Arsenal strengthened their chances of achieving European football for next season with a dogged 1-0 North London Derby victory over a much-changed Chelsea.
Emile Smith-Rowe struck after 12 minutes following a mistake from Jorginho, who was one of seven players brought back into the team by Thomas Tuchel, to gift the Gunners the only goal of the game.
Legacy codeHere are five things we learned from last night at Stamford Bridge:
The Cup final team picks itself
Understandably ahead of Chelsea’s second successive FA Cup final this weekend against Leicester City, Thomas Tuchel made seven changes to the team that beat Manchester City at the weekend.
Most notably in came Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz, Kurt Zouma and Jorginho and after their displays on Wednesday night, Tuchel would certainly not be forgiven for not selecting them for the final at Wembley.
Zouma at times struggled to show the same dominance that Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen have shown in recent weeks, Kai Havertz was guilty of missing a few good opportunities and Jorginho’s error was ultimately what cost Chelsea.
Expect to see N’Golo Kante, Timo Werner and Rudiger all back in the starting XI on Saturday with none of their replacements from the defeat to Arsenal staking their claim to be in the thoughts of the German for the weekend’s game.
An Error-riddled first half
On the whole the opening 45 minutes at Stamford Bridge was cagey to say the least, neither side were too keen to take a chance and despite no major risks being taken, mistakes were aplenty.
12 minutes in a poor touch by Pablo Mari at the back was pounced on by Kai Havertz but the German couldn’t capitalise on the mistake, lofting his effort over the bar.
However, just four minutes later Arsenal made no mistake from an unforced error.
Under no pressure at all, Jorginho misplaced a back pass which forced Kepa Arizzabalaga to claw the ball off the line, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reacted quickly to pull back for Emile Smith-Rowe who slotted the ball home.
With Arsenal ahead it was now about soaking up the Chelsea pressure and aiming to go in at half time ahead – Bukayo Saka though very nearly unnecessarily cost his team a goal.
A hopeful through ball to Ben Chilwell looked as though it would be shielded out of play by Saka but the Chelsea left back kept play alive and very nearly set up Mason Mount but Bernd Leno did well to parry the cross away from danger.
Arsenal’s commendable grit and determination
Considering the differing fortunes of these two teams recently, not many would have predicted Arsenal would leave Stamford Bridge with all three points, but following some incredible and resilient defending that was exactly what they did.
Despite the majority of the play going Chelsea’s way Pablo Mari, Rob Holding and Gabriel didn’t have too much last-ditch defending to do and that was because of the tireless midfield pivot of Mohammed Elneny and Thomas Partey.
Both midfielders have had their fair share of criticism but under the lights in West London they were absolutely everywhere, limiting the busy Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount to half chances at best.
Bernd Leno should also take some praise as he excelled pure tranquillity in the Arsenal goal, making important saves when called upon and communicating effectively to his backline.
Many Arsenal fans will be asking where were these kind of performances against Villareal or in previous games throughout the season, but they’ve earnt an unlikely three points and it keeps their European football pipe dream alive for another week.
Bukayo Saka is a waste at wing-back
In the reverse fixture between these two teams which feels like a lifetime ago, Bukayo Saka tormented the Chelsea defenders, however at Stamford Bridge he was simply a spectator.
With the Gunners matching their opponent’s formation in this game, deploying a back five and having two creative midfielders buzzing around behind the frontman, Saka was forced to try and impact the game from right wing-back.
For most of the first half, Ben Chilwell – who was pushing high up on the Blues left – was forcing the 19-year-old to remain closer to his own goal than the one occupied by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Saka was unable to get any crosses in and the majority of his successful passes came in the Arsenal half.
After 66 minutes the decision was made by Mikael Arteta to bring on the more defensive Hector Bellerin in that position – although he went off injured before the end – but what was somewhat surprising was Saka not then moving into one of those free roaming positions behind the striker.
Despite his goal Emile Smith-Rowe struggled to get into the action and Martin Odegaard was the same, meaning Saka certainly could’ve been a good option to spice things up further forward.
Olivier Giroud should have started
After just 20 minutes had been played in the second half, Thomas Tuchel had seen enough and decided to introduce a recognised striker in Olivier Giroud and ultimately the Frenchman probably should have started the game.
In the time he was on the pitch, Giroud had some very good chances but really showed a striker who had only played a handful of minutes in the last few months.
With players being rested for the final on Saturday anyway, starting the veteran striker against his former club may have been the correct decision.
In those 45 minutes, Giroud could’ve had the opportunity to remove the proverbial cob webs on his boots and come out firing for the second half.
Also, with Arsenal playing a fairly deep line it would’ve made sense to have a target man who could bring Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic into the game more.
However, Kai Havertz was the main at the tip of the Blues formation but most-definitely struggled in that position and was most likely one of the decisions that cost Chelsea.
