A second win in four days saw leaders Arsenal surge three points clear of second-placed Liverpool and four ahead of Man City – who have played a game fewer than the Reds – before the chasing pair play later in the week.Leandro Trossard opened the scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 triumph over Wolves and needed just four minutes at Emirates Stadium against Mauricio Pochettino’s visiting Chelsea to repeat the trick.
Yet Havertz and unlikely scorer White stole the show with second-half doubles as defeat ended the Blues’ eight-match unbeaten Premier League run and left them ninth in the table.Trossard almost grabbed another goal but his deflected effort was expertly tipped away by Petrovic, just moments after the Chelsea goalkeeper had repelled a low Havertz strike.
Chelsea had their chances in the first half, though, as Nicolas Jackson’s surging run ended with Gabriel Magalhaes deflecting the forward’s shot against David Raya’s right-hand post.
Enzo Fernandez also steered a driving effort narrowly wide in what was initially an end-to-end encounter, after Benoit Badiashile’s flick-on nearly found Axel Disasi, but he couldn’t get contact on the ball in the six-yard box.
Yet Arsenal took the game away from Chelsea – White first finishing into the bottom-left corner from close range after Conor Gallagher inadvertently blocked the ball into his path.To make matters worse for Pochettino’s side, White secured an unexpected double in the 70th minute, with his volleyed cross-cum-shot creeping into the top-left corner from Odegaard’s lofted assist.
Advantage Arsenal
With Liverpool away at Everton on Wednesday and Man City visiting Brighton the day after, Arsenal took control of the Premier League title battle – at least for now.
And once the second goal went in, it was the Odegaard show. He was immense all evening, creating eight chances (all from open play), assisting two goals and pulling the strings in a dominant display across midfield.
Chelsea missed their own playmaking leader.
In the build-up to the game Pochettino urged his players to prove they are not “Cole Palmer Football Club”. A 5-0 loss in the derby probably means Chelsea will struggle to shake that label for a while.
Palmer’s killer instinct (he has scored or assisted 29 of their league goals, 48 per cent of their total) could have changed the direction of this game during Chelsea’s stronger moments in the first half.
It leaves Chelsea with just two wins in nine away games in all competitions in 2024 and, in this most erratic of campaigns, another dazing, migraine-inducing evening for Pochettino.
As for Arsenal, there is no sign they will buckle under the pressure. This is a stronger, more experienced team than last season. They will go the distance.
Arsenal put pressure back on Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League title race after Kai Havertz and Ben White both scored twice in the 5-0 thrashing of Chelsea.
Here, just two minutes into the half, Arsenal captain Odegaard (circled in black) screams at his team-mates and gesticulates furiously, throwing both hands above his head several times in an attempt to push his team-mates up the pitch.That’s very unusual so early in the half; a confident, bullish action that tells us there was a plan to follow.
Sure enough, Rice responded by sprinting out, winning the ball in that first Arsenal line and moving through to win a corner. It set the tone.
A few minutes later, here’s another gesture, this time Rice (circled in black) preaching for calm by frantically gesturing and refusing a pass – something you would never normally expect him to do.
He wanted slow, steady control and the possession recycling that Arteta’s side have used all season to take the sting out, retain their shape and stop their opponent from swinging things back the other way.
Responding to Rice’s instruction, the ball was slowly recycled to the other wing, a corner was won, and a tried-and-tested routine ended in that crucial second goal.
“More discipline, basically, to do the right things,” Arteta said was his instruction to his players at the break. We saw that in spades, and it was the two on-field leaders, Odegaard and Rice, who ensured those words were followed.
Arsenal run riot as Chelsea’s youth shows in Palmer’s absence
From here, Arsenal simply turned the screw, taking the game away from a naïve Chelsea team who showed their youth in caving early on in both halves.
Despite several good chances developing down those exposed flanks, Chelsea managed to recompose themselves and build back into the contest via some sharp passing that beat the Arsenal press.
Nicolas Jackson was at the epicentre. He was always ready to receive straight passes from Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo under pressure, and Arsenal became rash in their defending.
It isn’t often you see them pulled into an end-to-end match, but once Chelsea’s vertical progression had Arsenal’s midfield spinning and backpedalling, they started to move a little wildly.
It made for an odd half in which Arsenal, holding just 43 per cent possession, were turned so easily they began to drop back too far, letting Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher get on the ball in the half-spaces and drive his team forward.
Rice & Odegaard encourage team-mates to enact half-time changes
Arteta will have known something needed to change, and a couple of inconspicuous moments at the beginning of the second half offer a clue about what he decided to do.
Arsenal had dropped too deep in that first half, so they needed to fly out of the blocks and try to pin Chelsea back in the measured way that is more typical of their season.