Chelsea Rattle Arsenal And Prove They Belong In Title Race

Arsenal’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon was billed as the latest test of their title credentials.

In the end, a pulsating and ill-tempered 1-1 draw arguably said more about Chelsea than it did about Mikel Arteta’s team.

The Blues arrived into the fixture second in the Premier League six points behind their London rivals, but accompanied by more questions than answers.

Was Chelsea’s position on the table a true reflection of their merits or simply down to Manchester City and Liverpool underperforming?

City started the weekend a point behind Chelsea but were – and in some quarters still are – widely regarded as the biggest threat to Arsenal’s chances of lifting a first league title since 2004.

And while the draw leaves the gap between Chelsea and Arsenal unchanged, Enzo Maresca’s men showed they deserve to be in the conversation. If not to win the title, then certainly to give Arsenal a run for their money.

Chelsea, after all, have not finished above their London rivals since 2022 and had, if anything, only drifted further away until Maresca’s appointment.

Arsenal had swept past Tottenham last week and overpowered Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, but they were rattled by Chelsea’s physicality on Sunday.

Marc Cuccurrella set the tone with a robust challenge on Bukayo Saka, before a flurry of yellow cards left referee Anthony Taylor’s pocket in the first half.

This was a throwback to a different Premier League era, where neat patterns of play and structures fell by the wayside and were replaced by two teams slamming into each other.

And if the football on display was perhaps a little underwhelming, there was still something enjoyable in seeing two of the best team in the league slugging it out.

Admittedly, Chelsea’s aggression almost took the game away from them, when Moises Caicedo was sent off for a wild lunge on Mikel Merino with 61 minutes still to play.

Chelsea must address poor discipline

Maresca conceded the Ecuadorian could have no complaints, but insisted inconsistent refereeing throughout the Premier League made it difficult to accept the decisions.

The Chelsea manager pointed to Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur escaping a red card for a crunching tackle on Reece James last month.

“I think he red card is the red card,” he told Sky Sports afterward.

“I struggle to understand the different ways to judge. What about [Rodrigo] Bentancur to Reece [James]? Why is one a red card and one isn’t?

“I think it’s a red card tonight, it’s clear. Why the difference? Is what it is.

While Maresca is far from alone in complaining about a lack of consistency from the match officials, his team’s disciplinary record deserves just as much scrutiny.

Caicedo’s sending off was Chelsea’s sixth red card of the campaign – seventh when factoring in Maresca’s own sending off against Liverpool – a spectacularly poor record four months into the season.

And yet Maresca also deserves credit, for while Chelsea fell to pieces after going to 10 men in defeats against Manchester United and Brighton earlier this season, they stood up to Arsenal on Sunday.

Chelsea were the better team before Caicedo’s sending off and when Trevoh Chalobah headed them in front early in the second half, their lead was deserved.

Merino’s header 10 minutes later drew Arsenal level and means the Blues will have to wait at least another 12 months for their first win in this fixture since 2018.

But if there was any disappointment at not cutting the gap to Arsenal to three points, Chelsea can take solace from a resolute performance, in which they limited their opponent to the fewest number of shots they have taken this year.

“I think we showed we are heading in the right direction,” Maresca said.

“I always say the same. The performance has been fantastic. We were a much better team than them 11 v 11 but with 10 players, it is difficult but we dealt with it outstandingly.

“Tonight we can be happy even if we didn’t win.”

If there is a lesson to be learnt from Chelsea is certainly that any team with legitimate title aspirations must be able to control their aggression.

While their physicality unsettled their opponents, there were times when they seemed to be walking far too close to the edge.

A good point for Arsenal?

For Arteta and Arsenal, meanwhile, this was both a valuable point and a draw tinged with disappointment given the circumstances as Arteta admitted afterward.

“It’s been a big week, starting with the derby,” he said. “Then to play Bayern Munich three days later [and] we lost players in those games.

“I think overall it’s been a really positive week because the difficulty was immense,” added Arteta.

“But I have this flavour that today we should have and we could have won the game and we haven’t. That’s a learning point from it.”

Arsenal remain the team to beat this season and the favourites to lift the title, but on Sunday Chelsea proved they belong in the conversation.