One-nil to the Arsenal has not sounded as good to their supporters for some time. Or been as comprehensive. Mikel Arteta’s intense and cohesive team had wanted a statement victory, something to add a further layer of substance to their unlikely Premier League title challenge. How they got it.
The goal was scrappy, a horror show for Graham Potter’s Chelsea, who never got into any kind of stride. They were not allowed to.
William Saliba went to meet Bukayo Saka’s flat delivery from a right-sided corner kick and did not get there and then, in darkly comic fashion, neither did any of the three Chelsea players behind him – Jorginho, Kai Havertz and Thiago Silva. Gabriel Magalhães touched home on the line.
There was much to admire about the Arsenal performance. They did not allow Chelsea the sniff of a clear chance; Potter’s team could have played all day and not scored. After the 4-1 mishap at Brighton last weekend, this was another humbling and there were boos from some home fans at full time.
Arsenal dominated in midfield, where Thomas Partey excelled; it was him and his colleagues who won the challenges and found the room to play and, in Gabriel Jesus, they had a non-stop presence up front. His pressing was remorseless, his quick feet and directness a menace. All that was missing from him was a goal.
And so Arsenal return above Manchester City to the top of the table, relishing their best ever start to a Premier League campaign.
Granit Xhaka enjoyed a confrontation with first Trevoh Chalobah and then Jorginho in stoppage time with the game over – as it had been since Gabriel’s goal. It was as if he wanted to show that he retained control of his temper – the final plank in the supremacy of his team.
Arsenal are on course to be the “winter champions”, as it is called in other parts of Europe, and if that line before the World Cup pause will invite jibes – stirring memories, perhaps, of Arsène Wenger and his “fourth place trophies” – it is quite the barometer of progress.
On this evidence and that of the season so far, Arsenal must be considered as genuine title contenders, even if the assumption remains that City are just too good.
The unusual noon kick-off had required a fair degree of head clearing in the stands but it was easy to feel where the clarity would lie on the field. Arteta’s first-choice lineup picks itself these days, the system fixed, whereas it can be a guessing game with Chelsea, especially as Potter juggles a raft of injury problems.
Potter set up in a 4-2-2-2 formation, the midfield parts fluid, and Arteta saw his team push high, their confidence pronounced. Saka versus Marc Cucurella on the Arsenal right was physical and interesting, with Arteta raging when Saka went down under a first-half challenge from the Chelsea man and there was no foul. Saka chased back and kicked Cucurella to pick up a yellow card. In the heat of the moment, Potter yelled that Saka had dived.
Chelsea had little time on the ball and their passing was consequently loose, the errors all too visible. More worrying for them as the first half wore on was the lack of options for their player in possession. The only one that they really exploited before the interval was the pass up the inside right for Havertz. Twice he got in around the back only to fluff the cross.
Arsenal could not turn their first-half superiority into the breakthrough. They had the chances, three of varying difficulty, the best created by Gabriel Martinelli for Jesus on the half hour. After a flowing move from the edge of their own area, Martinelli whipped the ball towards the far post only for Jesus to momentarily check his run. He restarted but he was then stretching for the diving header and could not direct it.
Before that, Ben White dragged past the far corner while Jesus had a shot blocked by Silva after robbing Ruben Loftus-Cheek and exploding away from two blue shirts.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was determined to shine against his former club but it was an afternoon to forget for him. The Arsenal fans were in the mood to boo his every touch, only he had barely any of them, and his frustration was reflected in a late tackle on White for which he was booked. Saliba and Gabriel were too much for him and, indeed, Raheem Sterling.
Arsenal continued to radiate belief after the interval; Chelsea looked hurried and disjointed. Partey glanced wide from a corner when he might have been better leaving the ball for Martinelli behind him, and the goal followed another moment of Jesus hustle. He tracked back to dispossess Silva and, after playing a one-two, he forced Édouard Mendy to tip behind at the near post.
Saka and Gabriel combined on the corner and, thereafter, Arsenal might have had more only for Saka to blaze high at the far post and Martin Ødegaard to overcook a chip after yet another Jesus surge. The gap between the teams was plain.
