Arsenal secured a vital win over Chelsea but left fans nervous as they edged closer to the Premier League title – and there are more hurdles to come if they're to see off Manchester City's threat
06:00, 02 Mar 2026
Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta needs to find a way to keep his players calm after Chelsea win
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Arsenal's Spanish manager Mikel Arteta needs to find a way to keep his players calm after Chelsea win(Image: Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)
I genuinely don’t know if I can do this, do you? I should have been wearing my Fitbit to measure my heart rate in the final minutes of Arsenal’s win over Chelsea because once again the Gunners left me yearning for the full-time whistle.
From Sunderland to Aston Villa, to Crystal Palace and Manchester United and of course away at Wolves, we have been burned. As fans and then of course as writers, ripping up match report introductions and headlines frantically rethought.
When Liam Delap put the ball in the back of the net, my neck muscles instinctively and thankfully turned toward the assistant referee, who mercifully had raised his flag. Replays showed Joao Pedro was rather far offside, but in that moment, I had full belief another 2-2 catastrophe had occurred.
If this is how it is meant to be until the end of the season, it is going to be an experience. Arsenal completed just seven passes after the 85th minute of the match, that in itself shows you the lack of composure and calm the team is showing.
I put this very metric to Arteta after the match, and he made the fair point of just how difficult it is to train his players on this type of scenario.
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“That's what we have to do,” he said. “To train game context in those scenarios is becoming really difficult because we don't have time to train.
“To replicate those moments is almost impossible because the emotional part is not there, and the quality of the opponent, you cannot do it basically.
“But it's certainly something that we'll discuss tomorrow because we have to improve it and do better, but at the same time, you have to give credit to Chelsea for the manner that they've done it, the way they use the keeper as an extra player, the courage that they showed, how they get out from tight situations is unbelievable.
“Caicedo, Lavia, Cole. There's not many players that can do that and it causes you the problem and turn you around.”
Speaking of the “courage” as Arteta called it. How Arsenal failed to maximise the chaos of Robert Sanchez I will never know... those moments were begging to be put away.
How many times have I seen teams maximise so much of the very little they get against Arsenal, and then I find myself tuning into whoever Manchester City might be playing against, and despite having chance after chance, they all go begging. It was like this as Pep Guardiola took three points off Leeds United on Saturday.
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Yet Arsenal go into half-time at 1-1 despite having not yet conceded a single shot on target. Wolves score from the craziest of situations, and if you go further back, Dominik Szoboszlai scores an unbelievable free-kick, or Emi Buendia happens to smash the ball into the back of the net for Aston Villa with the last kick of the game.
The margins are just so incredibly fine, and so far, despite certainly suffering plenty of misfortune, it just feels like Arsenal are still riding their luck. I need more, Arsenal need more, and if they are to win the league with these nine games remaining, the Gunners have to give more.
Winning against Chelsea is brilliant, and should they win at Brighton, that means just one trip outside of London in the Premier League remains for the Gunners, the Etihad Stadium. Take stock for just a second and realise that fact, after Wednesday, Arsenal will leave London just one more time.
But then, I give myself that reminder to also take a step back. To look at the bigger picture, and despite feeling as though the nerves were going to consume me, look at the game state.
Chelsea, down to ten, with nothing to lose, could throw caution to the wind and go for it, and they did. While we might have been lacking in composure, our big players stepped up, particularly David Raya.
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I will gladly take these three points, recognise that there was one team on that pitch vastly superior to the other, and, in the end, the scoreline flattered the side that lost. And if Arsenal are going to be the superior team in each of these games for the final nine matches, then they have a brilliant, overwhelming chance of winning this title.
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