Key events
David Hytner
Match report: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
The first heavyweight encounter of the Premier League season was previewed in some quarters as the immovable object versus the irresistible force. Arsenal do not give an inch. Chelsea have been fun and free-scoring under Xabi Alonso. Yet that overlooked something pretty fundamental. The percussive force of Arsenal’s game when they have the ball and want to make something happen.
Chelsea landed a significant blow after 77 seconds when Morgan Rogers put them in front with nicely executed volley from the edge of the area. It was not only the first goal that Arsenal have conceded this season but one with rich narrative strands. Rogers was chased by Arsenal over the summer only to join Chelsea for £117m.
The story here was about Arsenal’s reaction. The sheer fury of it. For a blistering spell that culminated in Kai Havertz’s equaliser on 25 minutes, they threatened to blow Chelsea off the pitch. Arsenal’s confidence shone through. They had not lost to their cross-town rivals in eleven previous meetings in all competitions, winning eight, but it was rooted in more than that. They had too much for Chelsea and they knew it.
Arsenal FC have had a good day at two offices
Arsenal reaction
Martin Odegaard
Big game, tough opponent, really hard for us and we got there in the end.
Conceding early is never ideal but the reaction was top and I thought we played really well. It was a brilliant performance.
We showed our quality with and without the ball; I think the result reflects that.
[Kai Havertz] is a really smart player – he moves so well and takes so much of the defenders’ attention.
Ezri Konsa
I felt at home from the moment I joined. Buzzing to make my debut at home and three points is the most important thing.
[On going behind] It’s part of football and what matters is how you react. We reacted fantastically. On another day I think we score three or four.
[On his tackle on Morgan Rogers] I thought: ‘If I’m going, I’m going all-in.’ It got the crowd going. If you get it wrong, it’s bad, but when you get it right it’s a good feeling.
Three games down, 35 to go. But the top two might be set in stone.
That’s a fine victory for Arsenal, who recovered from the shock of Morgan Rogers’ 2nd-minute goal to dominate a dangerous opponent. Kai Havertz equalised and then made the winner for Martin Odegaard with a gorgeous dummy.
Chelsea can take some positives, but they will lament a lack of precision and concentration in the final third. Yet they almost grabbed a point when Estevao’s late sizzler was beautifully saved by David Raya.
Full time: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
A roar of satisfaction echoes round the Emirates Stadium!
90+4 min It’s now or never for Chelsea Football Club FC.
90+1 min “I think your two Arsenal statement victories are the big ones but I’d put two against Real Madrid in as well,” writes Will Vignoles. “The leg in Madrid in the run to the final with that Henry goal and a defence led by Pascal Cygan, and then the Declan Rice game where Arsenal maybe ceased to be the punchline of European football and were taken seriously in the continent again.”
Was the first one a statement win or just joyously unexpected? Agree completely on the second though. In a way, even though they lost, the semi-final second leg in Paris that season was almost a statement performance too.
90 min Four minutes of added time.
90 min: Arsenal substitution Noni Madueke replaces the excellently Bukayo Saka.
89 min: Fine save by David Raya!
Estevao charges inside from the right, lolloping Hincapie into irrelevance, and blasts a rising curler from the edge of the area. Raya leaps to his right and brushes it over the bar with his left hand. That is a seriously good save, the best of the match by a distance.
88 min James wallops a free-kick from 30 yards that flattens Declan Rice on the edge of the area. He gets straight to his feet, but I wouldn’t fancy his chance of doing any long division for next couple of minutes.
87 min: Chelsea substitution Danny Welbeck, once of this parish, replace Morgan Rogers.
87 min Arsenal love defending a one-goal lead and they have settled into a familiar 4-4-2 shape without the ball.
Joao Pedro turns smartly and is fouled 30 yards from goal by Zubimendi, who should probably be booked but isn’t.
83 min Rogers finds Palmer, tries to back up the play and is deliberately tripped off the ball by Rice. Palmer shoots wide from a tight angle, at which point Rogers kicks off with Rice. He’s got a point – it should have been a free-kick and a yellow card.
Instead, Rogers is the one who gets booked for pushing Rice.
82 min “Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game, where Arsenal got absolutely larruped by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, was definitely a statement of some kind,” writes James Humphries. “‘God is dead’, maybe.”
81 min: Chelsea substitution Estevao comes on for Joao Pedro, who had a frustratingly woolly game.
[Edit: what the hell was I on about? Estevao came on for Pedro Neto.]
81 min “I like the cut of Chris Finnegan’s jib (69 min),” writes Matt Dony. “Let’s found the Campaign for the Limitation and Inhibition of Tzolis Over Real Impact Statistics. Not sure about the acronym, though.
80 min Arsenal’s next four games are away from home: Napoli, Sunderland, Ipswich (in the Carabao Cup) and Brighton.
Chelsea are home to Leeds (Carabao Cup) and Hull before visiting Brentford.
78 min: Arsenal substitutions Viktor Gyokeres and Mikel Merinoi replace Kai Havertz, who gave a masterclass in subtle centre-forward play, and the potential matchwinner Martin Odegaard.
76 min A Chelsea corner is headed away by Gabriel as far as James, 25 yards out. He pings a sweet shot that is headed away with masochistic glee by – you got it – Gabriel on the six-yard line.
74 min Now my ADHD brain wants to know – and share – Arsenal’s greatest statement performances. Old Trafford 1998 feels like the ultimate; Anfield 2001 would also be high on the list.
73 min It’s maybe a little excessive to call this a statement performance from Arsenal – but it has been a compelling assertion of their current supremacy, even more so because they went 1-0 down inside two minutes.
72 min Saka’s delicious corner takes a couple of ricochets at the near post and is grabbed on the line by Martinez. He was already on his back, not sure why, so he was fortunate the ball came straight to him.
70 min The resulting corner is flicked on by Havertz and then headed across goal and wide by a Chelsea defender.
Havertz has been majestic today, the player of the match for my GBP.
69 min: Good save! Havertz produces a deft flick through to legs of a defender to release Saka, who curls a thrilling first-time shot from the edge of the area. Martinez flies to his right to paw it round the post.
69 min Chris Finnegan emailed to suggest the assist for Odegaard’s goal should go to Havertz rather than Tzolis. I privately agreed, to which Chris responded thus:
Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard and we hit it fast with a major – and I mean major – leafleting campaign.
Can’t we just keep yelling at that bloody cloud?
67 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Piero Hincapie and Martin Zubimendi replace Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
63 min Palmer controls the ball deftly on the run and lifts a right-foot shot from 15 yards. It’s too close to Raya but Chelea are playing much better now.
Moments later, Raya dives bravely and decisively at the feet of Acheampong, who was moving onto Joao Pedro’s cute through pass.
62 min “Long way to go,” writes Colum Farrelly, “but there’s an impression that Arsenal know what they’re doing as a team while Chelsea are made up of skilful players recently introduced to each other.”
If it looks like a duck…
61 min Pedro Neto, who has been Chelsea’s best attacker from right wing-back, tees up Gusto on the edge of the area. He whips a first-time shot over the bar.
60 min: Double substitution for Chelsea Pep Chavarria and Malo Gusto replace Jorrel Hato and a visibly frustrated Romeo Lavia. Chelsea’s central midfielders are now Gusto and Reece James.
59 min Oh go on then.
It’s more than a little unfair that, when it comes to innovation, Sam Allardyce is mainly remembered for bringing the 568ml glass of white wine into the mainstream. He was the first to regularly play 4-3-3 in the Premier League; he was also one of the first to build cosmopolitan teams and to find marginal gains through nutrition, fitness, physiotherapy and data analysis.
Even on a micro level, he rarely missed a trick when it came to maximising results. So when Fifa and Ifab issued new guidelines for the interpretation of the offside law in late 2003, introducing alien concepts like ‘phase of play’, ‘active’ and ‘passive’, Allardyce’s brain became extremely active.
58 min Chelsea are having a decent spell of possession, perhaps their best of the match. A promising move ends when Acheampong’s cross is well claimed on the stretch by David Raya.
Arsenal break and Lacroix is booked for a foul on Tzolis. In fact, Tzolis has also been booked for waving an imaginary card.
56 min Palmer releases Rogers on the left. His heavy touch invites Konsa to make the kind of full-pelt lunging challenge that defenders love. He gets it spot on and the home crowd cheer lustily.