Chelsea vs Arsenal: Unai Emery’s men still suffering from an Arsene Wenger hangover?

“Are you Wenger in disguise?” sang the Chelsea fans with glee. What a horrible start to Premier League life it had been for Unai Emery.

Arsenal played some nice football going forward but looked shambolic in defence (sound familiar?) and a week after being played off the park by Manchester City the same fate appeared to be befalling them at Stamford Bridge.

Twenty minutes in and it was 2-0. The start of this new Emery era seeing four goals without reply – not helped by some woeful finishing from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who looked in precocious form last season but has returned from the summer break looking a shade off the pace.

Still on summer holiday?

At times in the first-half it looked as though most of Arsenal’s players didn’t want to be there: Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka would surely all have happily still been on the beach.

The one who bucked that trend was Matteo Guendouzi, the floppy haired French youngster; his disgusted punch into the turf after watching Aubameyang blaze over from eight yards out being about the only sign of aggression from an Arsenal player in the opening stages of the game.

It was less than a minute after that incident that Chelsea broke to the other end and fired home their second, Alvaro Morata scoring just his second in 16 matches.

Questionable selections

At this point, Emery’s pre-match selections appeared all the more questionable. Why no Lucas Torreira in midfield? Why no Alexandre Lacazette up front? Why Petr Cech in goal when he looks so unhappy playing out from the back as Emery insists?

But then it all changed. Perhaps the Chelsea fans’ taunts played their part as Arsenal began to play football more akin to what we saw in Arsene Wenger’s heyday than his later years.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan fired home from the edge of the box low and to Kepa’s right and just a few minutes later Alex Iwobi levelled.

“Unai Emery’s red army,” came the chant from the away end as the travelling fans finally saw some positives from the new era but the close of the first-half was frantic with Arsenal never looking in full control despite some eye-catching interplay.

Second-half calm

The second-half saw the introduction of Lucas Torreira, the £26m signing from Sampdoria and a man Arsenal fans must hope can strengthen their weak spine, in place of Xhaka. Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey came on later for Ozil and Iwobi.

The game calmed and settled into more of a rhythm and Arsenal – perhaps for the first time under Emery – began to look like a team with the upper hand on their opponents.