Arsenal find steel to deny Chelsea twice after Luiz dismissal
There are major changes to style, mindset and general team culture that Mikel Arteta must effect if he is to revive Arsenal as a great force in English football, but a single key takeaway on this compelling night felt like a start: one Shkodran Mustafi calamity is not the end of all hope.
Somehow they came back from it, a familiar trope that it is almost always a preface to disaster, on this occasion a dreadful back-pass from their German centre-back that led to a dreadful decision by David Luiz, that led to a red card for the Brazilian. Arsenal were 28 minutes in, one goal behind, just 10 men left on the pitch and had Mustafi offered to cancel his contract there and then, one suspects a few away supporters would have preferred to battle on with nine.
Yet a strange thing then happened, and it did Arteta great credit that a steeliness hitherto absent in this Arsenal side surprised everyone, not least their opponents, who have now conceded 11 goals in the last 15 minutes of league games this season. There was plenty more before it came to that dramatic Hector Bellerin equaliser after 87 minutes, during which the home side twice took the lead only to lose it on both occasions.
Questions for Frank Lampard, whose Chelsea side were vulnerable once again and fell victim for the first Arsenal goal to a slip from N’golo Kante that can haunt a manager for its sheer misfortune. It allowed in the game’s outstanding player, the 18-year-old Gabriel Martinelli, who had run with the ball deep from his own half and, after Kante slipped over, beat Kepa Arrizabalaga with the composure of a born finisher.
The Brazilian had so nearly come off in the reorganisation that followed Luiz’s red card but, as Arsenal rallied in the last 15 minutes of the first half, Arteta had Rob Holding put his coat back on as he recognised the changes in his team.
It demonstrated the new Arsenal manager’s belief in his side. “I was thinking about it [Martinelli’s substitution], but I didn’t want to send that message to the team,” Arteta said later.
They came back twice, first from a Jorginho penalty and then from Cesar Azpilicueta’s 84th-minute goal – more than might reasonably have been expected from a side who have demonstrated a gossamer thin confidence in recent years. Martinelli embodied what Arteta will hope is the new Arsenal, his 10th goal of the season in all competitions making him the first teenager to reach double figures for the club since Nicolas Anelka in 1998-1999.
Lampard’s dismay was compounded by an ankle injury to Tammy Abraham that caused the striker to hobble off at the end. “We have to look at ourselves,” Lampard said, “and say that again it’s a story of creating chances … we need to take them more.”
His goalkeeper, Kepa, was beaten easily by the only two shots Arsenal had all game. The first Arsenal goal started with a header from Mustafi in his own area from a Chelsea corner and suddenly Martinelli was in a sprint at the home goal, with just Kante there for cover.
Lampard admitted that Arsenal had “fought for it” and with that there must have been a hint of regret that Chelsea did not extinguish that hope early on.
Inexplicably, Arsenal played better after the red card and the subsequent penalty, having been under pressure before then. Callum Hudson-odoi had been the standout player and had clipped the bar. Then came the Mustafi moment and it looked like Arsenal had been broken beyond repair.
The German was playing only because Sokratis had reported with illness before the weekend and Holding’s recent performances had not inspired confidence. He was not even under a great deal of pressure when he put his team in trouble.
It was a relatively simple backpass to execute, a bouncing ball struck with the inside of his left foot and yet Mustafi left it well short for the bounding stride of Abraham. The Englishman got to the ball well before Bernd Leno and Luiz was just behind him as Abraham went to the right of the goal. Perhaps the Brazilian could not see in his peripheral vision that Mustafi had recovered behind him.
By then Leno was out the picture, so when Luiz brought down Abraham, the presence of just one opposition player between the striker and goal meant that it met the threshold for denial of a goalscoring opportunity. Paul Tierney, the video assistant referee, checked the decision and Luiz was sent on his way. Arteta came over to offer his sympathy to the defender, although really it was a needless foul.
After the penalty was dispatched by Jorginho, Stamford Bridge sang delightedly that Luiz, who in the summer departed after his second spell at their club, was “one of our own”. Having been impressed with his players’ response, Arteta did not make a change until the 55th minute, when he replaced Mesut Ozil with Matteo Guendouzi. Four minutes later Martinelli sprang clear, past the sprawling Kante and finished beautifully.
Azpilicueta’s goal from Hudsonodoi’s cross seemed to have won the game, but then Bellerin cut in from the right on his weaker left foot and struck a soft one past Kepa. Having tasted defeat late in the game against Chelsea at the Emirates, Arteta could not stop himself punching the air on the touchline – and it must have felt like a win. Chelsea (4-3-3) Kepa 4; Azpilicueta 7, Christensen 7, Rudiger 6, Emerson 6; Kante 5 (Mount 69), Jorginho 6, Kovacic 6 (Barkley 66); Hudson-odoi 7, Abraham 6, Willian 6 (Batshuayi 79). Subs Caballero (g), Alonso, Pedro, Zouma. Booked Emerson, Christensen. Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Leno 6; Bellerin 7, Mustafi 6, Luiz 3, Saka 6; Torreira 7, Xhaka 7; Pepe 6 (Holding 81), Ozil 4 (Guendouzi 76), Martinelli 8 (Willock 90); Lacazette 6. Subs Martinez (g), Ceballos, Maitland-niles, Nketiah. Booked Guendouzi. Sent off Luiz.
Referee Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire).