Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game was maybe one of his worst as 10 men Arsenal bowed down to Chelsea in a 6-0 rout. There is a lot to talk about the Gunners’ tactics more than what Chelsea had planned for Arsene Wenger’s men.
This was another huge away loss for Arsenal against their three main title rivals who added on to their 6-3 defeat against Man City and 5-1 defeat against Liverpool.
The Gunners had an unchanged line-up, which defeated Spurs 0-1 at White Hart Lane. With Chamberlain, Arteta and Cazorla in the centre, it was a very attack minded starting line-up. Wenger risked playing without his most defensive minded player Flamini. On the other hand, Chelsea were forced to make changes due to suspensions, but were actually not affected by it because of the depth in their squad. David Luiz and Andre Schurrle replaced Ramires and Willian in midfield. Eto’o started in place of Torres.
It was a Giroud shot on target which led to the counter attack where Eto’o scored the goal in the 4th minute itself. Arsenal were playing a ridiculously high defensive line which allowed Chelsea’s speedsters and flair players to get in behind the defence. Andre Schurrle tormented the Gunners’ defense in the first 5-10 minutes where 2 goals were scored and effectively with Chelsea’s ability to close the game, the result was done and dusted.
The main battle for Chelsea was won in the midfield. David Luiz and Nemanja Matic were too strong for the trio of Arteta, Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Arsenal midfielders generally close down opponents much better, but facing two out and out defensive midfielders meant that the possession was often lost in the midfield and winning possession back was too tough for the diminutive Gunners.
Arsenal played with a principle of defending as a team, thus the absence of Flamini could have been justified as this team did very well at Spurs. But, Chelsea’s flair players had a lot of pace during counter attacks which Arteta, Cazorla and Rosicky failed to match. Chamberlain was forced to work harder, but after Gibbs’ mistaken-identity red card, Arsenal pretty much offered no challenge to Chelsea who kept knocking the ball around just for the sake of holding on to possession.
Arsenal, overall were pegged down because of injuries to key players as well. With Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil and Walcott in the team, Arsenal could have had a much balanced side to execute their game plan. Maybe Arsene Wenger’s mistake here was to employ Arteta as a deep seated playmaker. Despite success at Spurs, Arteta was definitely the weak link in Arsenal midfield because of his lack of physicality to match that of Matic, Luiz and Oscar.
Chelsea’s game style was obvious, the attacking midfielders drop back while allowing the opposition some possession and once the opponents enter the Blues’ half, the closing down was intense led by Matic. If only Wenger liked having a rugged defensive midfielder in the team, only to stop counter attacks, Chelsea would not have been able to score those 2 early goals which were results of two clinical counter attacks.
Introduction of Fernando Torres for the injured Eto’o in the 10th minute, was the final reason for Arsenal to offer some respect to the home side by defending deep! All the reasons for Torres not scoring goals in EPL point towards the EPL teams defending deep against Chelsea offering him no space. Arsenal did exactly the opposite, and defended high up the field. Having Mertesacker and Koscielny/Vermaelen at half line while the team is not even in possession of the ball was undecipherable!
Torres’ channel running and pace resulted in two more goals, as he set up Hazard for the shot which Chamberlain handled at the goal line and later he set up Oscar. Adding insult to injury was Mohamed Salah, arguably the fastest Chelsea player, who strolled past Mertesacker, completely on-side to add the 6th goal.
There were few tactical mistakes by Arsenal, but they were the crucial mistakes. They aimed to play with a positive mind-set, but being pegged by injuries, they lacked the squad to do so. Chelsea have been successful against the top teams because of their opponents holding a high defensive line, Arsenal could have looked to avoid that. Some simple mistakes cost Arsenal the game, as a 6-0 is surely not what their team thought especially when Chelsea came from a loss away at Villa Park.