Arsenal 0 Chelsea 1 (Costa 23)
This game turned on a red card and a goal that followed five minutes later.
When Walcott’s cross hit Mikel in the box, Willian got the ball and raced to the halfway line and released the onside Costa with a pass that split Arsenal’s centrebacks.
Mertesacker looked across for the linesman to help him, took his eye off the ball, then mistimed his lunge at the ball and missed it and clipped Costa, who collapsed his legs and fell and then pulled his legs together to facilitate rolling over and over and over and over.
Ref Mark Clattenburg sent Mertesacker off.
GAME OVER IN 18 MINUTES, right there.
Five minutes later a Matic cross squirted off Koscielny and went wide and Ivanovic gathered it and left back Monreal pretended to go across and challenge Ivanovic. Never got near him, merely turned his back and allowed the big Serb to aim a killer ball to the near post.
Dirty Diego guided his sidefoot volley down from three yards, so that the ball bounced before it went just inside the post for 0-1.
Amateurish, flaky play by Wenger’s high-riding pretenders.
You don’t defend like that. Nobody defends like that.
You don’t defend like that unless you’re a pampered multimillionaire who wears a red shirt and white shorts and trains at the Colney Creche, where nobody shouts at you and nobody is accountable, least of all King Wenger, the Greatest Spindoctor in the History of Organised Sport.
How many times have we said a Chelsea-Arsenal match was men against boys?
Arsenal still have a Chelsea complex : they know they can’t beat them.
Why didn’t Sanchez start?
Sanchez was electric when he came on in 57. Immediately it was a different game but we saw the old battle-hardened Chelsea re-emerge and defend with the determination and know-how that Arsenal have lacked since Adams and Dixon retired.
Chelsea sat back on their lead, even against 10 men, and gave themselves a few scares and scrambles by doing that.
Koscielny barged into Fabregas in the box but Clattenburg didn’t give an obvious penalty.
Walcott had led the team out to celebrate his 10 years at AFC? What has Walcott done in those 10 years?
He’s a 26-year-old nearly-man.
Fabregas got Man of the Match and probably deserved it.
Ozil was peripheral but ran a helluva lot.
Flamini-Ramsey-Ozil is NOT a midfield. Never will be, never can be, never should be.
If they play that midfield against Barcelona they’ll get stuffed 7-0 on aggregate.
After 13 minutes I was screaming, “Take Flamini off!”
Giroud has never scored against Chelsea – and never will.
Arsenal have collected two points from their last three games.
Talk of Wenger being given 2 more years is typical of the board and the owner.
Do that if he delivers the title!
This summer: sell Mertesacker, Walcott, Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta.
Give yourself the tools to do the job!
Quote of the game was from Matic: “This today was the real Chelsea.”