Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his teams first goal with Wesley Fofana and Reece James of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2025 in London, England.placeholder image
Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea celebrates after scoring his teams first goal with Wesley Fofana and Reece James of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2025 in London, England. | Getty Images
Chelsea produced a hugely-impressive performance on Sunday afternoon as they held Premier League leaders Arsenal to a 1-1 draw
Moises Caicedo was sent off in the 38th minute for a rash challenge that was initially a yellow card before a VAR review saw it upgraded to a red.
Chelsea took the lead in the 48th minute, however, as Trevoh Chalobah headed in from a corner. Arsenal got themselves level through Mikel Merino just before the hour mark. However, despite the man advantage - the Gunners were unable to kick on as Chelsea claimed an impressive point.
Arsenal remain six points clear of Chelsea in the Premier League title race but their lead over Manchester City is now five points, after Pep Guardiola’s men beat Leeds United 3-2 on Saturday afternoon. They had led 2-0 before being pegged back to 2-2 with Phil Foden scoring a 91st minute winner.
Stelling was presenting talkSPORT on Monday morning and said that James was easily the best player in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw as he said it wasn't ‘even a contest’.
James swung in the corner that was headed in by Chalobah while he had 49 touches with three out of four accurate crosses and two out of three accurate long balls. He won six of his seven ground duels and five of his six aerial duels.
London World handed James a 9/10 rating for his display and wrote: “Phenomenal. This was Reece James at his very best. Moving into a defensive midfield position, the captain was here, there and everywhere. A calming presence and constantly vocal to organise his side. Without him, fraying Blues tempers may have been out of control.”
"Reece was been fantastic, [he was] top, very good," said Enzo Maresca afterwards.
"Now, we have a game on Wednesday. We need to manage him, we need to control him, we need to control a little bit his situation. But he was very good tonight."
He said: “We’re talking about a player who has been in the first team environment for many years. He’s struggled with injuries throughout his career but there’s no doubt he’s an absolutely unbelievable football player.
“The versatility he brings to this team, the set pieces, he’s got all the tools to play in midfield and at right-back. He was an absolute beast today. Gave them so much running power in midfield, it was a very experienced and professional performance from him. He played very, very well.”
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