Yesterday’s objective was very clear: Win.

That Arsenal made it look a lot harder than it probably should have been after Neto’s sending off in the second half probably needs to be consigned to history, now that the points are in the bag. But it doesn’t help my general stress and anxiety levels when we make these types of games feel like such a slog.

The chatter in the Greek beforehand was about how this game would be a really tough one for Arteta’s men. Chelsea is a decent side, a side that, as I pointed out in yesterday’s blog, hadn’t lost away in the league for nearly three months. This is a side that went to the Emptihad with a caretaker manager and nicked a point off City. So we all knew they wouldn’t be a pushover. The question was how Arteta was going to line us up, given he has a near fully-fit squad to select from. Well, all except Odegaard, whose knee problems appear to have flared up again. When I saw the leaked team news before the official stuff came out, I suspected that it meant that Eze was keeping his place on merit, but it appears it is more of neccessity, because of this injury. Let’s hope it is nothing too serious for the captain.

The return of Kai to the bench made for good vibes as the tifo explained why the world had only come to see the Arsenal, and I thought we were in command in that first half for pretty much most of it, underlying the tifo message with our ball dominance. I don’t think Chelsea dropped off, but I do think they recognised we would be the ones to drive the narrative of the day, given we were the ones at home. And we did. I thought we might even get a nice early helping hand from Sanchez, too, with his miscontrol within a few minutes, but unfortunately, Gyokeres couldn’t profit from a ‘keeper who then had the crowd making excited noises every time he touched the ball thereafter. He is really not a good keeper, and I am very glad that Chelsea places little value in trying to get good keepers, too. He complained about the second goal, for what reason I have no idea, but despite how poor he is, there wasn’t really a lot he could do with our first goal.

Somebody said to me that it was Saliba’s first goal of the season, and that shocked me. I was like “no way! He scored when we…oh…wait,” and I think my mind has just grouped our centre-halves together in terms of their goalscoring prowess, when in fact it is Big Gabi who is ‘the guy’ when it comes to the opposition penalty box. In fact, when you look at Saliba’s stats, it reads thusly:

  • 25/26 = one goal, one assist
  • 24/25 = two goals
  • 23/24 = two goals, one assist
  • 22/23 = three goals, one assist

So Big Bill is not the guy who regularly notches up the goals. When you compare that to Gabriel, it’s chalk and cheese, because this season alone, the Brazilian has four goals and five assists. The latest assist of which was, of course, his knock back into the box for Saliba’s goal, and having watched it back again, trying to find out where Chelsea went wrong, I think I’m just inclined to say it was a superbly worked Arsenal goal. We can go whipped to the near post, we can get it right under the ‘keeper, we can go to the back post; this Arsenal team has so many different clubs in its set-piece bag that it keeps opponents guessing and continues to be such a massive threat for us as a team. Long may it continue.

And overall, it was fair in the balance of play. Chelsea were content to have a bit more of the ball in that first half, but there wasn’t a ton of chances created for either side. So when they scored right on the brink of halftime, it felt slightly against the run of play to me. I know there are a few people who have said we were lucky to get away with not conceding a penalty on Rice for the ‘handball’ on the goal kick before the one we conceded, but I’m not having that. It was on his shirt sleeve that the ball hit him, and if you’re a City fan (or another fan, given that so many seem to want that financially doped football club to win the league), crying about that this morning, go have a look at the Leeds v City game and see that handball. Bet you weren’t crying over that yesterday, were you?

It left a bad taste in the mouth at halftime, but thankfully, that bad taste only lasted around 20 minutes in the second half. Step forward, Set-Piece FC again, and step forward Jurrien Timber, who not only scored the winner but also gave my fantasy team the kind of boost it needed this weekend. Double bubble delight for me. Again, as mentioned already, Chelsea players complained about a push, but that’s a stretch. In both boxes throughout the game, players were grappling with each other all game, so this one was never going to get ruled out. And nor should it. But you always have those few seconds after the goal where you’re wondering what VAR will try to see to knock off a goal. Not this time, though.

So with the lead regained, you’re looking at Arsenal consolidating for five minutes and not conceding a silly goal or doing anything stupid. Thankfully, the same needs to be said for Chelsea, who obliged us via Pedro Neto’s utterly mental lunge on the floor at Martinelli to get himself sent off with a second yellow. Honestly, how on earth can somebody be so stupid? You’re on a yellow mate, you can’t go to ground like that, but we’ll take it.

And at that point, I think most of us were pretty happy. We could control the ball, make use of the extra man, move Chelsea around, and maybe go and get one more. But not for the first time this calendar year, we seem to just retreat into our shells again. And whilst we ultimately hung on (and we really did hang on, with Chelsea having the ball in our net only to be ruled rightly offside, then that Garnacho cross saved by Raya at the death), I think we are right to be a little concerned about how we didn’t manage the game well after we went up with a man advantage. It didn’t feel to me as though we had that advantage. Chelsea held the ball; they were starting to get forward, and by the end of the game, if you look at the stats, it felt like a very even one. They had more possession than us, the xG was practically the same (1.09 to their 1.07), they created an extra big chance than us, with our goalkeeper making one more save than theirs.

At the end of the day, the points were all that mattered, and with nine more cup finals to go, we have knocked down one of the hardest. But we have to be better than what we showed in the second half after we scored. We have to manage those key moments better, and Arteta referenced that in his post-match too. This is becoming a bit of a pattern, and we need to nip it in the bud. We need to see more like the North London Derby style of game, where the end of the match is more of a slow march to the whistle, feeling comfortable.

We play Brighton on Wednesday, and it is a Brighton team who have just had back-to-back wins and will be feeling themselves on a ground in which we’ve struggled for a few years. We will have to be better than the performance showed yesterday. But above all, we have to pick up all three points.

Right, I’ll leave it there. Amanda and James did a duet on the Same Old Arsenal podcast yesterday, so if you fancy a bit more of a debrief from them, you can do so via YouTube here. Otherwise, I’ll be back here tomorrow as we prepare for the quick turnaround against Brighton. See you then.