SteemSports Presenter:@timoshey
SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets
It was arguably the game of the season as the two teams played out their hearts not minding the fatigue of the festive period to produce a very entertaining and quite balanced game as you would see from the stats. Arsene Wenger had to deal with rotating his defense due to the fact that Koscielny, Monreal, and Kolasinac were injured. They were replaced by Chambers, Holding, and Niles who had a very good day at work once again. When the line-up was out, most Arsenal fans were already fearing the worst due to the inexperienced defenders against a very good Hazard and prolific Morata. But asides a few mistakes committed by these guys (Holding and Chambers), they were not that bad in general.
Both managers played the exact same formation (3-4-2-1) and it was obvious that both teams had the same game strategy. Hazard played up front alongside Morata while Fabregas, Kante, and Bakayoko completed the 3-man midfield. The same thing was seen with Arsenal where Sanchez went up front to help out Lacazette while Ozil, Xhaka, and Wilshere were the 3 midfielders. This very cautious approach by both managers resulted in a very tight first half with little to separate both sides.
The first chance of the game fell to Alvaro Morata who was put through on goal after a mistake from Chambers but Morata could only fire the ball wide. Courtois was then called to action and was able to tip Sanchez fierce shot onto both posts before gracefully gathering the rebound. That was a wonderful save from the Chelsea goalkeeper. Moments later, Courtois was once again called upon as he was able to parry Lacazette’s low effort. After these waves of attack from Arsenal, it was then time for Chelsea to test Cech in goal and Cech had to be alert to tip Bakayoko’s effort over the bar. He also did well to make a double save to deny Hazard and Alonso from opening the lead.
In the 63rd minute of the game, the deadlock was broken as Wilshere lashed on to the ball and struck a thunderous shot into the net which Courtois had no answer to.But just 4 minutes later, parity was restored as the referee gave a contentious penalty decision in favor of Chelsea which Hazard dispatched easily. If Arsenal were feeling down after this decision, more misery was added in the 84th minute when substitute Zappacosta was able to beat Niles on the wing and sent an inviting cross into the Arsenal box which Alonso was able to steer home beyond Cech. At that point, it felt that the game was already won for the Blues, but more drama was yet to unfold as 2 minutes into additional time, Bellerin capitalized on a poor headed clearance by Alonso to volley the ball first time beyond Courtois and into the net. Game On. The Gunners fans were still in the celebrating mood when Morata was put through on goal one on one against Cech and like he did the two times earlier, he could only aim his shot directly at Cech and the rebound shot from Zappacosta could only painfully rattle the crossbar. What an amazing end to a very entertaining game of football.
Arsenal will still play Chelsea twice this month and we can just hope to be treated to this level of entertainment.
Arsenal Starting XI:
Petr Cech; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Jack Wilshere, Granit Xhaka; Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez; Alexandre Lacazette.
Chelsea Starting XI:
Courtois; Gary Cahill, Andrea Christensen, Caesar Azpilicueta, Victor Moses; Ngolo Kante, Bakayoko, Marcus Alonso; Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard, Alvaro Morata.
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This is the game where it became glaring that morata is not the messiah chelsea fans thought him to be, At least not yet. Missing those type of chances at this level is unforgivable .
On the overall balance of play, chelsea probaby deserved to edge this game, they created more clear cut chances and looked dangerous going forward. Chelsea were unlucky.
Cracking game! One of the best in the Premier League so far this season. Could easily have ended 4-4 with better finishing.
Spot On! It was a very entertaining derby. Morata just lost so many fans even on the Fantasy League.