Arsenal: Kepa, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Trossard, Saka, Gyokeres
Subs: Raya, Jesus, Eze, Martinelli, Norgaard, Madueke, Merino, Havertz, Lewis-Skelly
Arsenal will take an important lead into their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea, after winning the first leg 3-2 at Stamford Bridge thanks to goals from Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi.
Mikel Arteta made eight changes from the side that won against Portsmouth last time out, with William Saliba and Leandro Trossard both shaking off knocks to start.
Myles Lewis-Skelly was forced to settle for a place on the bench with Jurrien Timber coming in at left back, and White keeping his place at right back.
FIRST HALF
It was a dream start for Arsenal who took the lead after just six minutes when Ben White rose highest in the box to head home another pinpoint corner from Declan Rice, with Blues goalkeeper Robert Sanchez caught in no man’s land. 0-1.
Chelsea, clearly shocked by that early goal, were looking increasingly nervous at the back and looked like giving the ball away every time they built from the back, with Fofana and Sanchez the main culprits.
The pitch was awful and cutting up far too easily, but it’s clear Arsenal were smelling blood and using both players as pressing triggers.
There was another sight of goal for Arteta’s men when Martin Zubimendi broke forward from midfield, before picking out Viktor Gyokeres in the middle whose spin and shot was deflected wide by Chalobah.
Approaching the half hour mark, Chelsea put their best passage of play together when Joao Pedro was played through and scuffed an effort across the Gunners penalty area, before Estevao stung the palms of Kepa after cutting inside Timber and rifling an effort towards goal.
But Arsenal continued to pose a threat and Trossard went close after combining well with Timber, before Saliba found himself – in space – on the edge of the box, before curling just over the bar with Sanchez scrambling.
SECOND HALF
Arsenal benefitted from an early goal in the first half and history repeated itself in the second with the Gunners needing just four minutes to score after the restart – and it came from the right boot of Gyokeres.
After White did well to spring Saka in behind with a quick throw in (thank you Thomas Gronnemark), Saka brushed off Cucurella and waited for White who broke forward on the overlap, and his low cross was spilled by Sanchez straight into the path of Gyokeres who bundled in from close range. 0-2.
You could hear a pin drop in the stadium by that point and Chelsea looked like conceding a third if anything – which led to Liam Rosenior making a double change to try and inject his side with fresh energy.
And those changes paid instant dividends when Alejandro Garnacho, who had just replaced Guiu, found himself unmarked at the back post to control and strike past Kepa to make the scoreline interesting again. 1-2.
The goal felt avoidable from an Arsenal perspective with a couple of bad passes (and an unfortunate slip from Zubimendi) being punished to the maximum, but I don’t think those in red will be entirely happy with their defensive efforts overall.
But the game did eventually settle and after Arteta introduced both Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli for Odegaard and Trossard, Zubimendi added a third with a brilliant piece of individual play.
After the ball made its way to Gyokeres following a flowing, team move, the Swede found Zubimendi making a late run into the box, who showed great feet and composure to cut inside Fofana, leave him on his arse and curl a brilliant left-footed strike into the far corner. 1-3.
That goal seemed to puncture the atmosphere once again, and only an unbelievable save from Sanchez denied Merino a fourth before Gabriel headed over when he probably should have scored from the resulting corner.
Arteta made more changes with ten minutes to play with Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz replacing Rice and Gyokeres, with the latter bagging a much-needed goal and an assist.
Despite Chelsea looking out of ideas, they found another route back into the game after Estevao did well to win a corner out of Timber, before the resulting delivery fell to Garnacho again who snuck another effort beyond Gabriel on the line. 2-3.
Kepa claimed he was fouled and you could potentially see why after he was bumped by Hato, but ultimately, he wasn’t strong enough and didn’t get near the ball having come out to punch it.
Despite getting another goal back, the hosts huffed and puffed but couldn’t break Arsenal’s house down and they now take an important 3-2 lead into their second leg at Emirates Stadium in early February.