A corner turned for Arsenal in the title race? No one will be able to say for certain until the season is definitively concluded but this 2-1 win over Chelsea does feel like it will be held up as a defining game in a wider Premier League shift. All three goals came through set-pieces, and none of them especially clean either. It was that kind of game, as Chelsea now have to dig in and turn a corner of their own.
Mikel Arteta disputed that the victory was “ugly” but he did talk about how all teams currently have to “suffer”.
Arsenal have endured a lot of that lately, and it’s one reason why they won’t especially care about debates on the nature of this win. They had to get through it, and through this period.
While it’s still a bit of a stretch to say that this rectifies the two draws from Brentford and – especially – Wolves, Arsenal have now picked up successive victories in difficult London derbies they might have been expected to drop points in. That is crucial for momentum, and confidence, especially amid the debates over play.
In previous Premier League seasons – especially between 2016 and 2023 – it would have been logical to feel they ultimately don’t have the repeating firepower up front; that they will eventually lose a shoot-out to Manchester City.
But this isn’t the same type of season. This isn’t the same Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s side had a similar performance in their 1-0 win away to Leeds United, that had again increased the pressure on Arsenal. City had to grind through it, in the same way Arteta’s team did here.
Arsenal looked like they could face a familiar angst after Piero Hincapie put into his own net to give Chelsea an equaliser just before half-time, but managing such moods – as much as games – is something that Arteta has become increasingly conscious of.
He reminded them that they were in “exactly the same position” as against Tottenham Hotspur seven days beforehand, and “look what happened” – “so we’re going to do it again”.
They won again, but didn’t quite do it in the same way.
“We were expecting a very different outcome in the last few minutes, but we didn’t manage to control and dominate that scenario as well as we wanted.
“Obviously, we weren’t getting the dominance and the sequences of play that we wanted and expected against the 10 men,” Arteta went on.
Pedro Neto had been sent off for a second booking on 70 minutes, three minutes after a first yellow for dissent, raising further questions about Chelsea’s discipline. It also raised questions about Arsenal’s approach given they had 55 passes to Chelsea’s 114 from that moment, despite the numerical superiority.
That was all the more surprising given that Kai Havertz had by then come on for Viktor Gyokeres, to briefly inspire Arsenal’s most expansive spell of the match. But it was only brief.
The wider story of this game – to go with the season – was set-pieces.
Arsenal got back ahead of Liverpool there, in terms of goals from such moments.
Liam Rosenior did complain about the grappling and jostling on the Arsenal goals, as William Saliba forced in the first and then Jurrien Timber did similar for the second.
This has been an Arteta speciality, although the Basque himself would argue it’s a necessary response to in-play changes in the Premier League.
Rosenior believes officials have to look at potential rule changes given that “there’s a lot of holding and grappling that goes on before the ball’s actually delivered” and “holding is holding” but he stressed he wasn’t putting Chelsea’s defeat down to that.
“I think we can deal better with it, being honest. I do think there is a block on certain players. One of our players who’s trying to head the ball was held. Our goalkeeper, they’re running at our goalkeeper. But these things happen. We have to deal with that moment better. In fact, we gift those two set plays, we gift the free kick away before that, and we gift them a corner.”
Set-pieces have become a problem under Rosenior with seven conceded – he even admitted “I think it’s me” – but there have also been wider swings in Chelsea’s play within individual matches.
They can go from looking controlled and competent – with some spark – to some really erratic moments. There were a few times on Sunday when they were almost gifting Arsenal attackers, although it perhaps summed up the match that Arsenal – and especially Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice – occasionally did similar.
Arteta made a point of expressing his gratitude to David Raya, who made one crucial late save at the end.
“It’s a cross, it’s not a shot, but he ended up being an unbelievable shot and I got the right angle and my heart almost stopped, but David’s hand was there to bring it back to life.”
How different Chelsea might feel had that gone in. It shows the edge they’re constantly on at the moment.
Some of that might be adjusting to a new manager, and one adapting to the Premier League at that. Some of it might be the calendar. Some of it might be the long-term effects of the Club World Cup, which really can’t be discounted.
Chelsea do now look in an outright fight with Aston Villa for fourth or fifth, with everyone waiting to see how Liverpool evolve, too.
“We need to start finding a way of playing well, which we have done in large parts of my time with the group,” Rosenior said. “But we also need to pick up points very, very quickly.”
And next up? Villa away. That really could be decisive in the race for the top five.
As for this match, it is just one other set-piece in the picture of the title race.
