Having sobered up from what was a decent local away day out to West London, I am in reflective mood this morning. My sunrise yoga session really cleared my mind and forced me to consider yesterdays result.
Was it a great result for The Arsenal? Or was it another away day failure against a top side? And more specifically, another
Having been spanked against Liverpool, and lost away to Stoke, Arsenal were finding themselves adrift in the title race before it even begun. Before yesterday’s game, we were already 7 points behind Manchester City.
A draw brings that in to 6, not a big difference, but that is just a couple of games. It also keeps us just 3 points behind Chelsea in 3rd, and a single point behind Liverpool and Spurs.
Defeat would have been a disaster. It would have meant 2 wins from the first 5 games. A draw is a brilliant result compared to recent games away to top sides in the Premier League.
And it was not just the result, but the performance. We put in a brilliant defensive display, restricting Chelsea to just 1 decent chance. Alvaro Morata was anonymous, and Chelsea showed how much they struggle without Eden Hazard on the field.
At the other end, we were a threat. We hit the post, carved out a handful of chances of our own, and had that goal disallowed. We proved that we can compete with the best teams in the league, even if on this occasion we did not beat them.
A lot will be made of our poor record, but in the last 4 games against Chelsea in all competitions, home and away, we have now W 3 D 1 L 1. Not a bad record!
It is another tough game with a line through it. We always lose to Liverpool, Stoke and Chelsea away, so getting a draw from those 3 games is better than we usually expect.
With home games against WBA and Brighton, and a trip to Watford, coming up, this draw sets us up nicely to start building an unbeaten run. 3 wins from those 3 games will take us to 5 unbeaten. We then visit a poor Everton side before hosting Swansea City.
The draw against Chelsea could be a catalyst which could lead us to winning all 5 of those upcoming games. It will mean we go into the game against Manchester City on an unbeaten 7 game run, and hopefully closer to them in the table than we are now. Hell, beat City and there is a good chance we will find ourselves above them.
The performance also showed no sign of fatigue after the Thursday late-late night game against Koln in the Europa League. That should give us confidence going into further Sunday games.
On the other side of the coin, Arsenal’s poor record away from home against big sides is well documented.
Yesterday’s draw just adds to this poor record.
It is another game Arsenal failed to win, another game Arsenal failed to score in. And it leaves us 6 points behind the Manchester clubs in the league table.
Since Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea, Arsenal’s record at Stamford Bridge has been atrocious.
P 14 W 2 D 3 L 9 F 11 A 27
And 5 of those 11 goals we scored against Chelsea were in a single game.
Yesterday was yet another game without a victory at Stamford Bridge. And another day we failed to score against them.
Since we beat Chelsea 5-3 way back in 2011, Arsenal have scored just 2 goals in 6 games. Yesterday’s 0-0 is part of that run. History will show it is another game Arsenal failed to win, another game Arsenal failed to score.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
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