Chelsea 0-1 Arsenal: Gunners restore grip on top spot in the Premier League
The style may have evolved from the days of George Graham but the scoreline is familiar: 1-0 to the Arsenal is a regular sight once more and it’s giving rise to title hopes again.
For the fifth time in their last eight games the Gunners won by a single goal at Chelsea on Sunday, scored in the second half by centre-back Gabriel.
The win lifted Mikel Arteta’s team back to the summit of the Premier League and two points clear of the champions, Manchester City.
It also confirmed their best ever return from the first 13 matches of a top-flight season. Arsenal will go into the World Cup break as league leaders – and be top on Christmas Day – if they beat Wolves next weekend.
Arsenal win built on defence
For all that Arsenal possess exciting attackers, this win over Chelsea was one built on their more defensive players.
Gabriel made the decisive intervention in the opposition penalty box in the 63rd minute when he stabbed in a Bukayo Saka corner that was allowed to fly across the goalmouth.
At the other end, his centre-back partner William Saliba caught the eye yet again with another preternaturally assured display.
The France international has been one of the stars of this season so far and a key factor in Arsenal’s five clean sheets from their seven away games in the Premier League.
Aubameyang anonymous against old club
Chelsea offered nowhere near enough threat for a team whose minimum expectation at the start of the season would have been to finish in the top four.
Much was made of former Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang having a point to prove against his old side, but the only one he made was that they were justified in jettisoning him.
On the one occasion he might have beaten his former team-mates, Kai Havertz waited too long to deliver a cross which ended up being wayward and overhit.
Aubameyang lasted just over an hour before he was replaced. Havertz and Mason Mount also offered little, with Raheem Sterling the best of a bad bunch in Chelsea’s front four.
Jesus drought stretches to ninth game
Gabriel Jesus, the man who has inherited Aubameyang’s place as Arsenal’s attacking spearhead, continues to suffer his own struggles in front of goal.
Having scored five times in his first eight league games for the club, he is now goalless in nine – or 851 minutes since his goal against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 October, to be precise.
He missed a golden chance to open the scoring after 28 minutes, hurling himself at Gabriel Martinelli’s cross but sending his diving header wide.
The drought is a concern for Arteta and Jesus himself, especially at a time when he is trying to ensure his place in the Brazil squad at this month’s World Cup.
Plenty to ponder for Potter
Chelsea manager Graham Potter has the bigger worries at present, however, as the fine start to his tenure continues to sour.
Having won five of his first six games in charge and stayed unbeaten for nine, they have now lost back-to-back Premier League fixtures and are winless in four.
While the trend is unwelcome for the former Brighton boss, even more perturbing will be how disjointed the Blues continue to look.
With a midweek trip to Manchester to face City in the Carabao Cup up next followed by a visit to high-flying Newcastle United, the schedule is not about to get much easier for Potter.