Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal (Caicedo sent off 38’, Chalobah 48’ | Merino 59’)
STAMFORD BRIDGE — The kind of moments of madness on which Premier League titles can be decided, Moises Caicedo’s red card ought to have been the ultimate get-out-of-jail card for Arsenal. They did not take it.
Despite Chelsea battling for an hour with 10 men, Mikel Arteta’s side were restricted to eight attempts and, though they came from behind to secure a point, will look back on a squandered opportunity to go nine points clear.
Referee Anthony Taylor, for his part, will be relieved that what began as a wonderful battle of tactical attrition did not descend into a mass brawl. With a spate of needless yellow cards – seven in all, three in the first 13 minutes, Taylor regrettably lost control of what was always going to be a heated London derby.
Captains Reece James and Bukayo Saka must have been more than a little bemused when he gathered them in the middle to try and defuse an atmosphere the trigger-happy official had largely created himself.
However much Taylor is always berated at Stamford Bridge, there is no getting away from Chelsea’s fundamental problem. This was their seventh red card of the season, including one for head coach Enzo Maresca, precisely the kind of ill-discipline which is likely to prevent them from challenging Arsenal too closely come May.
Caicedo’s red card
Taylor’s pockets were probably tired by the time Caicedo grazed his studs over the top of Mikel Merino’s ankle. Gabriel Heinze led the remonstrations from the Arsenal bench, who to a man rose to their feet in fury. With Taylor’s gaze occupied elsewhere, it required the VAR to intervene. Caicedo should have had few serious complaints.
Verdict: Red. Right on Merino’s ankle and Caicedo can have no serious complaints.
Hincapie’s elbow
Chelsea did not see it that way, scolding Taylor as he left the field at half-time. There was a certain poetry at least in their opening goal, Trevoh Chalobah scoring with the same face that had been left bruised by Piero Hincapie’s elbow. Hincapie, one of Arsenal’s two deputy centre-backs alongside Cristhian Mosquera in place of injured William Saliba and Gabriel, was only shown a yellow.
Verdict: It was reckless even if he didn’t mean to lead with the elbow but just about a yellow because of lack of intent.
Gyokeres vs Sanchez
It took Saka’s first assist in exactly a year to set up Merino’s header for the equaliser. Arsenal’s false nine continues to prove the ultimate clutch player and a surprise source of unlikely goals. Viktor Gyokeres scented the opportunity to win it at the death, diving in late on Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, earning a yellow of his own.
Verdict: Gyokeres had the right to go for the ball but looked like he knew he was going in late. Probably only a yellow on balance but on another day he might not be so lucky.
In isolation, Arsenal’s failure to capitalise in this game is not going to cost them the title. If anything, it was another impressive showing of their depth given Saliba and Gabriel’s absences, though they looked notably more fragile without them.
This is also still a makeshift attack, with Gyokeres and Martin Odegaard only fit enough to make their appearances in the second half and Gabriel Jesus remaining on the bench on his first return to the squad in 10 months.
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In that light, perhaps they would have taken a point before kick-off, especially coming off the back of victory over Bayern Munich in midweek. For all the depth they added in the summer they are still battling an injury crisis that in previous years would have seen them crumble.
The real question for Arteta is why his team did not go in for the kill in the manner that Chelsea did. That Riccardo Calafiori, Mosquera and Hincapie – and later Myles Lewis-Skelly – were all riding yellow cards for most of the game shifted the mindset right back to where it was against Manchester United on the opening weekend: Arteta loves to win and loves even more not to lose.
In that, he got his wish, but this was not a performance of champions – and however much Maresca likes to play down the prospects of his own young pretenders, they have at the very least kept the title race alive.