Arsenal celebrated St Totteringham’s Day on Sunday. This year, it barely registered. The day in each season when it becomes mathematically impossible for Spurs to finish above their North London rivals came earlier than ever but no one at The Emirates cares too much about parochial squabbles this spring. There are bigger prizes on the line.
All that mattered on this Sunday in Islington was beating Chelsea and restoring the five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League as the title run-in starts in earnest. Arsenal were made to sweat for this 2-1 victory but their brilliance from set-pieces got the job done.
Until the outstanding Jurrien Timber grabbed the winner midway through the second half, The Emirates had become a place of sighs and groans and angry yells of exasperation as the nerves began to kick in and Chelsea grew and grew in confidence. Arsenal can feel City’s breath on their necks now. It will probably be like this until the end of the season.
But Timber’s goal was the difference. Arsenal held their nerve and Chelsea imploded, as they so often seem to do, particularly when Enzo Maresca was the manager. Pedro Neto earned himself two yellow cards in three minutes and became the ninth different Chelsea player to be sent off this season. Whether it is entitlement or just ill-discipline, it is an utterly self-defeating trait they must banish.
The defeat left Chelsea marooned outside the top five with a critical couple of weeks coming up. They play fourth-placed Aston Villa on Wednesday night, face a banana skin of an FA Cup tie at Wrexham at the weekend before the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie against PSG in ten days. Those matches will make or break their season.
Their performance here will have given head coach Liam Rosenior some encouragement at least but they are still worrying fragile defensively. There have long been doubts about the ability of Robert Sanchez to operate at the very top level for Chelsea and he fuelled those in the sixth minute when he nearly made a gift of the opening goal to Arsenal.
This was not a vintage performance from Arsenal but they got the job done against Chelsea
Set-pieces again proved the key for the Gunners as they went five points clear of Man City
Sanchez dallied too long on the ball and then took a heavy touch which pushed it towards Viktor Gyokeres. Gyokeres was on it in a flash and it took a lunging tackle from Sanchez to dispossess him.
Chelsea soon had a chance of their own. A free kick from Pedro Neto looped up off the shoulder of Eberechi Eze and fell to Mamadou Sarr a few yards out. Sarr tried to hook the ball past David Raya but mistimed his attempt and it bounced apologetically into touch.
Eze tried to lob Sanchez from the half-way line and it was a good enough attempt to force the Chelsea keeper to back-pedal furiously to push it away. The ball bounced out for a corner before Sanchez could regather it but the linesman was too far back to spot it.
When Arsenal were awarded a corner a few minutes later, they made it count. Bukayo Saka hit his kick deep to the back post, Gabriel produced a monumental leap to head it back across goal and William Saliba glanced it on.
Mamadou Sarr, making his first Chelsea start, tried to clear the ball but it cannoned off his shoulder and beat Sanchez’s flailing attempt to claw it clear.
Chelsea made energetic claims for a penalty on the stroke of half time when a corner flicked off the elbow of Declan Rice as he tried to defend it. Raya made an excellent save to push the ball over and stop an own-goal.
Referee Darren England ignored Chelsea’s penalty appeals but the visitors would not be denied. Reece James curled the resulting corner to the same area and this time, it flicked off the top of Piero Hincapie’s head. There was no rescue from Raya on this occasion. The ball flew straight past him.
Chelsea nearly scored from another corner soon after half-time. Again, the delivery was from Reece James. Again, he curled it beautifully to the near-post. Again, it was flicked on, this time by Trevoh Chalobah. Joao Pedro got to the flick first and headed it goalwards but Raya dived to his left to save it.
They were able to breathe at the end, but only after two hours of nerves; Chelsea had a stoppage-time goal ruled out
Liam Rosenior has lost all three of his contests against Arsenal, the only defeats of his tenure
Pedro Neto’s stupid sending-off was a gift to Arsenal, who laboured in the second half
Chelsea were threatening with every attack now. James sent over another cross with pace and accuracy, Joao Pedro flicked it on and Cole Palmer, racing in at the back post, flung himself at it but could not make any contact.
The home support grew restless. ‘Shoot, shoot,’ they pleaded every time an Arsenal player got the ball anywhere close to being in range. The replacement of Leandro Trossard by Gabriel Martinelli was met with widespread approval.
Arsenal regained their composure and the ascendancy. Midway through the half, they took the lead again. Again, it was from a corner. Rice swung it in this time and as James and Gabriel wrestled with each other on the edge of the action, Jurrien Timber rose in the six-yard box to head home.
Sanchez protested furiously about the goal but replays showed he barely leapt, nor was he impeded. Things got worse for Rosenior and his team when Neto brought down Martinelli and was sent off for his second bookable offence within three minutes.
Appalled by his own stupidity, Neto wanted to blame someone else and when he finally got back to the dug-outs having walked around half the pitch, he confronted the fourth official and had to be shepherded away by Chelsea staff before he got himself in even more trouble.
Chelsea had lost their heads. Enzo Fernandez was booked for dissent, too. Arsenal tried to capitalise and Eze brought a fine, low save out of Sanchez.
It did not stop the last few minutes being torture for Arsenal supporters, though. Deep into added time, Alejandro Garnacho curled a cross into the box from the Chelsea left, Joao Pedro threw himself at it but could not get a touch and the ball bounced towards the far corner of the net.
Raya had been distracted by Joao Pedro’s lunge and his body-weight had shifted in the opposite direction. But as Rosenior coiled, ready to celebrate, Raya changed direction and hooked the ball out. Arsenal even survived a late goal from Liam Delap that was ruled out for offside.
And then they breathed.
