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Arsenal-Chelsea 3-1
Boxing Day is a great day for football and the Emirates in North London also set the stage for a great match.
It reached a milestone but must withstand criticism
A home team in need of points took on Chelsea, and Saturday’s adventure turned out to be exactly what local fans had dreamed of.
For an Arsenal struggling in the lower half of the Premier League table, the giant encounter with the western city dwellers was clearly exactly what it took to ignite them.
Alexandre Lacazette, Granit Xhaka and Bukayo Saka scored the Arsenal goals, and although Tammy Abraham cut back towards the end, it finished 3-1 for the home team. Thus, Arsenal took a great step away from the background battle.
– It’s a great victory for us. We are very disappointed and frustrated with the results we have achieved. Not so much about acting. The players have suffered. Our fans have suffered. But it doesn’t get better than this. Boxing Day, London derby at the Emirates and victory this way. Hopefully it will be a turning point, says Mikel Arteta after the match.
For Chelsea, however, it was the third defeat in the last four of the Premier League, and what a few weeks ago appeared to be one of the biggest contenders for the title still has six points so far, and now also a game more played than leader. from Liverpool.
Surprising selection of Arsenal team
Arsenal manager Arteta had to do without Willian, David Luiz and Gabriel due to illness, and captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was not ready to start the match.
Nicolas Pepé was also benched, so on the attack line youngsters Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli gained confidence from the start for the hosts. It was also the first Premier League start to the season for Pablo Marí on the defensive line.
Before the start of the game, there were only three points left in the relegation zone for Arsenal, and if one looked at a table based only on the previous ten games, the North London Reds were penultimate.
– It’s very dark. It’s a horrible read. If the next ten look like this, Arteta has lost her job. He’s fighting for his job, and he’s doing it today with a pretty reserved team, said TV 2 expert Brede Hangeland.
However, the new youngsters had to introduce themselves early on for the hosts, and both Martinelli (30 seconds) and Smith Rowe (25 minutes) were able to quickly overtake Arteta’s team.
Unfortunately for Arteta, neither the 19-year-old Brazilian nor the 20-year-old Londoner managed to move their legs in exactly the crucial moments early, but in a positive Gunners team there was no question that good things were happening.
In the lead from the penalty spot
Right after half an hour passed, they would also get paid for their efforts. An eager and good Kieran Tierney managed to get past Reece James on the left side, and the Scottish national player fell to the ground just 16 meters.
– We see how Reece James is on the Scotsman’s ankle. There is nothing to say about it. We see that it is tact. So the question is when, where and how. It’s not a big touch when Reece James comes running after Tierney. It is completely impossible to conclude with the images there, commentator Peder Mørtvedt said when the VAR room addressed the situation.
However, referee Michael Oliver was recommended to stick with his original assessment of the penalty kick, so Alexandre Lacazette had the opportunity from the penalty spot.
There was the frozen French and the 1-0 was a fact at the Emirates.
When the situation resumed during the break, Brede Hangeland arrived with a small sigh of relief at the development of football.
– He’s weak for Reece James. But is it really a punishment or does the fall start earlier? I think we see a trend in football that says if you start the fall and then there is contact, there will be punishment. That was not the case before. But it is a new era and now it is clearly a punishment. He might fall down? He shouldn’t, said the former national team and Premier League bauta.
– I felt contact and went down, but I have not seen it repeated, Tierney said even about the situation after the game.
Xhaka drusa in free kick: – Wild goal
For a long time, the penalty goal also seemed to be the only goal of the round, but just before the break, another set piece from a frozen leg was going to be a breeding ground for the cheers of those with hearts in it. Arsenal field. Granit Xhaka, who was quarantined for her headless red card two weeks ago, returned to the team.
When the Swiss had the opportunity from about 25 meters, he did not allow himself to be called twice and jingled 2-0 on the wall with a brilliant variant that flew behind an Edouard Mendy overcome in the Chelsea cage.
– For a Druze. He’s back on the team with a bang. They may have difficulties in open play, but in set pieces? For some feet. That’s a wild goal, Mørtvedt exclaimed.
– The perfect medicine
Thus, Arsenal succeeded where Chelsea at the beginning of the round had only come close to a free kick. The Mason Mount variant half an hour earlier in the deal went into the post and out, and was also the closest to Chelsea in the entire round.
However, Xhaka’s goal meant that Arsenal, for the first time since October 4, had scored two goals in a single Premier League match, and so did Arteta and company. go to the locker room with a 2-0 lead against what many have considered a title outsider for the blue part of West London.
– It is the perfect medicine on Boxing Day for the players, the coach, the club and the fans. This is what they need, summed up TV 2 presenter Jan-Henrik Børslid in a studio break.
3-0 after the break: – Football that the Arsenal fans have asked for greater powers
Ten minutes into the second half, the home team was third in the game. A big attack finally got Bukayo Saka free-kick down the right side, and with what appeared to be a post, the 19-year-old made it 3-0 behind a play by Mendy.
– It’s a win you’ve hardly seen before. It’s Arsenal football from the top shelf from the ball out of Bernd Leno all the way into the goal through Saka’s crossbar. It is football that Arsenal fans have asked for higher powers. It just tilts it at the crossroads. It’s a completely wild score, said commentator Mørtvedt, who admitted that as the replays progressed he also took reservations that the young man had possibly tried to post.
Arsenal had really fought back, and the hosts also came close, scoring the fourth goal of the deal.
Big chances from Arsenal, then Chelsea fought back
Eight minutes before the end, Lacazette was able to put a four-goal lead first when he snatched a pass from goalkeeper Mendy and was left alone in front of the goalkeeper. However, the curved attempt to the far corner turned into a corner kick.
At the corner, only millimeters prevented Mohamed Elneny, as the Egyptian’s attempt from a distance went over the crossbar and out. The Fallout Fruit ended Rob Holding, but he too was hampered by a good Mendy.
Instead, the fourth goal of the deal came at the opposite end, when Callum Hudson-Odoi’s magnificent post found Tammy Abraham. The Chelsea forward leaned his body perfectly and hit the ball into an empty arc, and after the VAR room had dealt with what was originally deflected offside, the 1-3 was a done deal.
Chelsea penalty just before the 90th minute
Two minutes before the end it could have been even more exciting, when Thiago Silva stepped forward and finished from a good position. Unfortunately for the guests, the Brazilian did not have optimal management conditions, and the header went well for Leno and the Arsenal goal.
However, the thrill was sure to come when Mason Mount fell to the ground in the penalty area seconds before the clock struck 90 minutes. With Chelsea scoring there, overtime would probably be excruciating for many of them with red hearts, but instead Bernd Leno should calm arsenal’s nerves.
The German emerged victorious from the duel with Jorginho, whose small penalty never managed to threaten the last chance. So the second reduction never came, the Chelsea midfielder now missed with his last three penalty kicks and Arsenal could weather the storm for the additional five minutes.
Thus, it was a happy Arteta who met in the press area after the game.
– I know the team can play at this level. It’s about being stable. We know how good Chelsea is, but we were the best team for much of the game and that’s why we won. You have to look at everything that has gone against us. We have played many times with ten men, injuries, covid, we have had bad luck in many games. We started thinking “wow, what do we have to do to win a soccer game?” When we were punished, I thought, “This is not possible.” But relief is probably the word, said the Spaniard.
Tierney: – We needed to give the fans something to be happy about.
The victory was Arsenal’s first in the Premier League since November 1.
– What a morale boost it is for the Arsenal team that has been so pressured, Hangeland said after the game.
And that opinion is probably shared by the hosts’ wardrobe at the Emirates on Saturday night.
– It’s a start, we needed it today. We needed to give the fans something to be happy about. We’ve had some poor results this season, so this is a good start, Kieran Tierney tells Sky Sports after the game, continuing:
– Today we started well, we did not start after going down from 0-1, we started playing. It is always difficult when you are below 0-1. We started well, we talked about that in training the last few weeks, and we did it today.
