This North West London Derby was an entertaining one with the fans back at full capacity, the noise took the game to another level. It was Chelsea’s game from the beginning but Arsenal had a few counter attacks which they couldn’t capitalize on. The Gunners once again like last weekend were giving too much space for Chelsea and did not play well.
Romelu Lukaku made his senior debut for Chelsea in this game and as you’d expect, he scored a goal. It came in the 15th minute when Reece James received an amazing pass from Mateo Kovacic. He had a great first touch and slid the ball across the penalty area to the Belgian who tapped the ball into the net. It was one of the easiest finishes but he was at the right place at the right time. 20 minutes later the Blues doubled their advantage. Marcus Alonso passed to Lukaku but Xhaka slid which made the ball go to Mount. He quickly passed wide to Reece James who controlled the ball beautifully and scored with a thumping shot. Chelsea were soaring 35 minutes into the game. It remained 2-0 till the end of the game and Arsenal got their season to a start with two losses while Chelsea have two wins.
I feel the Gunners were too spread out and gave way too much space to the Blues. To me, it also felt like they were more focused on Lukaku which gave plenty of room to the others. They had a few attacking chances but never really got a good shot to test Mendy. They were all over the field and never really found a way to stop Chelsea and their forwards.
It’s going to be a tough season for Mikel Arteta if his team continues to play like this while Thomas Tuchel should be proud of his team’s performance. Next weekend, the Gunners visit Manchester City in a huge game as they’re trying to get their first points of the season still. Chelsea visit Anfield to play Liverpool in what should be an exciting contest. Chelsea dominated this time vs Arsenal but they will meet again at Stamford Bridge in the 2nd week of February.
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