Arsenal - Chelsea Review

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It is now 1,653 days since Chelsea last tasted victory at the Emirates. Three months after conquering Man City in Porto, on Romelu Lukaku’s second homecoming, the performance exuded the Chelsea of old. Lukaku bullied Pablo Mari for the first like Drogba toyed with Senderos’ mind, a nod to the old titans by the new European Champions.

With every passing game against Arsenal, whatever remains of the vivid colours of those glorious memories drains away a little bit more. The realization inches ever so closer - an era has ended, tables have turned. The mighty have fallen; and worse, they refuse to do anything about it.

Reece James started in that 0-2 win, the only survivor from the XI who played today. Trev Chalobah was on the bench that day. Unsurprisingly, the only two players with a genuine understanding of what it means to lose to Arsenal as Chelsea fans played like defeat would be nothing short of grave personal insult.

On an evening when multiple players slipped on slick grass and mistakes in possession multiplied, Rosenior, like his dogmatic predecessor, stuck to asking his side to play out of Arsenal’s press. It was an intriguing call, considering Chelsea had committed 48 errors leading to shots in the past 55 PL games, 19 of them leading to goals.

The result of resorting to that high risk endeavour was that Chelsea lost the ball 28 times close to their own goal, conceding three dangerous shots. This was more than twice Arsenal’s 12. Repeatedly, Arsenal’s press funnelled the ball to the weaker left side of Sarr and Hato. Numerous times both panicked on not finding an option for a diagonal pass and cleared balls that came back twice as fast.

It was not until later in the 2nd half where Sanchez and the backline switched to a more direct route that Chelsea forced turnovers and errors of their own. Momentum built, mistakes crept in and weighed heavily on the shoulders of a team regularly known to collapse under the brunt of a title challenge. Reece’s excellent corner forced Hincapie into a mistake, and suddenly, the game had swung.

Chelsea fans have not placed undue demands on Rosenior’s tactics. They have, however, consistently demanded two non-negotiables - discipline and defensive set-pieces. Pedro Neto responded by becoming the 9th Chelsea player to be sent off this season; the 7th different player to be expelled in the league. At the current rate of a red every 3 games, Chelsea are on track to equal QPR and Sunderland’s acrimonious record of 10 reds in a season. The finished 16th and 17th respectively.

“You can fine players, it's not about punishment,” said Rosenior, when asked about a toxic addiction to accumulating reds. “It's about finding the reason why.” Maresca’s Chelsea accumulated seven red cards in the season and a half he arrived at Chelsea. His Strasbourg side accumulated the exact same number within the same time frame, which makes one wonder why Rosenior has seen the same issue in two different places but still can’t put his finger on it.

Perhaps the 1st and the 2nd youngest squads in Europe’s top 5 leagues enduring the same issue is a good place to start, but that would mean putting the blame on the ones who simply cannot do any wrong. It also does not explain why the last two expulsions have been the experienced duo of Pedro Neto and Wesley Fofana. But Rosenior was right when he said that if this was not corrected, it would cost the club dearly.

There was an interesting graphic crafted by MarkRStats which charted a team’s xG allowed against what they generated when they had 11 men on the field. Chelsea proved to be the league’s best when they had parity on the grass. The problem is they’ve spent 1/3rd of the league games this season with a man fewer, and that opponents like Burnley and Leeds have just waited for the Blues to self-sabotage before landing the finishing blow.

Opta’s supercomputer ranked Chelsea’s remaining fixtures as the toughest of all PL clubs. With the club recording pre-tax losses of €407m, the highest in English football history and the 2nd highest in UEFA history, slipping into the Europa League could have seismic repercussions on and off the field. If that realization doesn’t fix issues, nothing else will.

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