Match Report: Chelsea 3 – Arsenal 5
We lost even more ground on the two Manchester clubs at the top of the Premiership table with some very, very questionable defending in a 5-3 defeat to Arsenal.
We started sharply and should have opened the scoring as Daniel Sturridge looked to play the ball across to Fernando Torres who had an open goal to shoot at, but Sturridge’s pass was wayward and went straight into the arms of Szczesny.
Arsenal had their own reasons to be disappointed a few moments later as Theo Walcott got behind Ashley Cole before delivering a low cross, but Gervinho somehow missed the target from just a matter of yards out
Less than a minute later, Robin Van Persie got himself on another very good Walcott cross, but he connected with it after the ball bounced up and it cleared the crossbar.
The Gunners were made to rue those misses as Frank Lampard gave us the lead after 13 minutes. Juan Mata beat Andre Santos before putting in a brilliant delivery for Lampard to head past Szczesny. This was the 6,000th goal scored by Chelsea.
Just before the half-hour Daniel Sturridge should have added a second for us as Lampard played a geat ball over the top of the Arsenal defence but he scuffed his shot past the far post.
Arsenal got their equaliser in the 35th minute after a move started by a forward pass from Aaron Ramsey to Gervinho. He squared the ball to Van Persie as Petr Cech approached, giving him an easy finish.
They were only level for 10 minutes though as John Terry bundled the ball past Szczesny after out-muscling Per Mertesacker at a corner to give us the lead at half time.
The teams had not even been out for 40 seconds in the second half when Van Persie registered another chance, but it was Santos who got the equaliser. Alex Song picked him out down the left and he stroked the ball past Cech.
Arsenal then got themselves into the lead for the first time of the day. Walcott marched through the Chelsea defence, fell over, got through again and produced a strike beating Petr Cech.
Arsenal couldn’t keep hold of their lead though as up stepped Mata in the 80th minute, smashing a fantastic effort towards the far side of the goal, giving Szczesny no chance whatsoever.
Four minutes later, however, suspect defending reared its head again. Florent Malouda playing a poor pass back to John Terry who slipped over giving Van Persie a free route to goal rounding Petr Cech to make it 4-3 to the visitors.
A minute into stoppage time, Arsenal secured the three points. Van Persie scored his hat-trick when Arteta picked him out and he smashed a swerving effort past Cech.
We now look ahead to two away games in a week, at Genk in the Champions League and at Blackburn in the Premier League next weekend.
Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep
Chelsea
• 01 Cech
• 02 Ivanovic – yellow card
• 03 Cole
• 17 Bosingwa
• 26 Terry
• 07 Ramires (Lukaku 72)
• 08 Lampard
• 12 Mikel (Meireles 76 – yellow card)
• 09 Torres
• 10 Mata
• 23 Sturridge (Malouda 62)
Substitutes
• 46 Blackman,
• 04 David Luiz,
• 34 Bertrand,
• 06 Romeu,
• 15 Malouda,
• 16 Meireles,
• 18 Lukaku
Arsenal
• 13 Szczesny – yellow card
• 04 Mertesacker
• 06 Koscielny
• 11 Santos
• 20 Djourou (Jenkinson 75)
• 08 Arteta
• 14 Walcott (Rosicky 79)
• 16 Ramsey
• 17 Song – yellow card
• 10 Van Persie – yellow card
• 27 Gervinho (Vermaelen 88)
Substitutes
• 21 Fabianski,
• 05 Vermaelen,
• 25 Jenkinson,
• 07 Rosicky,
• 23 Arshavin,
• 26 Frimpong,
• 09 Park Chu-Young
Ref: Marriner
Att: 41,801