London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in their Premier League meeting at Stamford Bridge on Sunday evening, November 10. The stalemate extended the Gunners’ winless run in the English Premier League to four games, sending them further down the table. We fell behind in the title race. With 19 points, Mikel Arteta’s side sit fourth in the Premier League standings, nine points behind league leaders Liverpool.
Chelsea and Arsenal have failed to resolve their issues at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Maresca’s huge improvement led to Chelsea’s first goal, which surprisingly came from Cole Palmer’s magical left boot. Arsenal’s defense allowed the Englishman plenty of space outside the box and he did not hesitate to try his luck. The shot fell quickly from distance and Gunners stopper David Raya acrobatically tipped the ball over the bar. In the 24th minute, Chelsea came agonizingly close to scoring when Pedro Neto found Malo Gusto’s perfect cross at the far post. The Frenchman simply controlled the ball from close range but mistimed his header to go over the bar.
In the 32nd minute of the first half, former Chelsea player Kai Havertz found the back of Arsenal’s goal and celebrated by putting his finger to his lips. However, to the delight of Stamford Bridge fans, there was no goal as Havertz veered into an offside position while receiving the ball from Declan Rice.
The deadlock was eventually broken in the 60th minute. Gabriel Martinelli blocked Martin Odegaard’s perfect cross from the right. Remarkably, Martinelli waltzed into the box from the left without any indication, took Odegaard’s delivery and beat the keeper at his near post.
But the north Londoners were not ahead for long thanks to Neto’s groundbreaking out-of-the-box effort in the 70th minute. Once again, Arsenal gave Neto too much space outside the box, allowing the winger to fire a superb effort into the bottom right corner.
Arsenal could have won in the 87th minute when the ball reached the feet of Leandro Trossar inside the penalty area. Disappointingly, the substitute blasted his effort over the bar.
Mikel Arteta asks his players to show their teeth.
After seeing his side fall further behind in the Premier League title race, a dejected Arteta has urged his players to show how much they want to win the title.
He said in his post-match press conference (via The Guardian):
“When you get dirty, show your teeth and show how much you want it.
“It’s easy at Disneyland. Everyone is there for you and tells you how beautiful you are. When it gets dark and difficult and everyone is questioning it, that’s when you want to meet people. I’m looking around. Who will fit in that box? Yes or no?”
He added:
“Win, win, win, win, win because these people [our rivals] Never stop winning. that’s what we have to do.”
Arsenal are scheduled to return to action against Nottingham Forest on November 23 after the international break.
