Arsenal fueled championship hopes in the red part of London on Sunday: The Gunners won the duel of the corner kings against Chelsea by the narrowest of margins. The North Londoners are now five points ahead of Manchester City again.
Despite the 4-1 win at Spurs in the derby, the pressure on Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal FC had not eased. The Gunners are currently feeling ManCity breathing down their necks. And coach Pep Guardiola’s team is winning everything at the moment – sometimes dirty, as in Leeds on Saturday. Arsenal’s next opponent was another London team, Chelsea. However, the Blues had not been particularly impressive in their recent 1-1 draw with Burnley.
Set pieces were the big topic before kick-off, as the two most successful teams from corners were facing each other. And the statisticians were given plenty to work with in the first half. After a brief period of feeling each other out, Arsenal pressed Chelsea keeper Sanchez aggressively, and the Spaniard looked shaky on several occasions. In the fifth minute, Sanchez was very lucky that a bouncing ball didn’t fly past him. After a quarter of an hour, Eze almost duped the Chelsea keeper, who was standing too far in front of his goal, from the halfway line.
Emirates awakens again shortly before half-time
But then, in the 21st minute, the goal came: Arsenal, Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s next Champions League opponent, took the lead from a Saka corner thanks to a combination between Gabriel and Saliba. The home side then worked to extend their lead, without really creating any clear-cut chances.
Seconds before the break, the Emirates came to life again as Chelsea had two corners. After the first, the fans demanded a penalty as Rice, who was clinging on, touched the ball with his elbow and forced his own keeper into a brilliant save. The whistle remained silent, but Chelsea simply took advantage of the resulting corner to equalize: former Leverkusen player Hincapie unluckily headed a Reece cross into his own goal (45+2).
Chelsea came out of the dressing room much better and was on the verge of capitalizing on its momentum: Fernandez failed to beat Raya (51′), Palmer slid narrowly wide after a Joao Pedro header (56′).
As the hour mark approached, Arsenal became more active again – and actually took the lead again after a corner: Rice found Timber in the five-meter box, who beat the wandering Sanchez with a powerful header (66′). The Blues then threw away the fruits of their labor: Pedro Neto received a second yellow card three minutes after being booked for complaining, for a much too impetuous tackle (70′).
Thrilling stoppage time at the Emirates
Arsenal now had the upper hand. Arteta reacted and brought on two fresh players: Havertz also made his comeback after a three-week injury break. The German international almost sealed the deal, but Sanchez made a strong save after a powerful shot from Eze (80′). At the other end, Chelsea were still hoping for a lucky punch, but Caicedo’s impressive long-range shot flew just over the bar (87′).
In stoppage time, events came thick and fast and Arsenal looked shaky: first, Raya made a superb save against Garnaco (90+3), then Chelsea celebrated Delap’s goal prematurely – Joao Pedro was clearly offside (90+5).
The score remained 2-1 to the hosts, who are now five points ahead of Manchester City with a game in hand. The Gunners’ form will be put to the test on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) when they travel to a resurgent Brighton & Hove Albion. At the same time, Chelsea face a tough test at Aston Villa.