'It was beautiful' - Arteta hails Arsenal's comeback win in early-season statement 

The hosts bounced back from a Morgan Rogers strike in the opening moments. 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta applauds the fans following victory in the Premier League match at Emirates Stadium. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.

Mikel Arteta had spent much of the week telling Arsenal supporters not to become too fixated on the attacking players they had failed to sign. There was, he suggested, plenty of quality already living in the house.

It was an argument that looked rather less convincing after two minutes of Arsenal’s meeting with Chelsea, when Morgan Rogers, the very player Arsenal had made one of their principal summer targets, put the visitors ahead.

By the end, though, Arteta had been proved spectacularly right.

The Arsenal manager watched his side recover from conceding their first goal of the season to deservedly win a pulsating encounter, with two players whose stock has at times appeared to be falling rather than rising providing the decisive answers.

Kai Havertz, the expensive Chelsea signing who never quite became the transformative superstar expected at Stamford Bridge, produced the equaliser against his former club.

Then Martin Odegaard, a captain who has endured difficult periods and appeared at times to be a fading giant of Arsenal’s recent rise, delivered the winner.

Rogers, meanwhile, was left to contemplate the irony of having given Chelsea the perfect start at the stadium where Arsenal had wanted him to play.

“It was an exceptional performance,” Arteta said.

“I think I enjoyed every minute of it from the beginning to the end, and the beginning was tough, but I enjoyed it because the team reacted in a spectacular way.

“The conviction, the determination, the quality of which I intend to have them constantly; it was beautiful.” 

The opening goal was a rare blemish for Arsenal, who had kept clean sheets in their first two league matches.

A Chelsea free-kick was kept alive and the ball eventually found Rogers on the edge of the area. His finish beat David Raya and sent the visiting supporters into delirium.

Arsenal's response was immediate and relentless. They thought they had equalised through Riccardo Calafiori, only for Ezri Konsa to be adjudged offside in the build-up, while Martinez then denied Bukayo Saka at his near post.

Chelsea were dangerous too, with Raya called upon to save from Cole Palmer and Reece James before Pedro Neto struck the post.

But the sense increasingly grew that Arsenal's pressure would tell. It did through Havertz.

The German had arrived at Arsenal from Chelsea for a huge fee but had never entirely escaped the feeling that he was an expensive disappointment during his time in west London. Now, in the most satisfying of circumstances for his new club, he produced one of his finest moments against his former employers.

Havertz cut in from the right, skipped over several challenges and fired through Max Lacroix and beyond Emiliano Martinez.

“He looks happy, he looks settled, he feels fit,” Arteta said afterwards. “He’s training every day, he has this routine right now, and he’s scoring goals. “And not only that, but it’s been an amazing work for the team.” 

Odegaard then completed the turnaround five minutes after half-time. Christos Tzolis' low delivery found Havertz, who deliberately allowed the ball to run on to his captain. Odegaard struck it emphatically past Martinez.

It was a goal that felt significant beyond the scoreline.

There have been periods when the Norwegian has looked burdened by the expectations that came with becoming Arsenal captain and the creative fulcrum of Arteta’s team. Here, however, he looked liberated.

“He’s fit, he feels confident, I think one of the highest that I’ve seen him, and he has a point to prove from last season as well, and after missing so much football,” Arteta said.

“For me, he gets to that point because he’s enjoying his football. When you are that, you have to enjoy what you do, you have to play with real intent, and that’s what I love to see him today. He was running forward, he took shots, he created so many situations for his teammates.” The Arsenal manager believes that the return to fitness of Odegaard, Havertz and Saka can be every bit as important as any new attacking signing.

“We really believe in them,” he said. “Can they improve? Yes. I can improve the first one, and they can have another version of themselves that is even better than anything that we’ve seen.

“If the team is better and the players are better, everybody’s going to be benefiting from it.” 

For Xabi Alonso, it was the first defeat of his brief Chelsea reign, but one he felt offered evidence that Chelsea can compete with the best.

“The assessment and the feeling is that it hurts,” Alonso said. “It hurts to lose. It hurts to suffer our first defeat.

“It has been a very intense game, a great fight between two sides who have given everything.” Alonso's Chelsea created enough to leave Arsenal nervous until the final whistle, with substitute Estevao forcing Raya into an excellent late save.

“It was never going to be a game to create 12 opportunities,” Alonso said. “They are hard to beat, they are hard to create chances against, but we had three, four, chances to score more than one goal.” 

The Spaniard accepted there is still work to do defensively.

“This is a process. It’s still early days for us,” he said. “We want to start having clean sheets, they will come.” 

For Arsenal, however, this was a night when Arteta’s faith in what he already possessed was richly rewarded. The player they wanted scored Chelsea’s goal. The player Chelsea no longer wanted scored Arsenal’s equaliser. And the captain who had been searching for his old authority produced the winner.

Time and injuries will have their say, but sometimes a manager does not need to buy what he wants. Sometimes he might already have what he needs.

Arsenal: Raya 6; White 7, Konsa 7, Gabriel 6, Calafiori 7 (Hincapie 67); Rice 7, Lewis-Skelly 7 (Zubimendi 67), Odegaard 8 (Merino 78); Saka 7 (Madueke 90) , Havertz 9 (Gyokores 78), Tzolis 7. Subs: Kepa, Eze, Guimaraes, Dowman 

Chelsea: Martinez 6; Acheampong 5, Fofana 6, Lacroix 5; Neto 7 (Estevao 81), James 8, Lavia 6 Gusto 60), Hato 6 (Chavarria, 60); Palmer 7 (Welbeck 78), Joao Pedro 7, Rogers 6. Subs: Penders, Colwill, Barco, Quenda, Gittens.

Ref: C Kavanagh 5