ARTETA’S AGONY
Arsenal blow it after Leno’s gaffe triggers implosion
MIKEL ARTETA was seven minutes plus stoppage time from victory and what a delicious moment of triumph it would have been for the new boss in his first home game in charge.
One which would surely galvanise Arsenal, restore confidence and help a beleaguered squad reconnect with the disillusioned masses.
then Bernd Leno vacated his goal in an attempt to punch clear a high free-kick from Mason Mount and relieve the pressure building on his makeshift defence.
It was a horrible misjudgment. He swiped at thin air and the ball sailed on to the feet of Jorginho, who nursed it into an empty net.
Arteta put his hands to his head and assumed the stance popularised by predecessor Unai Emery.
Like almost everyone else inside the Emirates, he thought Jorginho should have been dismissed for a second caution moments earlier, when Chelsea’s Italian midfielder hauled down Matteo Guendouzi to halt a promising attack.
Yellow cards had been flourished throughout by referee Craig Pawson for similar offences yet, this time, he let it ride and booked Alexandre Lacazette for dissent.
VAr has no right to butt in on a yellow card and Jorginho won the free-kick which led to Leno’s error. He was on the spot to cancel out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first-half opener.
Worse followed for Arteta as Arsenal refused to settle for what would have been a useful point and poured forward only to be stung on the break four minutes later.
Chelsea erupted from their own penalty area and killed the contest with a clinical finish on the turn by tammy Abraham after a fine combination with Willian.
Welcome to Arsenal, Mikel. From the jaws of victory, a crushing defeat to a side who had been unable to take a single point from a losing position in the first 19 games of the Premier League season. How it must have smarted to see Frank Lampard and his players celebrate in front of the travelling fans.
Chelsea have won on enemy turf at tottenham and Arsenal during this festive season. At Spurs, they were excellent, dominated from the start and won with style.
Here, they showed character and desire having been outplayed for the opening half hour.
Lampard revealed that a fiery half-time inquest had sparked their comeback.
‘You don’t want 11 quiet players,’ he said. ‘I said my piece and was pretty firm because you can’t just come here and having nothing about you and think you’re going to get anything.
‘the lads started talking and it was a bit aggressive, which is a good thing.’
Lampard played his part with influential tactical changes, abandoning his back three before half-time and sending on Jorginho to establish control in midfield.
In the second half, he released 19-year-old full-back tariq Lamptey and his pace tested the legs of Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, 18, who was deputising at left-back and starting to flag.
Chelsea are erratic; they have lost at home to West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton during the run of two wins in seven games which preceded this match. But they are in the top four at the turn of the year, Abraham has a dozen goals in the Premier League and they are back in the transfer market with money to spend when it opens for business on Wednesday.
Arsenal are bumping around in the bottom half with one win in 15 games, four home defeats in a row and Burnley and Newcastle for company in the Premier League table.
there has been no bounce for Arteta, Manchester United are next on New Year’s Day and an injury crisis deepened when Calum Chambers was forced off in the first half after twisting his left knee in a tangle with Abraham.
All of which seemed a long way removed from the mood in the first half when Arsenal lifted the home crowd with their fluent, high-energy football and took the lead in 13 minutes.
Chambers beat Fikayo tomori in the air to flick on a corner taken by Mesut Ozil and Aubameyang stole ahead of Emerson to find the net with a diving header, his 13th league goal of the season.
they might have scored more but lost momentum during a long stoppage for the Chambers injury.
Jorginho’s introduction helped Chelsea find a way back into the contest, but it was in the closing stages when his impact was greatest, courtesy of a lenient decision by the referee and a dreadful error by Leno.
Asked if Jorginho should have been sent off in the first place, Arteta said curtly: ‘For me, it was very clear. that is it. We have to go game by game, step by step, and if we got the result we wanted, we would be talking about something very different.’