Chelsea stumbled to defeat for the first time in six Premier League games.
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Premier League giants Arsenal have maintained their unique record in the league encounter against Chelsea, following a 1-0 win against the latter in the recent encounter. The Gunners have never lost a Premier League match against Chelsea when facing off on a Tuesday or Wednesday. The latter were subjected to a defeat for the first time in six Premier League games on a night at Stamford Bridge, where the attackers failed to make their presence felt as effectively.
Arsenal were extremely strong in defence, having ensured the lead after only quarter-of-an-hour was played. The Gunners could afford to keep their defenders in a defensive scenario, which the Blues found hard to penetrate.
Kai Havertz missed the best chance of the first half with the game still scoreless, which might well come back to haunt Chelsea. Mason Mount had a couple of shots blocked or saved, which proved dear for the Blues in the long run. However, Jorginho will be the man in the limelight for the wrong reasons following a badly judged pass that led to Emile Smith Rowe scoring the only goal of the game.
Christian Pulisic had the ball in the net in the second half. However, the goal was ruled out for offside. Chelsea went close to scoring in the closing minutes, with a Kurt Zouma header crashing onto the bar and substitute Olivier Giroud hitting the same piece of woodwork on the follow-up.
Chelsea are placed on the fourth position, six points ahead of West Ham who have played a game less. Manager Thomas Tuchel admitted that the seven changes to the line-up from the weekend triumph against Manchester City, might have been too many.
“We all lacked concentration and focus today, which is very unusual. Maybe I also gave some signals to the team with the changes that Saturday [FA Cup final] is on my mind, and even if it’s only one per cent, this is not how we approach things because you get punished,” he said as quoted by the official website of Chelsea.
“We cannot be naive in this race for top four so now we suffer from another defeat. It’s hard to swallow but there’s no other way,” concluded Tuchel.
