A knockout!
Arsenal dealt a «manita» to Chelsea, in the London derby, and isolated themselves in first place in the Premier League.
The Gunners had a very strong start to the match and opened the scoring after four minutes through Leandro Trossard following a beautiful collective play. Declan Rice received the ball on the left side of midfield, ran into the box and released it to the Belgian, who shot the ball through Petrovic’s legs.
After the goal, the North London team continued to dominate the match as they pleased and created opportunities to increase their advantage. Declan Rice narrowly missed the target with a shot from the edge of the box and Havertz and Trossard saw Petrovic stop them from celebrating 2-0. On the other hand, the Blues managed to reach the opposite area and on one of those occasions they almost scored: Gabriel Magalhães almost scored an own goal, but the ball hit the post. Shortly afterwards, ex-Benfica man Enzo Fernández shot wide with a low shot from the edge of the area.
The result was flattering for Chelsea at half-time. The second part was, moreover, a complete disaster. After Rice and Havertz threatened the goal, Ben White took advantage of a loose ball in the area to rest the Gunners.
With their city rivals on the mat, Arsenal didn’t take their foot off the accelerator and continued to charge, reaching 3-0 a few minutes later. Odegaard made an excellent pass to tear through the opposing defense and isolated Kai Havertz who didn’t forgive and scored against his former team.
The party was open at the Emirates, which saw the German score another goal, the second for the club he represented between 2020 and 2023. The final 5-0 was scored by Ben White after a (more) high-quality pass from Odegaard. The Englishman looked like he was trying to cross, but the ball went “straight” into the Blues’ goal.
The game reached the end with Chelsea completely unrecognizable. Pochettino reinforced the defensive sector to avoid an even greater humiliation while Arteta “spared” players with a view to a new derby, this time with Tottenham, at the weekend. In addition to Jesus, Martinelli, Jorginho and Zinchenko, Fábio Vieira also played minutes (15 minutes) and came close to a goal – the ball went into the side net.
With this victory, Arsenal have 77 points, three more than Liverpool (one game less) and four more than Manchester City (two games less). In turn, Chelsea is 9th with 47 points, 13 behind Tottenham, fifth.
