There’s just no stopping Set-piece FC! Arsenal performed poorly in Sunday’s crucial Premier League clash with Chelsea at the Emirates, but still managed to eke out a vital 2-1 victory over the 10-man Blues that moves them five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.
Almost inevitably, both of the Gunners’ goals came from corners. William Saliba bagged the first, with the France international getting on the end of a header back across the Chelsea six-yard box from his fellow centre-back, Gabriel Magalhaes.
Funnily enough, the Gunners also scored Chelsea’s goal from a corner, as Piero Hincapie got under an in-swinger from Reece James and unintentionally deflected the ball past Robert Sanchez.
Arsenal were not to be denied, though, and Jurrien Timber nodded home a Declan Rice delivery in the 66th minute. The winning goal came very much against the run of play, but whatever chance Chelsea had of turning the match around ended when Pedro Neto stupidly got himself sent off for picking up two avoidable yellow cards.
GOAL rates all of the Arsenal players at the Emirates as Mikel Arteta’s set-piece specialists took another small but significant step towards the title…
Goalkeeper & Defense
David Raya (8/10):
Made a great reaction stop from a deflected Chelsea corner at his near post and also showed sharp reflexes to deny Joao Pedro. Arsenal’s best player on the day – and that says it all.
Jurrien Timber (7/10):
A real threat going forward in the first half, and although he was given a lot more defensive work to do in the second, he still popped up to restore Arsenal’s lead by heading home their second goal.
William Saliba (7/10):
Broke the deadlock with a close-range header that struck a Chelsea player on the way in, but was lucky to get away with gifting possession to Palmer just after the hour mark and had a couple of other nervy moments up against Joao Pedro.
Gabriel Magalhaes (7/10):
Set up Saliba’s opener with a tremendous leap at the back post and later tried an audacious lob. Didn’t neglect his defensive duties, winning plenty of duels, though he was booked for hauling down Joao Pedro.
Piero Hincapie (5/10):
Made a mess of dealing with James’ in-swinging corner to gift Chelsea an equaliser, but it was his overall performance that should concern Arteta, as the Ecuadorian wasn’t good defensively or offensively.
Midfield
Martin Zubimendi (5/10):
A very rare poor performance from the Spaniard, whose passing was nowhere near as precise as usual, which meant that Arsenal struggled to control the game.
Declan Rice (5/10):
Once again proved an absolute menace with his set-pieces, but while the England international provided good cover at times, he was well off the pace and also incredibly lucky to get away with a handball in the area just before Chelsea’s equaliser. Rightly removed from the fray long before the full-time whistle.
Eberechi Eze (5/10):
A second consecutive Premier League start for Eze after his latest heroics in a north London derby, but the attacking midfielder was absolutely anonymous for an hour before going close to scoring in the closing stages, after Chelsea had been reduced to 10 men.
Attack
Bukayo Saka (5/10):
Lively enough in the first half, creating three chances, but he faded badly after the restart as the game rather passed him by.
Viktor Gyokeres (3/10):
Did not get himself into the game – as underlined by one shot in 76 minutes of ‘action’. Even when he had some space to work with, he repeatedly ran into brick walls – and even desperately threw himself to the floor at one point after being cleanly dispossessed by Sarr.
Leandro Trossard (3/10):
Worked hard to win the ball back but gave it away repeatedly and offered absolutely nothing going forward. No surprise that he was hooked 10 minutes into the second half.
Subs & Manager
Gabriel Martinelli (6/10):
Took over on the left wing from Trossard and it was his run down that provoked Neto’s senseless second yellow card.
Kai Havertz (N/A):
Replaced Gyokeres up front but made no impact.
Christian Norgaard (N/A):
Came on for an exhausted Rice but didn’t help Arsenal get a grip of the game.
Mikel Arteta (5/10):
Picked his strongest side but Arsenal played poorly and were very fortunate that Chelsea were reduced 10 while on top. Arteta deserves credit for turning Arsenal into set-piece specialists, but there really wasn’t much else to them while his substitutions didn’t influence the game in a positive sense at all.
