Gunners slam the door shut to frustrate Blues
MARTIN SAMUEL
BY the time this tie is decided, Arsene Wenger will be back where he belongs. This cannot have been the most comfortable evening for him, hustled into the press box, flanked by minders, courtesy of his touchline ban.
Wenger is so experienced at being barred from the dugout, he even knows his preferred view from the naughty chair here.
He didn’t like the second tier last time — too complicated getting down to the dressing rooms. Told the proximity of the team area to the press box, he opted for that instead, taking his place alongside people who had variously told him to quit, stand down or that his era at Arsenal had run its course.
A goalless draw at Chelsea was not the most defiant riposte, but nor was it a white flag of surrender. With the return leg at the Emirates in two weeks’ time, Arsenal are more than in this.
Much will depend, of course, on the team Wenger is able to field. Will Alexis Sanchez be at Manchester City by then? Will Jack Wilshere be fit having left the field injured after 57 minutes?
Chelsea had the best of it, not least in the second half when they came out with renewed purpose. Andreas Christensen should have scored with a free header at the far post after David Ospina had come for the ball and found his way blocked, while Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso both came close with shots.
The fact remains, though, that in the present climate this was a better result for Arsenal than Chelsea — and a victory of sorts for Wenger when Eden Hazard was replaced by Tiemoue Bakayoko with roughly ten minutes to go. A concession by Antonio Conte that Plan A had failed.
Perhaps it would do a number of managers good to observe a game from the press box. Dispel a few myths about them.
You know how we imagine Wenger has this benign, impassive view of his players. Nothing they do is wrong, it’s always the fault of the referee? It isn’t like that. The shows of emotion — palms slammed down flat on the blue table or a whack on the metal bar that houses the strip lighting — were invariably in reaction to a mistake by Arsenal.
A tame, short free-kick when something more imaginative was called for; some sleepy defending. It seemed to take him a little while to notice he could study every incident on the small TV monitor in front of his seat, too.
For a while, the Chelsea supporters forgot his presence. When they remembered, they mocked him. ‘Arsene Wenger, we want you to stay,’ they chorused, trying to get a reaction.
None came. Not that there was too much to absorb as far as the action went early on. In the second minute, Hazard found Alvaro Morata, who ran out of pitch and hit the side-netting.
From there, it was 20 minutes before either side mustered a shot at goal — and it was equally underwhelming from another big signing. Wilshere put Alexandre Lacazette through, but his shot was hopeless, rash, wild and high. The opposite of what Wenger, or any manager, would have wanted from a marksman. You don’t get much for £50million these days.
Chelsea then enjoyed their best spell, much of it down the right, where Moses had clearly been told to shoot on sight in the vicinity of Ospina. In the 24th minute, he cut inside and struck a shot which the Colombian keeper gathered at the second attempt.
Soon after, same again. Ainsley Maitland-Niles — promising going forward but with plenty to learn about defence — was turned and Moses ran on goal, his shot blocked, only to return to his feet before being hit a second time. Ospina gathered again. In between, N’Golo Kante found Alonso, whose shot deflected wide. This was another match with the safety net of the video referee but its worth came largely in confirming what had not happened, rather than what had.
So, a tussle between Calum Chambers and Cesar Azpilicueta that ended with the Chelsea man on the turf while waiting for an Arsenal corner was judged worthy of a conversation with the pair, no more. And MaitlandNiles’s fall after a challenge by Moses was rightly viewed as the result of evasive action rather than contact. He just fell over on landing. No dive, no foul — play on.
The best chances for both sides came late in the half. For Arsenal, a shot from Iwobi from the edge of the area which Thibaut Courtois saved; for Chelsea, an Azpilicueta through-ball to Cesc Fabregas that should have been a goal but ended in the tamest finish, straight at Ospina. The second half began with more Chelsea pressure. First, that Christensen header at the far post, then a scramble after a Fabregas corner, Alonso close to scoring, finally a shot by Morata that Ospina did well to parry. Wenger looked on intently, although it was noted he had accepted a hot drink from a steward. Quite hospitable at times, the press box.