Arsenal (2) 3 Chelsea (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Saturday, 26th December 2020. Kick-off time: 5.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Pablo Marí, Kieran Tierney; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Dani Ceballos, Alex Rúnarsson, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Shkodran Mustafi, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah,

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (35 mins), Granit Xhaka (42 mins), Bukayo Saka (56 mins)

Yellow Cards: Pablo Marí, Kieran Tierney

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 40%

Referee: Michael Oliver 

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett

Fourth Official: Stuart Attwell

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Paul Tierney; AVAR Constantine Hatzidakis

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

For today’s white-hot London derby match with the men from SW6, Gabriel is out of the team after coming into contact with someone who has coronavirus so he is isolating; David Luiz and Willian both fell ill this week but have fortunately tested negative for the virus, but they are still not match fit to take the field this afternoon. Good to see Gabriel Martinelli back in the side after the shin injury he picked up against Manchester City four days ago, but still no start for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who starts this match on the substitutes’ bench after recovering from a calf injury. Let’s go!

A good start from us, with Gabriel Martinelli unlucky in not opening the scoring within the first minute, when his shot went narrowly wide of the Chelsea post. We certainly had the best of the early exchanges with Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney testing the Chelsea defence with penetrating crosses that the visitors struggled to contain. Mason Mount hit the outside of the post from a free kick that was given away by Granit Xhaka, and we have started to follow the pattern of the past few matches, in allowing the opposition to dominate the spaces that are suddenly appearing in our defence. However, we are catching Chelsea on the break with Emile Smith-Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli getting close with excellent attempts to score. The match is swinging from end-to-end, and after half an hour it would be fair to say that this game is anyone’s to take at the moment, the difference being that we are shooting from close range, whereas Chelsea are tending to take longer range shots, from outside the box. Penalty! Reese James brought down Kieran Tierney, and Alexandre Lacazette scored from the spot to give us the lead with ten minutes of the first half remaining. The penalty certainly fired us up, with our players showing more urgency than the visitors do. Just before the half-time break, Granit Xhaka scored with a superb left-footed free-kick from twenty yards out, that went right over the Chelsea wall, past Edouard Mendy and into the back of the net to give us our second goal of the day. Nice to go into the break two goals ahead for a change!

As expected, Chelsea brought the match to us with several attempts on our goal which was thwarted excellently by our defenders, but amazingly, after fifty-six minutes, Bukayo Saka collected a pass from Emile Smith Rowe, then ran in to the Chelsea penalty area and chipped a shot over the head of Edouard Mendy which bounced off the far post and into the net for our third of the night. Was it a cross or a shot? Who cares, they all count! Eight or so minutes later, Gabriel Martinelli won the ball in midfield, passed it to Kieran Tierney who ran sixty yards with it, crossed the ball into the centre for Gabriel Martinelli to take a shot that Edouard Mendy somehow managed to keep out of the net. Joe Willock replaced Emile Smith-Rowe after sixty-five minutes, and five minutes later, Nicolas Pépé replaced an exhauseted Gabriel Martinelli to give Arsenal extra legs for the final twenty mintues of the game. The visitors came forward time and time again and tested our defence constantly, but they held firm throuhgout. And still we kept on trying to score more goals, our hunger there for all to see at last. Alxandre Lacazette capitalised on a mistake by Edouard Mendy and was unlucky not to score, and a minute or so later, Mohamed Elneny hit the upright. Tammy Abraham got one back for the Blues with five minutes left on the clock, and despite some serious pressure on our goal, including a penalty which was brilliantly saved by Bernd Leno in the second minute of injury time, and Alexandre Lacazette being replaced by Shkodran Mustafi, we held out to take the three points.

How about that, then? Who really saw that one coming? After the games in the past few weeks, this was a revitalised Arsenal, the likes of which no-one saw possible. Everyone played well, in particular Kieran Tierney, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, who never stopped running and constantly poked and probed Chelsea throughout. Let’s hope that we have turned this big beast around and start to move up the table, starting with a win at Brighton on Tuesday evening.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Bighton and Hove Albion at the AMEX Stadium on Tuesday, 29th December at 6.00pm (Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Arsenal (1) 1 Manchester City (1) 4

Carabao Cup Quarter Final

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Tuesday, 22nd December 2020. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Alex Rúnarsson; Cédric Soares, Gabriel Magalhães, Shkodran Mustafi, Sead Kolašinac; Dani Ceballos, Mohamed Elneny; Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Gabriel Martinelli; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno; Kieran Tierney, Nicolas Pépé, Pablo Marí, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith-Rowe, Folarin Balogun.

Scorers: Alexandre Lacazette (31 mins)

Yellow Cards: Mohamed Elneny, Shkodran Mustafi

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 42%

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt and Nick Hopton

Fourth Official: David Coote

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

Sadly we will be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for tonight’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester City because of a calf injury; however, Gabriel Martinelli is back in the starting lineup for the first time since suffering an injury in March Tonight is our twenty-ninth appearance at this stage of this competition, more than any other club, so the omens are good, we hope. Let’s go!

With barely two minutes on the clock, the visitors took the lead with a headed goal from point-blank range by Gabriel Jesus that arrived from a cross via Oleksandr Zinchenko. This could be a long night. Manchester City dominated proceedings, as one would expect; shortly after the goal, Fernandinho got a glimpse of our goal from twenty-five yards and took a shot that went inches wide of the post. Arsenal just could not get out of their own half for any long periods, and when we did, they were dispossessed, and the status quo was maintained. We found it extremely difficult not only to string a series of passes together, but to push on into the City half, as the Mancunians quickly shut our players down and out of the game. Dangerously, we consistently give away repeated free-kicks, and frustration started to creep in, and in doing so, Mohamed Elneny and Shkodran Mustafi were booked for silly challenges. Just after the half hour, totally against the run of play, we broke out of our own half; Gabriel Martinelli took the ball out to the left, crossed it deep into the City penalty area for Alexandre Lacazette to score with a header to equalise matters. With an unexpected goal under our belts, the flavour of the game started to change, as it became a more open contest with both sides probing and testing each other. All to play for now. With five minutes to go before the break, Alex Rúnarsson found himself on a one-to-one situation with Gabriel Jesus, and showed great composure in blocking the shot. Just before half-time, Gabriel Martinelli (our best player of the night), was involved in an incident with Zack Steffan, the City goalie; it looked serious, but he was able to return to the fray after being attended to by the Arsenal coaching staff on the pitch. The half-time whistle went shortly afterwards, and undoubtedly his injury will warrant extra attention in the dressing room.

At the beginning of the second half, Gabriel Martinelli broke down in pain, and was replaced by Nicolas Pépé. The match started to become a wee bit scrappy, with sloppy tackles going in from both sides and passes going astray. Nine minutes after the restart, Riyad Mahrez scored the visitors’ second goal of the night, when his free-kick went over the Arsenal wall and Alex Rúnarsson found it difficult to hold, and pushed it into the net. Five minutes later, City showed their class, when Phil Foden ran onto a ball from Fernandinho, and simply lobbed it over Alex Rúnarsson and into the net. Emile Smith-Rowe came on for Mohamed Elneny with twenty-five minutes of the match remaining, and things sharpened up a bit. Alexandre Lacazette was unlucky when his powerful shot hit the side netting from close range. City got their fourth goal when Phil Foden collected the ball from a short corner and crossed it over into the Arsenal penalty area for Aymeric Laporte to head into the net from point-blank range. After that, we just simply and slowly faded away and ran out of steam. Although we did make some good movements on and off the ball, and Nicolas Pépé was unlucky in not scoring a couple of times, but generally it was a disappointing evening. 

One shot on target all game, and that was the goal. Unbelievable. Although we did have one or two bright spots, overall we were a second-rate outfir for most of the game. Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe stood out, but Manchester City were utterly clinical, and we were comical. It almost seems as if everyone out there are just simply going through the motions, and at times like this, we really need all hands to the wheel. Chelsea are our next visitors on Saturday afternoon, and depending on other results around us, this match could be a turning point for us.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Chelsea at the Emirates on Saturday, 26th December (Boxing Day) at 5.30pm(Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.