Chelsea ended a run of three straight home defeats to Arsenal in an enthralling London derby match in the Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.
While many will see it as a positive omen for the host, which is rightly so, it was very poor game management by both the players and the manager to allow the visitors snatch a point later on the night.
Arsenal was there for the taking. It was the worst display by Mikel Arteta’s side in recent years and despite having a two goal cushion, Mauricio Pochettino’s side were unable to see out the win from a very comfortable position.
Cole Palmer and Mykaylo Mudryk continue to show signs of finally settling into their rhythm under Mauricio Pochettino, much to the delight of the home support as the Blues were all over their rival from the North for the first 70 minutes in the Bridge.
Both players also scored in either half, with Mykaylo Mudryk scoring his first ever Chelsea goal in the Stamford Bridge with a wonderful cross-cum-shot, which caught David Raya off his line just three minutes after the break.
It was also a maiden Chelsea goal in the Stamford Bridge for Cole Palmer, who scored against Arsenal for the second time this season after previously doing so with his former club Manchester City in the Community Shield final in Wembley.
The 21-year-old converted a penalty in the 15th minute, after it was controversially awarded following a VAR review, which penalized William Saliba for a close range handball from a Mykaylo Mudryk header.
Chelsea looked on their way to a comfortable win until some wrong changes made by the manager allowed Arsenal back into the game, while a cheap giveaway by Robert Sanchez, pounced on by Declan Rice to halve the deficit swayed momentum to the visitors’ side.
Bukayo Saka, who had been shut out for most part of the game was allowed to find his bearings late on, and the England international wreck havoc, one of his troubles caused was assisting Leandro Trossard for the leveler six minutes from time.
Spoils was shared but it is not all doom for Chelsea, whom many had written off ahead of the meeting but they were able to prevent Arsenal from becoming the first side to win four straight Premier League games in Stamford Bridge.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side extend their unbeaten run to four and will be looking forward to the meeting with Brentford next weekend, when they’ll hope to build on their form of late, and continue to rise on the league standing.
It is a good time at the West London but they do need to learn to manage situations and not surrender advantage cheaply as they did against their London counterpart on Saturday.
Hassan Afolabi
5 Comments
Well done Olt
I love this article hf
Good insight.
Up the blues
Good insight boss
I hope the players and the coach have learnt their mistakes
I hope Chelsea builds on this and learn to do better next time. I believe Chelsea will come good and the players with great potentials will live up to the expectation.