Date: 20th August 2018 at 10:15pm
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A Blue Up North reviews a captivating London derby.

This Saturday’s teatime kick off saw the first London derby of the Premier League season, as Chelsea hosted Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Both clubs had experienced relatively poor league performances last season and had changed their managers during the summer break.

Both Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery are experienced managers who demand that their teams express their footballing beliefs on the field of play. And it is clear from this match that both managers will bring a lot of colour and entertainment to English football’s top flight. This early season clash proved to all watching what this could entail.

The first half was as chaotic as it was beautiful to watch. It was football played at it’s fullest extremes. Breathtaking attacking play alongside static defending. Outstanding finishing interspersed with shocking misses. Quality break up play despite woeful marking.

The Blues started with the same starting XI who opened the season at Huddersfield last Saturday. The Gunners made 2 changes including reinstalling Nacho Monreal at left back. The opening spell saw the home side start to take control. With both N’Golo Kante and Jorginho in midfield winning possession back at will, the visitors’ high defensive line and Sarri’s requirement that his team play on the front foot, it did not come as a surprise when Chelsea took an early lead.

In their previous match, away at Huddersfield, Chelsea’s midfield 3 sat up to 10 yards further back for a spell after their opening goal and their full backs remained in defensive positions creating a fairly narrow back 4. However, against The Gunners, the Chelsea players continued with their attacking mindset.

Maybe a combination of prematch beliefs that The Blues were strong favourites to regain their winning ways over their North London rivals and how easily they were finding the space in behind the visitors’ back line, caused Sarri’s side to end up with an overly cavalier attacking set up. The 2 full backs, especially Marcos Alonso on the left, played more similarly to his wing back role from the previous 2 seasons.

Yes, Arsenal looked extremely vulnerable in defence, but they have quality going forward. A counter attack utilising the space created behind an advanced Alonso, set Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up with a glorious chance to surprisingly level the scores, but he blazed over. This should have been a warning sign for The Blues.

However, within a minute, Alvaro Morata was able to outrun the Arsenal defence from the half way line and double Chelsea’s lead. Only 20 minutes had gone and the home side seemed to be able to score at will and this derby match looked more like men v boys. With this in mind, the home side seemed to believe they could repeat the 6-0 score line from March 2014.

Instead, and despite their inability to defend well themselves, the away side showed character and a willingness to prove that they are not as bad as they were in the opening 20 minutes. They continued to take advantage of the space behind the home full backs and very static defenders in the Chelsea penalty box.

Before half time, Arsenal had not only levelled the scores but had had the better chances to take an extremely unlikely lead. Surely this mad set up and mind set from the Chelsea side had to stop and it was clear that both managers had seen too much generosity from their defensive units.

The second half saw Sarri’s side show more respect to their opponent’s possession. Their work rate to be better set up defensively whenever they lost possession stifled any Arsenal counter attack. And then with The Blues back in control of possession, Sarri was able to demonstrate the greater strength of his squad compared to his opponent’s. Talisman Eden Hazard and new signing Mateo Kovacic were introduced on the hour mark. We have seen time and again that The Gunners are unable to stop the Belgian wizard, and his dribbling and link up play reinvigorated The Blues in attack.

Kovacic, in his first few minutes of playing in a blue shirt, proved why the manager wanted him in his squad. The Croat was the epitome of lesson one in how to be a midfielder and all young aspiring players would do well replicate his style. He glided around the pitch, demanding the ball constantly from his teammates and then efficiently passed the ball on and immediately moved 10 yards in a different direction creating space and another outlet for a return pass. The Arsenal midfield had no hope of retrieving possession and Chelsea were now in complete control.

Emery realised his team’s predicament and made changes himself which had signs of hanging on for a draw. The match had turned into a very one sided affair, which looked more like a top side dominating over a struggling bottom half of the table side. It was surely a matter of time until The Blues got their winning goal and it was only fitting that the winner was created by a Hazard run and cross and finished off by Alonso. The Spaniard’s attacking approach had been the catalyst of such a chaotic first half of chances and goals at both ends of the pitch.

This may not have been how most people had expected The Blues were going to be victorious but, win they did. Chelsea may be sat proudly at the top of The Premier League, but this match will have created as many questions for Maurizio Sarri to resolve as it would have given him answers.

The Italian rightly admitted after the match that his side are still a distance away from the level that the current champions Manchester City are at. Yes, if it had been The Citizens as opponents they would have converted far more than just 2 of Arsenal’s goal chances. However, Chelsea would not have been sent out against Pep Guardiola’s side with such an overly attack minded set up and mentality.

So the first London derby of the season was full of both positives and negatives for Sarri’s Chelsea. Jorginho and Kante are top quality midfielders. Ross Barkley is improving with every start, while Pedro buzzed around the pitch and deserved his goal. Morata again showed improving signs and hopefully his well taken goal will continue to rebuild his confidence. Kovacic, similar to Jorginho, showed quality signs which will ensure The Blues maintain good possession and allow them to dominate matches.

Sarri is correctly easing Hazard back into the side from the substitute’s bench. He does not look match fit enough to start but has had huge impacts on both matches with his cameo appearances. Alonso is a great asset going forward and loves to make himself available in the opponent’s penalty box, but this is not the role of a full back. This is a conundrum that the manager will need to resolve.

But surely the biggest headache Sarri will take from this victory will be how static his defence was as the opposition got to the byline and crossed the ball. Instead of any player shouting and taking control, they all acted like cones on the training field.

Chelsea now go into a run of 4 Premier League matches against sides not expected to be challenging for European Places at the end of the season. It will be a run that the manager will look forward to addressing these issues whilst continuing to instil his style of play. And that is why, despite the defensive issues, the victory was all important. The Blues now have a chance to continue their winning start for a while yet.

Written by Jon Ellis, home and away season ticket holder. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue.

 

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