ED MASTER GIVES BLUES WHAT FOUR
Nketiah rocks Chelsea and hands Gunners Euro lift
JUST when you thought they had blown it, Arsenal produced the most unlikely of victories from a six-goal thriller.
Suddenly, Mikel Arteta can dream about finishing in the top four again as the Gunners ended a run of three straight defeats in a crazy, rollercoaster London derby at Stamford Bridge.
Eddie Nketiah had not scored in the Premier League for 367 days, then suddenly produced two goals in one night as Chelsea’s kamikaze defending saw them self-implode again.
The Blues have now conceded 11 times in their last three home games: four against Brentford, three against Real Madrid and four more against a team which had forgotten how to score.
Bukayo Saka completed the win with an injury-time penalty, as the winger scored his first spot-kick since that devastating miss at the Euros final.
The goal rush started after just 13 minutes when Andreas Christensen got himself into a mess, dropped a back pass horribly short to let in Nketiah. He raced clear before slotting the ball past keeper Edouard Mendy.
But as good as Nketiah was going forward, the striker made a mistake for Chelsea’s 18th-minute leveller.
His careless pass was nicked by Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the ball broke to Timo Werner, and his shot deflected off Granit Xhaka to wrongfoot keeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Arsenal were back in front after 27 minutes. Xhaka dribbled out of his own penalty box, nutmegged Marcos Alonso on his way and then launched a terrific counterattack.
Saka and Martin Odegaard combined nicely, the Norway midfielder found Emile Smith Rowe, and the Arsenal No.10 scored with a calm and composed finish, as he almost passed the ball into the bottom corner.
Surely the visitors could not blow it again? They could. Five minutes later, Mason Mount put over a near-post cross, Cesar Azpilicueta nipped in and squeezed a low shot past Ramsdale.
Smith Rowe produced another stunning piece of skill before firing just wide and Werner looked so dangerous every time he got the ball.
Clearly, Thomas Tuchel had seen enough and hooked Christensen at half time to bring on Thiago Silva for his experience to calm and steady Chelsea’s nervy defence.
But even that did not solve matters. Azpilicueta gave the ball away, Nuno Tavares bombed forward down the left, his cross causing chaos in the Chelsea box. The ball broke to Nketiah, who poked home a third for Arsenal.
There was time for more drama as Azpilicueta pulled down Saka in the box. Up stepped Saka to convert the kick and the only shame was that the stadium only had 32,249 inside because of Government sanctions.
At the final whistle, Azpilicueta confronted some fans in the crowd, with both him and the supporters exchanging words, before one of them was seen asking for his shirt.