London, Dec 27
A rejuvenated Arsenal recorded a convincing 3-1 win over Chelsea to bring some relief to their beleaguered manager Mikel Arteta whose side had failed to win a match in the Premier League for nearly two months.
A broadly smiling Arteta said: “It doesn’t get much better than winning a London derby against Chelsea on Boxing Day and hopefully this is a turning point for us and will elevate the confidence of the team because I know they can play at this level.”
He added: “We were really disappointed and frustrated with the results, not so much with the performances but the results. We knew we had to start winning games again and the boys did everything I asked of them. I am pleased for the players and for the supporters. We have let them down for many weeks so it was a good day to give them something to cheer about.” It was a new-look Arsenal side with six changes from the team that lost to Everton the previous week. Arteta said: “It was a good mixture of senior players and young talent. They have shown in the last few weeks they deserved a chance and I had no doubt they would respond today.”
Arsenal out-fought Chelsea throughout the first half and opened the scoring in the 34th minute when Kieran Tierney collected the ball near the corner flag and beat Reece James who then, in recovering, tread on Tierney’s left foot causing him to fall in the box. Alex Lacazette sent Edouard Mendy the wrong way in resulting penalty.
Ten minutes later, N’Golo Kante tripped Bukayo Saka 30 yards out from goal and Granit Xhaka stepped forward for the free-kick to hit a wonderful curling left-footed shot into the top corner. Chelsea had been unlucky when Mason Mount’s free-kick hit the outside of the post with Bernd Leno not even close to getting a hand to the ball.
Chelsea lifted their game in the second half, no doubt, after a stern word from the manager Frank Lampard but Arsenal were well in control with Saka adding a third goal in the 56th minute. After combining with Smith Rowe, Saka drifted a chip, perhaps intending a cross, but it dropped in the net off the far post. If it was intentional, it was just brilliant.
Chelsea got a consolation goal with five minutes remaining after Tammy Abraham’s effort was initially ruled out for the offside and then saw their weak penalty, taken by substitute Jorginho, saved by Leno low to his left.
An understandably unhappy Lampard said: “I’m angry because I want us to win games. It was an opportunity to go second. You get what you deserve, I’m not sure if we were complacent but we were definitely lethargic. You can’t turn up like that in the Premier League. If you’re slow on and off the ball you will have problems.”
Referring to Chelsea’s big-money signing striker Timo Werner who was substituted, Lampard added: “I could have made more substitutions at half-time, but we needed more energy in that area and Timo was not giving us enough, with or without the ball. He needs time but we have to get there quickly.”
Andy Jalil
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