Chelsea edge to victory but Arsenal are beaten

CHELSEA followed their embarrassing mauling at Manchester City with a jittery 2-1 win over Malmo in last night’s Europa League last-32 first leg in Sweden.

But London rivals Arsenal had Alexandre Lacazette sent off as a strong Gunners side slumped to a surprise 1-0 defeat at the hands of BATE Borisov of Belarus to leave their tie finely poised heading into the second leg.

Chelsea’s 6-0 loss to City was their worst defeat in 28 years and heaped mounting scrutiny on head coach Maurizio Sarri, whose concerns were eased, at least temporarily, by Ross Barkley after 30 minutes.

Olivier Giroud netted his fifth goal in six Europa League appearances with a neat backheel to make it 2-0, but at present nothing is straightforward at Chelsea.

What should have been a routine return in next week’s second leg resulting in straightforward passage to the last 16 will now be a nervy affair after Anders Christiansen’s strike 10 minutes from time.

Chelsea’s two prior matches against Swedish opposition in Sweden ended in goalless draws, but they did win the 1998 Cup-winners’ Cup final against Stuttgart in Stockholm. The winning goal was scored by Gianfranco Zola, now Sarri’s assistant.

Barkley’s goal was also Chelsea’s first away goal of 2019, after four matches without one.

Meanwhile, Arsenal never got going at the Borisov Arena and created very little in the way of clearcut chances, with Stanislav Dragun’s header on the stroke of half-time earning a 1-0 win for the Belarusian Premier League champions.

With no game between now and the return leg at the Emirates Stadium in a week, manager Unai Emery opted to name a near-full strength team, but Arsenal will now have to overcome a narrow deficit to advance from the last32 in front of their own fans.

They will have to do it without Lacazette, the striker dismissed by referee Srdjan Jovanovic for a petulant swing of the arm that summed up the frustrations for the visitors.

Emery made two changes from Saturday’s Premier League win at Huddersfield Town with Petr Cech and Granit Xhaka recalled, but the decision to leave Mesut Ozil back in England will again come under close scrutiny following a poor display.

Celtic will need to produce some magic in the Mestalla Stadium next week following their 2-0 Europa League defeat by Valencia at Parkhead.

Denis Cheryshev and Ruben Sobrino scored the goals.