Mikel Arteta made some bold changes to his starting XI for the visit of Chelsea but remained loyal to his captain – who influenced a crucial win that will hopefully bring some much-needed life back into Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge.
Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta both decided to give a player a surprise start against their former club on Tuesday evening as Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-1.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was brought back into the starting XI for the first time in the league since this very fixture at Stamford Bridge as the Chelsea caretaker boss sought to bring a focal point to his attack by including a player with a point to prove, giving us a potential tasty narrative in the process. The other man brought in was ex-Blue, Jorginho, who replaced the out-of-form Thomas Partey. The narrative was lacking in comparison, but there was still an opportunity for it to be a little bit juicy.
After watching his side’s title challenge fall by the wayside in recent weeks, Arteta made some changes that would hopefully bring a more assured performance. Jakub Kiwior came in for his first Premier League start against a team lacking any sort of bite in the final third, while Leandro Trossard started ahead of Gabriel Martinelli – who was the unfortunate one in the undroppable front three to in fact be dropped to the bench.
With Manchester City back on top, Arsenal needed a win, and coming up against this Chelsea side was a perfect opportunity. The Arsenal of last season might have lost this game – like they did against Brighton in April last season with the Seagulls on a seven-match winless run – but their depth and mentality are a lot better this year.
There were one or two signs of nerves and a lack of confidence with Oleksandr Zinchenko sacrificing possession on a number of occasions early on. Luckily for him, Chelsea were treating the ball like a hot potato and clearly wanted nothing to do with it. Some anxiety was gone after 18 minutes thanks to Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, who scored an absolute peach, made a lot better by the fact Kepa Arrizabalaga tipped it onto the underside of the bar. The skiff off the woodwork really does add a chef’s kiss, doesn’t it?
Chelsea reacted relatively well to going behind and should have equalised with their first touch in the opposition box as Ben Chilwell was denied by Aaron Ramsdale. After a positive 13 minutes for the visitors, Odegaard grabbed his second and gave the Gunners a two-goal…
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