It’s been nearly 20 years since Arsenal have won a Premier League title, and while Manchester City seem well on their way to securing a third-consecutive title and fifth in the last six years, the squad from North London is still attempting to put up a valiant fight.
Arsenal welcomed London rivals Chelsea into Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night as the two squads appear to be heading in opposite directions, at least based on the last few months.
While Chelsea famously swooped in during the January transfer window to nab Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk for a staggering £89 million — with add-ons factored in — and dealt Arsenal a blow in the process, The Gunners rebounded with a few transfers and have kept the ship chugging along.
Funny enough, Arsenal were so desperate for another defensive midfielder that they plucked Jorginho from Chelsea for £12 million on deadline day back in January. To make matters funnier, Jorginho got the start for Arsenal on Tuesday as The Gunners throttled Chelsea 3-1 in front of home supporters.
As a result, Arsenal went back to the top of the Premier League table, albeit having played two more matches than Manchester City.
But a real key for Arsenal in this match was jumping on Chelsea early, and in the process snuffing out any remaining amount of confidence The Blues had.
Chelsea are in the midst of one of the worst runs of form in club history. This loss marked their sixth consecutive defeat, their worst stretch over the last 30 seasons, according to The Short Fuse.
But the story of this match happened early, as Arsenal took the lead in the 18th minute thanks to a goal from captain Martin Ødegaard that was set up nicely by Granit Xhaka.
What has made Arsenal so good this season are the ways they’ve been able to leverage space that opposing back lines have presented to them because of the way Arsenal is able to get the ball vertically up the pitch in half-spaces.
Arsenal generates this goal by playing it to the middle, drawing defenders off of the wing in order to open the pass up, and then Xhaka plays the ball into a running Ødegaard who can just slot it into the upper corner. Yet it’s a little bit more dynamic than that.
Ødegaard notices the space that he’s afforded by the Chelsea defense as he’s running into the box, which is a lot more space than any serviceable defense should ever be giving up to a player.
While Ødegaard isn’t a prolific goal scorer by any means, he’s still found the back of the net 14 times for Arsenal during this Premier League season. He knows how to finish.
Xhaka is given ample space on the ball to read the play and then slides it to Ødegaard as defenders run past the Norweigan. Because of the defenders trying to make up so much ground, the space naturally opens up for Ødegaard to run into, and the goal springs forth as a result.
That’s way too much space for any player at this level to be given. Heck, Ødegaard even had the option, if he wanted to, of laying the ball off to Bukayo Saka on the right side. It probably wouldn’t have been the most prudent decision, but it’s one that would have at least made some semblance of sense.
Arsenal have found a way to pretty much master the cutback, as The Athletic pointed out in great detail back in early March. The initial goal by Ødegaard doesn’t quite meet the criteria of a cutback, but it’s using a lot of the same principles.
After all, it banks on a defense overcommitting to the point where you can slide the ball back across the grain before the defenders can react and change direction in an effort to negate the opportunity. We see that here with the first goal.
You also end up seeing it with the second goal.
And, no, this isn’t a replay of the first one. This is absolutely the second goal that Arsenal scores in the match, which comes off of the very same action as the first one. It’s pretty remarkable, really.
Much like the first goal, the ball works from the wing to the middle, back to the wing, and then is slid directly toward the penalty spot. All while defenders just stand there and watch it happen.
Xhaka registered assists on both the first and the second goals, and we can see him highlighted here as he gets his head up to spot Ødegaard roaming free at the edge of the box, just like last time. And, yet again, no Chelsea defender is anywhere close to Xhaka to make the pass tougher.
That very thing ended up being a central thing in this game: Chelsea just lacked any sense of pride and physicality on the defensive side of the pitch. It was really staggering to watch, but not out of the realm of normalcy considering the way things have gone for them lately.
As Xhaka plays the ball into the box, he threads it perfectly between three Chelsea defenders. The man at the tip of the triangle near the edge of the box is Raheem Sterling.
Sterling, to be blunt, just falls asleep here. As a forward tracking back, you can’t allow yourself to get beat into the box by a midfielder making the same run you’re attempting to stop.
Instead, Sterling just trots into position which allows Ødegaard to cut across into the space between the three defenders, and ultimately finish with yet another deft strike.
Chelsea ended up falling behind 3-0 in the first half before clawing a goal back in the second half, yet it wasn’t enough. Arsenal went on to a 3-1 victory and never looked like they were ever really worried about what Chelsea presented.
That’s the story of the two clubs right now. One is on an upward trajectory, and the other is stuck in a rut as they spend more money and fire managers in an attempt to fix what ails them.
Since sacking Graham Potter in early March, Chelsea have played seven matches in all competitions. They’ve won none of them, and the only positive result they’ve garnered is a nil-nil draw at home against Liverpool.
Chelsea have been outscored 12-2 in the seven contests while being ousted from the Champions League during that time, as well.
The good news for Chelsea is there are only five matches remaining. The bad news is that those five matches are against Bournemouth (A), Nottingham Forest (H), Manchester City (A), Manchester United (A), and Newcastle United (H). There’s a very real chance they could walk away from those five matches with at least four losses.
Chelsea are still nine points above the relegation zone, and they also possess a game-in-hand. However, if they think they’re truly safe from bottoming out completely, then they might be in for a rude awakening. Then again, that alarm bell should have rung much earlier this season.
Arsenal controlled this match overall, as evidenced by the xG (Expected Goal) data, via FotMob. In fact, they crushed Chelsea in terms of xGOT (Expected Goals on Target).
Due to the victory, Arsenal finish the 2022-23 Premier League season by going 10-2-0 (W-D-L) in London derbies. It also made them the first team in English football history to nab 10 London derby wins in a single league campaign. Arsenal took home 32 out of a possible 36 points. Not too bad.
London is truly red.
It was a nice, brisk win for Arsenal after several substandard performances in a row. Now, they have to build off of this to get ready for a trip to St. James’ Park, where Newcastle United awaits them on Sunday.
A win in that environment might still give Arsenal hope that they contend for a Premier League title with a handful of matches to go. Anything less, and the title will be all but clinched for Manchester City.
No pressure.
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