an attempt to stifle Chelsea's posession, Arsenal also deployed a high defensive line. However, their pressure off the ball was near non-existent, and thus Chelsea had the large share of posession early on and almost made us pay.

The warning signs were there. John Terry, on two ocassions in the first five minutes, was allowed time on the ball to pick out and play a ball down our left flank; the first to Juan Mata, the second to Ashley Cole. Both times, Djourou was caught out. Chelsea almost scored from such a move, but interceptions from Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker saved us.

With time on the ball thanks to a lack of pressing from Arsenal, Chelsea were able to spread the play at will. Mata often drifted inside to influence play, while Daniel Sturridge stayed close to the right hand touchline. Chelsea played balls over the top for Sturridge often, and Andre Santos struggled to deal with it. The Brazillian seldom got tight to Sturridge, and was beaten for pace.

A similar move culimnated in the opening goal. Mata, who had swapped wings, received a long pass on the wing, cut inside far too easily and played a very good cross into Arsenal's box for Frank Lampard to tap in. Not only did Santos allow Mata to just cut inside, but Mertesacker's positioning was poor and allowed Lampard too much room in a very dangerous area.

The goal was made worse by the fact that Arsenal had two glorious opportunities beforehand. The first being when Walcott got in behind Ashley Cole and put the ball on a plate for Gervinho. However, the Ivroian wasn't too comfortable using his left and completely scuffed a right footed effort. It was a shocking miss, really.

Just minutes afer that, Walcott created another great chance; this time crossing for van Persie at the back post, but the Dutchman could only steer the ball over the crossbar. Given van Persie's form, you'd have expected him to tuck that one away.

So it appeared it was going to be one of those days for Arsenal, but on the bright side for them, Chelsea's defence was far from convincing. Arsenal had gotten in behind Chelsea's highline before and they did so to equalise. Ramsey slipped through an excellent pass to Gervinho, who unselfishly laid it off for van Persie to tap it in. Maybe this game won't be as bad as first feared?

Chelsea had good chances to retake the lead after that - Sturridge missing one and having a goal ruled out for offside in particular - and they, indeed, scored again from, you know it, a set-piece. Lampard swung the ball into the six yard box and Terry was there to score. Mertesacker, again, was suspect in his positioning and was easily outmuscled by John Terry. It was not a good half for the big German, and neither was it for the Arsenal team as a whole; lots of defensive blunders, a lack of posession and missed opportunities up front.

With Chelsea 2-1 up at half time, you could forgive Arsenal fans for thinking that it was going to be another long away game.

Arsenal's defence improves and Chelsea's falls apart in bonkers second half
In a word, the second half was bonkers.

I said at half time that either we would collapse in typical Arsenal fashion, or the game will be a high-scoring draw. Neither defence looked solid and there would inevitably be chances.

So I wasn't really surprised when we equalised. I was, however, surprised that it was Andre Santos of all people who scored it.

The Brazillian wing back had a poor first half and it wouldn't have been at all surprising had he been subbed off for Vermaelen or Jenkinson at half time. However, Wenger stuck with him and Santos rewarded his faith when he made the most of the space he was allowed by Chelsea.

The right hand side of Chelsea's defence had suddenly opened up when Bosingwa was caught up the pitch from a Chelsea attack and Daniel Sturridge failed to track Santos back. One on one with Cech, Santos fired home his second Arsenal goal, following in a certain other Brazillian wing back's footsteps by scoring at Stamford Bridge.

A Chelsea onslaught was expect from here on, but that didn't really happen. It was actually Arsenal who scored next, much to my astonishment. Initially, Walcott was lucky that the ball had squirted into space that he could run onto. From there, he wormed his way through two players far too easily then you'd expect against Chelsea defenders and slammed it past Petr Cech. Walcott should've had two assists in the first half, so he deserved this goal.

Aferwards, Arsenal sat deeper and looked to hit Chelsea on the counter, something which you wouldn't expect Arsenal to do with half an hour to go, but it worked... to some degree, at least. Chelsea had plenty of the ball but didn't really create that many opportunities, despite the fact that Arsenal weren't particularly convincing at the back. They tried to attack down the right flank again, since they had a lot of success doing so in the first half, but Andre Santos had improved drastically and coped a lot better. It was a little surprising that Chelsea did not attack down our right hand side more, with Djourou not looking too comfortable.

There was also a potentially game changing moment involving Szczesny. The Pole had come rushing out of his goal and he took out Ashley Cole, but only received a yellow card. While it wasn't a clear goal scoring opportunity and Arsenal had players covering, the tackle itself was worthy of a red.

Chelsea would eventually equalise, however, and based on the run of the play you'd have to say they deserved it. Juan Mata received the ball and rifled in a shot that may or may not have been deflected by Alex Song. Nonetheless, it was a great effort and great goal, if not a tad bit controversial since Andre Santos was blocked off from closing down Meireles, who would provide the pass for the goal, by Lukaku.

Still, the goal counted and Chelsea were in a excellent position to win the game with Arsenal being on the backfoot and with plenty of time to go.

So you can imagine how shocked I was when Terry just gifted van Persie the chance to make it 4-3. The usually excellent defender slipped when trying to receive a backpass, and the Dutchman capitalised by taking the ball on, rounding Cech and scoring. 4-3 now, time to defend for our lives.

The best thing about our fifth and final goal, in my eyes, wasn't the fact that it was van Persie's hat-trick goal, but for what happened in the build-up.

Chelsea had a corner and we managed to clear it away. The ball bounded out to Raul Meireles. What would usually happen in this situation? The Chelsea player would be allowed space to either play the ball back in or shoot, since Arsenal are notorious for not pushing up after clearing set-peices. But what happened this time? Rosicky closed Meireles down and won the ball, starting up the counter-attack that woud lead to the fifth and final goal.

Cue wild celebrations from fans and players alike.

To sum it all up, it was an epic game of football and a great example of what happens when two poor defences go up against two excellent offences.

Have Arsenal turned a corner?
No one gave us a chance in this game, and rightfully so. Despite the face we had won 7 of our last 8 before the game, the majority of those games were at home against lesser opposition. Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is a very hard fixture and given Arsenal's appalling away form, a Chelsea win was expected. Most of us would have been happy with a point.

A win, though, is fantastic. A 1-0 would have been fantastic, but five goals and a van Persie hat-trick? I must be dreaming. Sure, we conceded three goals - two of which were quite sloppy - but things have improved. Vermaelen is fit again, Koscielny is beasting, Santos is looking better and while right back remains an issue, Jenkinson has looked promising recently.

Our forward play has definitely improved. Ramsey and Gervinho are finding form. Walcott may be struggling as of late but we have options there. All this lead by the brilliant Robin van Persie, who has 28 goals in 27 games and 7 in his last 4 Premier League games.

Are things looking up? They most definitely are. After such a disastrous start to the season, we're now 6th in the league, only three poitns behind Chelsea and Newcaslte in the top four. The title is out of the question, but a top four finish suddenly doesn't look so out of sight as it did before.

The most important thing now, though, is to look forward. It's tempting to linger on this result and enjoy it, but Arsenal must follow it up with more good results, starting with Marseille in mid-week.

Player Ratings
Wojceich Szczesny - 7. Should've been sent off in my opinion, but was pretty good throughout the game. His save from Lampard's free-kick being a particular highlight. Extra credit for physically man-handleing his team-mates in order to get them into position for a free-kick.

Per Mertesacker - 6. Was culprable for two of Chelsea's goals, but performed well in the second half.

Laurent Koscielny - 8. Another excellent display. Kept Torres quiet all game and was the one consistent performer in Arsenal's defence. My first choice partner for Vermaelen.

Johan Djourou - 6. The first five minutes for him were very dodgey, but he performed steadily from then on. He did look pretty uncomfortable with and without the ball throughout the game, though.

Andre Santos - 7. Similar to Mertesacker, in that his first half performance was awful, but he improved immensley in the second.

Alex Song - 6. A pretty solid performance, but was too high up the pitch one too many times and gave away one too many freekicks.

Mikel Arteta - 6. At times he was deeper than Song in midfield, which I thought was strange. He was solid, but unspectacular overall.

Aaron Ramsey - 8. That's more like it from Ramsey! Excellent display, providing many key passes and troubling Chelsea's defence. More of the same and we won't be worrying about the midfield anymore.

Theo Walcott - 7. Much better stuff from Walcott after a period of bad form. Put in some really good crosses and took his goal well.

Gervinho - 7. Was threatening with his movement throughout and was unselfish in setting up the first goal.

Robin van Persie - 9. A hat-trick at Stamford Bridge. What else can I say? The only reason he didn't get a perfect 10 is because his overall play wasn't that good on the day, but with three goals, you can't really complain about that.

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]Carl Jenkinson - n/a. Came on to sure up the defence, but didn't have much to do.

Thomas Vermaelen - n/a. Likewise, didn't have that much to do when he came on.

Tomas Rosicky - 6. Was good in the time he was on, doing well to start up the counter for the 5th goal.

lol great win....we would have hammered chelsea 5-0 had we defended proprely

Van Persie, Koscielny, Ramsey > TAKE A BOW.

Everyone was fantastic today. I thought we were extremely unlucky to concede the 3rd, because Santos was clearly blocked off.

Immense defensive performance in the second half.

Only one team in London.

Great win. Our defence got buttraped for a lot of the first half, but that second half performance was outstanding. Gotta feel sorry for JT and how he still hasn't found slip-resistant boots, but our counterattacking game was brilliant. Haven't felt this good after a win since the 1st Barca game

I wont discuss. letss dance!

the_gooner wrote:Van Persie, Koscielny, Ramsey > TAKE A BOW.

Everyone was fantastic today. I thought we were extremely unlucky to concede the 3rd, because Santos was clearly blocked off.

Immense defensive performance in the second half.

Only one team in London.

Ramsey was class today..what a game from the guy

GET THE F IN

YEA BOYS

Best Rresult since the barcelona match

defending was meh but who cares when u outscore the opponent

2nd best victory since i became a Gooner after Barca match...
What a boost for Arsenal and the fans..!! And what a classic for neutrals..
Both teams had their share of defensive mistakes making the game a thriller...
Sczeny.. 7.. Amazing save to deny Lampard.. And may be an effective foul and good refering there.. Could do nothing about the goals..
Djurou 5.5.. Beaten with Coles pace and quality.. But recovered and stood back..
Metskr.. 5.. I am not at all his fan..
Kos.. 6.. Good display..
Santos.. 6.. Won some tackles.. But his concentration was poor at times.. But his goal turned the game..
Song.. 6.5.. As usual
Arteta.. 6.5.. Kept the ball really well.. And some good passes..
Ramsey.. 7.. Really creative.. Good game..
Gervinho.. 6.5.. Wasted a chance.. But very effective..
Walcot.. 7.. Brilliant stuff..
RVP.. 7.5.. As usual.. Third goal was amazing..

I actually will do an analysis of this *bleep* of a game when I've calmed down some. So keep an eye out for it.

rvp IS arsenal!

take a bow.

Cant type properly, so proud ofthe boys. RVP motm but Rambo close 2nd, he run almost 1 km more than the 2nd player which is Arteta. Off to piss off my Chelsea mate.

Not one player underperformed. First two goals were scored off set pieces and the third was utter horse shit #ignorantreferee

Surprised much?

Some of those Chelsea fans looks TerryFived by the end of it.

Ch3l5ea - Ar53nal

Chelsea can't own their ground because The Arsenal own their pitch.

full form of FIFA:
F-Football
I-Is
F-From
A-Arsenal

He is not a CF, he is not a RF, he is not a LF.. he is WTF and he plays for Chelsea ...#torres rules

Can you Cech the time? Oh, it's 5 to 3

In a stampede at the Bridge Chelsea and England captain John Terry was the only casualty...He slipped!

i made an effort to get up at 7.45 after a long night out! and it was worth it!!!! OLE OLE OLE

we came back twice, we played away! things are looking up right now! great thing that the great arsenal depression is done with!

Van Persie is so good that Terry stopped to bow to him before sending him on his way. #Arsenal #COYG

See the smile...
How he was frustrated after we let in the first goal so easily...

Yea man i'm so happy. My bro is a Chelsea fan and he was watching the match with me. I won't say how it went, but it did go a little like this :



GIFSoup

Van Persie was great, but this whole Arsenal is a one man team BS is just to crazy. Today was a team effort. They played their hearts out today, each and every one of them (even those who underperformed at some points).

I love arsenal.

That is all. lol

No seriously, I will insert my opinions on the game later, need to calm down.

I've finally calmed down, i can go to bed.

Ramsey, VP, Koscielny, Gervinho, Walcott all magnificent!! And I love Santos!! IMO he's quite a big part of our revival he is always pushing his winger back because he attack so much, just a bit suspect defensively!

Get Hazard in January, and maybe a reinforcement or two because of the ACON and I think we may have a chance at winning the league, or at least winning something. Gervinho will be a big miss.

Anyhow, COME ON YOU GUNNERSSSSSSSS!

Work on the analysis will begin after some lunch.

Also, THEO F*CKING WALCOTT!!

WHAT a game he had. Could have easily gotten 2 assists with his amazing goal. He created his own new trick lol

Iceman wrote:Also, THEO F*CKING WALCOTT!!

WHAT a game he had. Could have easily gotten 2 assists with his amazing goal. He created his own new trick lol

SO happy about Walcott, he deserves that contract extension solely on today's game