Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea (Odegaard 18′, 31′, Jesus 34′ | Madueke 65′)
EMIRATES STADIUM — After a run of four successive Premier League matches without a victory that has derailed a title charge, an obliging opponent who would make life simple was just what Arsenal needed to get their wheels back on track. Mikel Arteta, Dr Chelsea will see you now.
As visiting supporters began filing out of the away end after Gabriel Jesus had put Arsenal 3-0 up after 34 minutes, Frank Lampard retreated slowly to his dugout. Billed as an unmissable career opportunity a few weeks ago, this has rapidly turned into an unmitigated disaster for Lampard, the club’s fourth manager of a wretched campaign.
The “Super Frank Lampard” chant that soundtracked the Chelsea legend’s career was audible just before half-time at the Emirates; sadly for him, it came from the home fans, gratuitously piling the misery on Todd Boehly’s sitting duck. This was his sixth defeat in six games since returning to Stamford Bridge and his 17th loss in his last 20 as a manager. It’s also Chelsea’s worst sequence of defeats since 1993, a period that pre-dates Lampard’s playing career.
Injuries haven’t helped – Reece James, Mason Mount and Kalidou Koulibaly were missing in north London – but excuses are less easily accepted when wads of cash have been chucked at the component parts. Complaints about the water quality ring hollower when it’s flowing out of gold-plated taps.
If the expectation was that Lampard would emulate Roberto Di Matteo by winning the Champions League in unlikely fashion, the reality has been markedly different. A team managed by Lampard during this season could well go down and it is evidence of Chelsea’s startling decline that they have even been lumped into that conversation alongside Everton.
It won’t happen – mercifully for them, there is a nine-point gap to 18th place – but that didn’t prevent Arsenal’s boisterous home fans from reveling in their rivals’ misery. “You’re going down!” they sang when Martin Odegaard side-footed into the net for a second time. A few minutes later it was “Are you Tottenham in disguise?”.
Before the game, some “wahey-ed” as Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke missed three one-on-ones in succession during the warm-ups. Mudryk, the former darling of Arsenal fan Twitter, was roundly booed when he came on for his latest runaround and rather more disgracefully, had a green laser shone directly in his face by an idiot in the crowd.
This mess is obviously not of Lampard’s making, even if he has succeeded only in adding muddy footprints to a carpet already stained with merlot. That a manager who was deemed incapable of preserving Everton’s top-flight status finds himself in temporary charge of one of the most expensively assembled squads in football history is proof of how badly – and bizarrely – Boehly has botched this.
Nothing new there, but still everybody watches on, waiting for Chelsea to click. This is a squad of great promise, so we are told, but their combined output is virtually non-existent. It says much about the muddle Chelsea have gotten themselves in that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was handed his first Premier League start since 6 November – which came in the corresponding fixture against Arsenal.
The collective is so disjointed that some individuals are only showcasing the most ineffective versions of themselves. Aubameyang barely touched the ball before being hooked at the break; Sterling scampered head-first into traffic rather than weaving in between gaps; Mateo Kovacic passed the ball as if he were wearing boots three sizes too small; Cesar Azpilicueta is making the dent in his Chelsea legacy more pronounced each time he steps onto the pitch.
It was men vs boys, but more so a team vs a team of individuals. Kepa Arrizabalaga, the one player that Boehly hasn’t attempted to upgrade yet but probably will in the summer, kept the scoreline at 3-0 as Arsenal began the second period with a flurry of chances as they sought to knock out their foes for good. They stopped pushing quite as intently as the second period went on, confident that a team that struggles to score one goal was unlikely to manage three.
The Gunners could have easily made things worse, before Madueke made things marginally better by scoring Chelsea’s first goal since Conor Gallagher’s deflected strike against Brighton on 15 April – their only goal in seven matches across last month. The visitors at least showed spirit and fashioned one or two openings after the restart, but that was more to do with the home side’s dip rather than a marked improvement on their part.
Madueke was the big plus point for Chelsea, adding drive and determined dribbling to their right flank as well as his first goal since signing from PSV. N’Golo Kante was another, the Frenchman who has been ravaged by injury in recent years rolling back the years as he motored through midfield in an attempt to drag his side back into it. Mudryk looked lively after his introduction, perhaps buoyed by the boos.
But such limited praise feels ill-fitting for a squad that has been assembled at such expense. Chelsea should be so much better than this and the expectation is that they can be much better than this next season. Still, it will be a mammoth job for Mauricio Pochettino, if as expected, he takes it on next. As Lampard will attest.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/TheYPZ3
Post a Comment