UNAI’S BLUES
Alonso piles on misery for new Gunners gaffer
Marcos Alonso added to Unai Emery’s miserable start as Arsenal boss and insisted his Chelsea side were well worth their win.
New Blues gaffer Maurizio Sarri made it two victories from two with Alonso netting a late winner.
The Stamford Bridge men were 2- 0 up after 20 minutes following strikes from Pedro and Alvaro Morata, which came either side of Gunners striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang mi s sing an open goal.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan reduced the deficit in the 37th minute and Alex Iwobi equalised four minutes later for Arsenal.
But Alonso slotted home from substitute Eden Hazard’s assist in the 81st minute as Chelsea continued their impressive start to the campaign under Sarri.
Alonso said: “We definitely deserved that. The first half was half and half, we dominated and then lost a bit of space.
“But in the second half we were the better team and we deserved the three points.”
This was a heavyweight Premier League clash for the managerial newcomers Sarri and Emery – and they were provided with plenty of food for thought a f ter an engrossing 90 minutes.
Emery is perpetual motion in his technical area, pacing it constantly from almost the first minute, a blur of gesticulations and dramatic effect with cajoling and encouragement throughout.
The Spaniard is still trying to put his imprint on this Arsenal team after the end of Arsene Wenger’s 22-year reign and he is very obviously a hands-on figure.
Sarri, dressed casually in a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, was far less animated than Emery but was still keen to get his message across and it is already clear he is determined to repeat the brand of attacking play that made his reputation in Italy.
Manchester City went ahead
against the Gunners after 14 minutes last week, and Chelsea needed just nine to find the net, with Pedro finishing from 12 yards after being teed up by Alonso.
It was 2-0 after 20 minutes when Morata turned away f rom Shkodran Mustafi and fired low past Petr Cech, just a minute after Aubameyang, starting as the lone striker once more, had blazed over the bar with the goal gaping.
Mkhitaryan produced almost a carbon copy of Aubameyang’s miss but made amends with a fine left-footed strike to get the visitors back into the game.
And Iwobi thumped high into the net from the Armenia winger’s cross to level the scores before the break and leave the home crowd shell-shocked.
The Blues suddenly looked in disarray and could have been behind heading into half-time had Aubameyang and Iwobi been more accurate when finding space among a ragged Chelsea defence. It was Sarri’s men who looked the most likely to break the deadlock in a more scrappy second half, though. And they did just that in 81 minutes, as Alonso finished with aplomb following fine work from substitute Hazard. A defiant Emery said: “It is clear the result is not good for us but the process is continuing.
“We had chances to score more in the first half after we fought back well.
“We need to control the second half like we want but we didn’t play like we did in the first half and we had less chances. We need to continue working.”
Meanwhile, Sarri was delighted with the result and performance of his Blues.
He said: “In this period for us it’s not easy to gain points.
“Three points is an important target for us. We did very well for 75 minutes but, inside that 15 minutes in the first half , we were horrible. In the second half we did very well mentally.”