Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal - A day to forget for many reasons for Antonio Conte and his Chelsea team.
Chelsea and Arsenal shared the spoils at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in what turned out to be a disappointing performance compounded by Dav...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2017/09/chelsea-0-0-arsenal-day-to-forget-for.html
Chelsea and Arsenal shared the spoils at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in what turned out to be a disappointing performance compounded by David Luiz being sent off late in the game.
Ahead of the game it seemed as though Chelsea had more than enough to put Arsenal away and impose a similar defeat to the one suffered two weeks ago by Arsene Wengers side at Liverpool. The combination of Ramsey and Xhaka surely would be tested by our dynamic midfield with both being pulled out of position to create space for Chelsea to really attack Arsenal's back three.
Unfortunately, despite Antonio Conte making attacking changes to the side by playing just two holding midfielders in N'Golo Kante and Cesc Fabregas, with both Willian and Pedro selected to give us width to support Alvaro Morata, Chelsea never took full advantage.
Chelsea never really looked like threatening Arsenal enough in the final third. Yes our play was good from back to front by moving the ball around the pitch from side to side to find space, but when we did find space out wide there was literally no space in the middle with Alvaro Morata finding himself isolated up against three defenders.
Morata had a battle all game long up against his opponents with his back to goal for the most part. On the odd occasion he would turn his defender and was then able to head towards goal but quickly found himself closed down or the door shut and we could never capitalise.
Pedro had our best chance in the game halfway through the first half. Cesc Fabregas played a ball over the top and Pedro was through but it seemed as though the ball got stuck under his feet which leaded to him hesitating and his final shot was closed down and saved by Petr Cech who had come off of his line to deny the Spaniard.
Arsenal will argue that they came closest to scoring when Aaron Ramsey hit the post and Alexandre Lacazette missed the follow up by volleying the ball high, wide and handsome when it seemed easier to score. It's also worth noting that Thibaut Courtois was forced into making two or three additional saves in the game which does speak volumes.
Antonio Conte's selection for the game was wrong and you could see that with him introducing Tiemoue Bakayoko at half time for Pedro. Eden Hazard was introduced with around twenty minutes to go which was far too late in my opinion but the Belgian did force Petr Cech into a save after he cut inside from the left hand side.
David Luiz lost his head late on. He had already been booked but had given a fantastic display of defending in the heart of our back three. He closed people down, he blocked crosses and had played well before he was caught out on our right hand side, barged Alexis Sanchez to win the ball but off balance flew in high and caught their wing-back to earn himself a straight red card meaning that he will now miss Manchester City at home in two weeks time.
Overall I am so disappointed with our performance today and I am sure Antonio Conte will be also. Our passing wasn't good enough, we didn't play quick enough with intensity moving forward and made things easy for the opposition.
Quite simply it's a day to forgot for all of us.