Mikel Merino's header earns Arsenal big three points against Chelsea
SET PIECE AGAIN OLE OLE: Arsenal's Mikel Merino celebrates scoring his side's winner. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire.
A HUGE WIN from a miserable match as a Mikel Merino header moved Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal moved ten points clear of fifth placed Manchester City and the final Champions League qualifying spot.
The result was all that mattered as neither side impressed. Arsenal started so well but ultimately made hard work of beating a defence-minded Chelsea side, without injured forward Cole Palmer, that goes into the international break placed fourth in the Premier League table.
Recalled error-prone Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez did not help boost the confidence of his defenders with a series of poor clearances as Arsenal blitzed the Blues from the off. They only survived going behind thanks to some frantic, almost comical defending as the ball flew around their area.
There was also a strong claim for an Arsenal penalty after Marc Cucurella made clear contact with his harm while trying to defend one of the attacks.
Had Declan Rice been more accurate with two decent shooting chances then Sanchez would have been even busier. Trossard was guilty of a shocking mishit with Arsenal’s FIFTH decent chance with only 18 minutes gone.
Seasoned Arsenal watchers will know how they can struggle in match es when they fail to make an early breakthrough. Fortunately, for them, they have an excellent Plan B in the ability from dead balls.
Set piece coach Nicolas Jover had been unable to claim a goal since New Year’s Day, when Merino scored at Brentford.
And he came up with a new routine for Merino’s 20th minute opener in this game as the Spaniard took a position at the near post and deftly headed Martin Odegaard’s corner off the top of his forehead and looping over the forlorn dive of Sanchez on the Chelsea goal line.
Chelsea then escaped more VAR scrutiny after Wesley Fofana scraped his studs down the e back of a Declan Rice thigh that went unpunished.
Fofana’s challenge was typical of a calculated physical Chelsea approach and he took out Trossard with another late one soon after. The only one referee Chris Kavanagh chose to show a yellow card for was when he booked Levi Colwill for going over the top on Trossard too.
For all their dominance, Arsenal were glad to remain in front when David Raya made a mistake from a Cucurella shot and was relieved the ball went behind for a corner instead of the back of the net after slipping through his hands. That gave Chelsea an appetite to get forward again going into half-time.
They fell back into their more c customary negative safety-first tactics after the restart and invited Arsenal on again. The much-maligned Sanchez showed his quality, however, to keep them in the game with a stunning stop from a Merino volley on the hour.
Arsenal threw away a win when they conceded after taking the lead at Stamford Bridge earlier this season and there was a sense they might do the same again as the home crowd grew audibly uneasy and the travelling west London contingent got behind their players going into the final ten minutes with the match still in the balance.
With no chances at either end it is a wonder why they all got to excited.
Raya 6, Timber 7, Saliba 6, Gabriel 6, Lewis-Skelly 7, Partey 6, Rice 6, Odegaard 6 (Tierney 90), Trossard 6, Martinelli 6 (Nwaneri), Merino 6.
Neto, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji.
Sanchez 6, James 7 (Lavia 82), Fofana 5 (Adarabioyo 86), Badiashile 7 (Gusto 86), Colwill 6, Cucurella 6, Caicedo 5, Fernandez 5, Nkunku 5 (Dewsbury-Hall 76), Sancho 6 (George 76), Neto 6.
Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Acheampong.
Chris Kavanagh 5.
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