Arsenal came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
A Cole Palmer penalty after William Saliba had handled the ball and brilliant lob from Mykhailo Mudryk had put the Blues two goals ahead but the Gunners fought back to salvage a point through Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard.
Here’s five talking points from the game…
Chelsea’s unusual but dynamic front three impresses
Without a recognised striker available from the start, due to Armando Broja being ruled out and Nicolas Jackson only being fit enough to make the bench, Mauricio Pochettino was forced to adapt and played Cole Palmer as the most central of the attacking players with Raheem Sterling out on the right and Mykhailo Mudryk on the left, while Conor Gallagher pushed forward from midfield too.
Palmer was by no means operating as an out and out striker, often dropping deep to lead counter-attacks with the pace of Sterling and Mudryk on the counter causing problems for the Gunners’ back-line. There was plenty of rotation going on when the Blues attacked, with Palmer and Sterling combining well on a number of occasions. This definitely would not have been Pochettino’s vision for his front-line when he took the job but it worked well for the majority of the game against Arsenal, and they looked a worse team when all three went off.
Arsenal’s lack of ingenuity in the first half cancelled out by their response in the second
The Gunners had the majority of the ball in the first half but failed to do much with it at all, with plenty of sideways and safe passing in their own half and around halfway but very few moments which really troubled the Chelsea defence. They just didn’t look their usual selves, with Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli and Jesus having limited influence on the game in the opening 45 minutes. Mudryk’s early second half goal put Chelsea in even more of a commanding position but the response from the Gunners to going 2-0 down was fantastic and much better than their first-half display.
Immediately after going two down, Arteta’s side put their opponents under considerable pressure and looked much more like the Arsenal side we have come to expect over the past season. Arteta will be concerned by the poor first half but the character in this team has to be commended.
Another chance for Ramsdale?
Arteta’s decision to effectively replace Aaron Ramsdale as first-choice goalkeeper with former Brentford man David Raya has been a huge talking point, given Ramsdale appeared to do little wrong to warrant being dropped. Raya has had an up and down start to being the Gunners’ new goalkeeper, and was caught out by an audacious lob from Mudryk at the start of the second half to put Chelsea two goals ahead. It was excellently executed by the winger but there will perhaps be fingers pointed at Raya for his positioning.
He was also at fault for almost gifting Palmer an easy goal, passing the ball straight to him inside his own box but did well to recover and prevent the Chelsea attacker from going round him and slotting in. These nervy moments and mistakes might open the door for Ramsdale to come back into the side.
Complacency costs Chelsea three points
Arsenal should be praised for their response to going two goals down to rescue a point, but ultimately Pochettino and Chelsea will feel that they can only really blame themselves for not seeing out the win. Sanchez gifted a goal to Rice to get Arsenal back into the game, playing it straight to him in midfield for the former Chelsea academy player to brilliantly curl it into the empty net. Had it not been for that then the Blues likely would have secured all three points.
There were too many misplaced passes and errors from Chelsea after going two goals up, and it looked as though complacency had set in with the team perhaps thinking they had won the game. A dangerous thing to do against this Arsenal side, who they let have too much of the ball and grow back into the game.
Mudryk finding his feet
Mudryk had a difficult start to life at Chelsea after completing his £88.5m to the club in January, but finally looks to be settled in west London. He scored his first Chelsea goal against Fulham prior to the international break and scored a brilliant second to put his side two up against Arsenal. He has been guilty in the past of giving the ball away too easily and being a bit of a liability when his team does not have the ball, but looks to be minimising those mistakes and is finally starting to repay a chunk of the investment the club made in him.
