Arsenal beat Chelsea 5-0 on Tuesday evening to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League.
Leandro Trossard put Arsenal into an early lead, beating Djordje Petrovic at his near post. Chelsea then had some half-chances but failed to convert any of them.
Arsenal doubled their lead in the 52nd minute through Ben White before Kai Havertz added a third just before the hour mark. Havertz then placed a lovely finish into the bottom corner for Arsenal’s fourth before White hit his second of the game when his attempt at a cross ended up in the back of the Chelsea net.
The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell and Liam Twomey analyse a huge win for the home side and the ramifications for both teams.
What psychological advantage does this give Arsenal in the title race?
What a difference six days makes. After Arsenal followed up defeat to Aston Villa with Champions League elimination in Munich, there was a fear that their season may be collapsing again.
But Arsenal blew Chelsea away to seal back-to-back league wins and now sit three points clear at the top of the Premier League. It shows how quickly momentum can change in a title race and on Tuesday night Arsenal looked like a team playing without any of the trepidation which haunted their bid this time last year.
Advertisement
To beat their London rivals this heavily sends a message that they have recovered mentally from their setbacks this month.
Liverpool and Manchester City — the latter being four points behind with two games in hand — are now under pressure to keep pace when they play on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. It may still be in City’s hands, but having points on the board rather than extra games carries psychological weight.
Arsenal have given their rivals something else to think about too: they are now 13 ahead of Liverpool and 12 ahead of City on goal difference, which is as good as an extra point at this stage in the season.
Jordan Campbell
Should there be question marks over Petrovic’s place?
If the goal from Trossard that got Arsenal’s party started inside four minutes at the Emirates Stadium looks familiar, it might be because Petrovic was beaten at his near post in similar circumstances by Jayden Bogle against Sheffield United three weeks ago.
On one level, it feels unduly harsh to focus on Petrovic’s contribution to Arsenal’s opening goal: Alfie Gilchrist was left woefully exposed to the surging run of Declan Rice and an overlapping Trossard, with Noni Madueke and Enzo Fernandez nowhere near to offer any protection.
But there was also no way Trossard should have been able to score himself from such a position, and the goal which set the tone for Arsenal also deepened the sense that costly errors have begun to creep into Petrovic’s game in his first season of Premier League football.
That should not be a surprise. Petrovic was playing in Major League Soccer nine months ago and was not even bought to be Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper. Injury to Robert Sanchez gave him his chance and, for an extended run of matches, he seized it admirably.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that one of the few positions in this Chelsea team which felt reasonably settled is no longer the case. Sanchez has been far from convincing in his Premier League minutes either, but the competence gap between him and Petrovic is harder to see now.
Liam Twomey
Did this game secure Havertz’s place and position?
Kai Havertz is Mikel Arteta’s favourite chess piece to move around, but his classy double should see his role as the centre-forward of the team protected like the king of the board from now until the end of the season.
The way he timed his run for the opening goal, using his body to hold off Marc Cucurella before lifting it into the roof of the net, showed the instincts of a natural striker.
Advertisement
His second goal, a smart reverse finish after peeling off to the edge of the box, was the act of a player feeling completely at ease in his team.
It was hard to imagine that being the case in the first half of the season as Havertz played within himself as the left-sided No 8 in Arteta’s team. But if the last five games have shown anything, it is that the German is most effective as the No 9.
Having started Havertz there seven games in a row, Arteta tinkered with it against Villa by bringing in Gabriel Jesus and dropping the German back into midfield. He has moved him back and forth the last five games but while Havertz can break from deep, his all-round game makes Arsenal a more complete team when leading the line.
The forward could have had two more goals had his decision-making been better on the break in the first half — but with Havertz having 12 goals to his name, Arteta would now be brave to move him again.
Jordan Campbell
Why did Mudryk struggle to make an impact?
On one hand (and only one), Mykhailo Mudryk’s first-half performance was impressive: he managed to exist almost entirely in pockets of the Emirates pitch which offered Cucurella no protection against Arsenal’s notoriously dangerous right flank and yet also prevented him from providing any form of outlet for Chelsea’s counter-attacks.
Nearing the end of his first full season in Premier League football, Mudryk still appears startlingly unclear of where to be — and when — in Mauricio Pochettino’s system. It frequently makes him a hindrance to Chelsea in possession and prevents him from leveraging his otherworldly speed anywhere near as much as he should.
It also often makes him a liability when his team is defending. Cucurella battled admirably against overwhelming odds (and often numbers) against Arsenal, while Mudryk’s lack of support was so starkly obvious that Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo were frequently required to make long shuttling runs over to the touchline.
Then there was the short corner that yielded Arsenal’s second goal in the 52nd minute. Mudryk watched play develop (along with several team-mates) rather than try to intervene.
Mudryk has incredibly special physical and technical tools, but his glaring lack of understanding makes it easy to see why this was only his 13th start in the Premier League this season. He remains that scariest of things: a £62million ($77.2m) development project who is 23 — not 19 — with time and expectation working firmly against him.
Liam Twomey
What did the managers say?
Mikel Arteta was hopeful the result would have a positive impact on the rest of the season. He said: “It is a big London derby and we know what it means for the fans. We will enjoy it and rest and get ready for the next one.
“What I would like is that the players can manage themselves in the dressing room. You have to leave them some space. They know what they are playing for. That’s what holds the team together. My role is to demand of them and also in the right moments make them believe they can do it.
Advertisement
“We have a lot of games coming up. Let’s enjoy tonight and let’s go back to work.”
Mauricio Pochettino blamed a slow start and said: “I think we started the game not so well. We concede the goal and then it was difficult for us to recover from this goal.
“I think in the first half we compete after 10, 15 minutes. We could not approach the game like we started in the first half and we didn’t compete the way we needed to compete and then when they scored the third it was easy for Arsenal to control the game.
“I think you need to be clinical. Like against Manchester City three days ago, we were not clinical and then today the same thing happened. Difficult performance because it is not nice to see your team play like this when you are meant to have full energy. After three days when you play a fantastic game against Manchester City, today we are disappointed with the performance.”
What next for Arsenal?
Sunday, April 28: Tottenham (A), Premier League, 2pm BST, 9am ET
A north London derby in the final month of the season with one side going for the title and the other needing the three points to help keep their Champions League qualification hopes alive? Oh, go on then.
Arsenal are unbeaten in three meetings with Spurs, but they dropped two points in September’s reverse fixture, going in front twice but having to settle for a 2-2 draw.
What next for Chelsea?
Saturday, April 27: Aston Villa (A), Premier League, 8pm BST, 3pm ET
A fourth meeting of the season between these two, after an FA Cup fourth-round tie that needed a replay (remember those?). Villa won the first, a league match at Stamford Bridge, 1-0 in September, then drew 0-0 there in the original tie in late January, but Chelsea beat them 3-1 at Villa Park just over a week later.
Recommended reading
- Same old Wembley performance for Chelsea. Something needs to change — is it the manager?
- Leandro Trossard: The two-footed ‘magician’ adding an extra dimension to Arsenal’s attack
- The way to sum up every Premier League team’s attacking style – how they get the ball into the box
- Which of Europe’s top leagues are the most competitive? We had a go at measuring it…
(Top photo: Getty Images)