In his 1000th match in charge, Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal side head to Chelsea to face Jose Mourinho, a man who Wenger had never beat in 10 matches (5 wins and 5 draws for Mourinho). From the outset of this match, it was clear that Arsenal’s tactics could not match the counter attacking brilliance in which our Chelsea team poses. The referee did make a ridiculous call when he wrongly sent of Gibbs for a handball, which Oxlade Chamberlin committed on the goal line, but this call eventually did not affect the one-sidedness of this match. We had 55% possession and had 11 shots on target to Arsenal’s 5. The match eventually ended 6-0!
Here are my player ratings:
Petr Cech- 7.5/10
Petr Cech made only a handful of saves throughout the match, however I feel that he should be considered the catalyst for our bright start, as he made a wonderful save of Giroud’s shot which started our counter attack for our first goal.
Branislav Ivanovic- 7.5/10
Due to Gibbs’ sending off, Arsenal’s left hand attack was severely weakened during the early stages of the match. This led to Brana having a quiet game in defense. What he did, he did without a mistake in attack and defense. He was essentially given a free roaming pass up and down that flank as he carved up Arsenal’s already depleted left hand
Gary Cahill- 7/10
Not much to say about either one of our center halves in this match, due to the severe one-sidedness of this affair.
John Terry- 7/10
Same as Gary Cahill basically
Cesar Azpilicueta- 7.5/10
Dave attacked and defended very well for the Blues in this derby. Kept Rosicky busy in defense and offered another outlet for Hazard on many occasions.
Nemanja Matic-7.5/10
Although Matic played well, he clearly did not play his best due to the lack of attacking threat from Arsenal. He often found himself playing much higher up on the pitch compared to where he normally plays, and he was taking shots more often than usual.
David Luiz- (subbed off 71st minute for Mikel) 8/10
For the 70 odd minutes in which David played, he played very, very well. He made key interceptions in defense and his distribution to our wide players was world class
Andre Shurrle- 8/10
Andre had a wonderful start to this match, assisting in the first goal while scoring the second. As the match progressed he did become sloppy, like the rest of our team though
Oscar- 9/10(Subbed off 66th minute for Salah)
My man of the Match, Oscar had a superb game. He won the ball back on many occasions for the blues as he scored 2 goals. He distribution and breaking power was superb in this game, as he made Arsenal’s defense look second rate.
Eden Hazard- 8/10
You know you are winning comfortably when you can say that Eden Hazard did not have his best game but still caused many problems for the Gunner’s defense. He composedly converted his penalty however.
Samuel Eto’o- (subbed of 9 minutes in for Torres) 7.5/10
Eto’o had a wonderful start to this match scoring the first goal of the match with a wonderful finish off a counter attack. Unfortunately he came off injured within 10 minutes due to an injury
Used Subs:
Fernando Torres: 8/10
The high defensive line, which Arsenal implemented, played right into Chelsea’s hands, especially Torres’. Torres excelled when he was runninh into space causing havoc for the Gunner’s defense. He deserved a goal, however he only managed to assist Oscar’s second goal.
Mohammed Salah: 8/10
Salah used his blistering pace to break through the high Arsenal defense and managed to convert his chance. Salah was consistently making forward runs however he also took part in our defensive set up and proved he is a player who should play more often.
John Obi Mikel: 7.5/10
Mikel was brought on to give Luiz a rest as well as to solidify our defense. The Gunner’s didn’t offer anything in attack so Mikel had a quiet game.
