Arsenal vs Chelsea LIVE: Result and reaction from London derby as Gunners go back top of Premier League
Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea: The Gunners moved back to the top of the table with convincing victory over London rivals
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Arsenal are the Premier League leaders once again after a dominant first half display blew Chelsea out of the water at the Emirates Stadium. Right from the kick off the Gunners pushed high up the pitch to take advantage of a Chelsea team low on confidence.
Granit Xhaka – superb all night for the hosts – pulled an early save out for Kepa Arrizabalaga before the Chelsea keeper kept out a header from Bukayo Saka. The pressure on the Blues only mounted and it was Xhaka who supplied Martin Odegaard on the edge of the box and the Arsenal captain turned it home with a curling side-footed strike.
Xhaka and Odegaard combined again in a very similar move to send the Gunners two up before Gabriel Jesus turned a loose ball home from inside the six-yard area three minutes later to give the hosts full control.
They went into the break with a comfortable that Chelsea never looked like overturning. One bright spark for them though was the performance of Noni Madueke who was fast and direct enough to enough a consolation goal midway through the second half thanks to a darting run in behind.
The performance was worthy of three points and Arsenal are back at the top of the Premier League.
Relive the action as Arsenal hosted Chelsea in the Premier League:
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has not started a game for Chelsea since the reverse league fixture against his former club Arsenal on 6th November.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Gabriel Martinelli has 15 Premier League goals in 2022-23, the joint-most by a Brazilian player in a season. Roberto Firmino scored 15 for Liverpool in 2017-18.
But, he starts on the bench for Arsenal tonight.
Pre-match thoughts from Frank Lampard
“Our job is to look at performances and mentality in training to try and bring back a good feeling. That only comes with hard work,” said Chelsea’s interim coach, Frank Lampard.
“I enjoy that challenge and I was very aware of it coming in. I’m very proud to manage the club, I love being here and doing my job. You can’t always control the results, but you can work every day.
“I’ve been here in moments where confidence has been low because nobody likes losing games, I had moments as a player where we dropped our standards as a collective and we had to lift it.
“Looking through history, we managed to get it back through hard work, the level of the squad.
“It is different now in terns of the type of player and the squad we have here and what expectations are. We can only consider the future and work really hard to get the squad where we want it.”
This is not over – Mikel Arteta says Arsenal can still win Premier League title
Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are still gunning for the Premier League title as he praised his squad for refusing to settle for Champions League qualification.
Having topped the table for much of the season, Arsenal slipped from the summit following Manchester City’s 2-1 win at Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
City have now won eight successive league games, including a 4-1 humbling of the Gunners last week which put a fifth title in six years in their own hands.
Conversely, Arsenal have taken just three points from their last four fixtures but their form over the course of the campaign has at least guaranteed a return to Champions League football after six seasons away from Europe’s top table.
This is not over – Mikel Arteta says Arsenal can still win Premier League title
Manchester City are one point clear at the top with a game in hand.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
It’s 13 defeats in 32 league matches for Chelsea this season. They have only once lost more in a 20-team Premier League campaign, with 15 defeats in 1997/98.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Chelsea’s only goal in the last seven games was a deflected shot by Conor Gallagher versus Brighton.
Frank Lampard is winless in 15 competitive fixtures, losing the last nine, since Everton’s 3-0 Premier League home victory against Crystal Palace in October.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
Arsenal have dropped points in seven of their last 14 league fixtures, in contrast to just three of their opening 19 this season. The Gunners could concede multiple goals in five consecutive league matches for the first time since May to August 1985.
The title race is not over says Arteta
Arsenal are without a win in four games and want to “put things right” at home to Chelsea says manager Mikel Arteta who also believes that the Gunners are still in the title race.
“We can still achieve the Premier League because there are five games to go and a lot of things are going to happen still,” he said. “When I look at it, this is not over.
“It is not in our hands any more. What is in our hands is to try to win the games we have left and the rest is down to City. I have not had to pick up the mood of the players. They keep the fire in the belly.”
The Arsenal fixation that gave up the title race to Manchester City
Sitting there defeated, in demeanour as well as result, Mikel Arteta was asked a pointed question. Has the Premier League got to the point where it needs Manchester City to have a bad season in order for anyone else to win the title? The only time anyone else has won the Premier League in the last six years, after all, was the only time City got fewer than 86 points.
Arteta was naturally not in the mood to get into this.
“I don’t know the answer to that. We lost today here, we have to accept that. We lost in a very different way at the Emirates. Today the quality of the performance was very far from what was required.”
It prompts another question, a remarkable one when you consider that Arsenal are still top of the league with just five games left. Do Arteta’s side have what it takes to continue the title race – let alone win it?
The problem Arsenal face is inherent to the emphatic defeat they suffered.
The Arsenal fixation that gave up the title race to Manchester City
Arsene Wenger summed it up best when he insightfully and instinctively spotted a crucial difference in Arsenal’s recent displays
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