PREMIER League, MARCH 1 2026
Arsenal 2Chelsea 1
Saliba (21)
Timber (66)
Hincapié OG (45+2)
Arsenal restored a five-point lead over Manchester City with this London derby win. They had to work hard to edge past Chelsea, who finished the game with 10 players after Pedro Neto was shown a second yellow card in the 70th minute.
All three goals in the game came from corners, as Arsenal equalled the Premier League-era record for goals from this type of set-piece, notching their 15th and 16th of the season. Although Manchester City have a game in hand, the Gunners will be delighted to have the points on the board as winter turns to spring. Below, our UEFA-A licensed coaches have analysed how they matched up with Chelsea.
How the managers saw it
“We weren’t getting the dominance and the sequences of play that we wanted and expected against the 10 men,” said Mikel Arteta. “We hadn’t scored from set-pieces for a few weeks now, but we scored so many in open play. Today was an option to score from this kind of [set-piece] situation. We’ve done it so well, but we conceded [a set-piece goal] as well.”
“We worked on set-plays all week and, as a manager, that makes it even more difficult to swallow,” said Liam Rosenior. “If we don’t eradicate the set-play issues that have started to creep into our game – and our discipline issues – then for all of the good things we do in the game, we are not going to get what we want to achieve.”
Starting line-ups
ArsenalChelsea
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Arsenal4-2-3-1
Chelsea4-3-3
1David Raya
1Robert Sánchez
5Piero Hincapié
24Reece James
6Gabriel
23Trevoh Chalobah
2William Saliba
19Mamadou Sarr
12Jurriën Timber
21Jorrel Hato
41Declan Rice
25Moisés Caicedo
36Martín Zubimendi
17Andrey Santos
19Leandro Trossard
8Enzo Fernández
10Eberechi Eze
7Pedro Neto
7Bukayo Saka
20João Pedro
14Viktor Gyökeres
10Cole Palmer
Match stats
ArsenalChelsea
12/4
SHOTS / ON TARGET
8/2
44%
POSSESSION
56%
24
ATTACKS INTO AREA
14
1.46
EXPECTED GOALS (XG)
1.01
Palmer moving inside
Chelsea started the game strong, set up in a 4-3-3 with Cole Palmer initially on the left but moving inside into central midfield. Rosenior’s team then had significant numbers through the middle of the pitch, with Arsenal’s central midfield unsure how to deal with it.
As Palmer came inside he sometimes attracted the attention of an Arsenal midfielder. That meant one of Chelsea’s midfielders – usually Enzo Fernández – could rotate out to the away team’s left to receive in space, with Bukayo Saka already quite high with his defensive positioning on Arsenal’s right (below).
There were also moments where Palmer was joined in midfield by right-back Reece James. To account for this, one of the double pivot of Andrey Santos and Moisés Caicedo dropped out, splitting Chelsea’s two centre-backs. As Palmer consistently moved into midfield, Chelsea left-back Jorrel Hato moved very high to occupy Jurriën Timber, stopping him from following Palmer inside (below). With James central too, Chelsea were able to have significant spells of possession.
These movements and rotations had a significant impact on how Chelsea approached the final third – with central numbers, as Palmer operated between the lines and Hato held the width, wide left. Fernández could then drop out to receive and link the play via the double pivot on this side, with James providing similar support inside of Neto, who held the width wide right. James also moved inside to add another presence in midfield, sometimes when Fernández moved out, but also to push Palmer even higher, closer to centre-forward João Pedro (below).
Arsenal’s solutions
Arsenal responded to Chelsea’s central numbers by bumping a central defender on to Palmer. Although this left them man-for-man at the back, it allowed them to cover each of Chelsea’s central players, as well as maintain a presence high up the pitch for regains of possession. Arsenal’s advancing centre-back enabled Eberechi Eze, and either Declan Rice or Martín Zubimendi, to move on to Chelsea’s double pivot, making it much more difficult for the visitors to bounce play out of central pressure (below). Leandro Trossard followed James, high or low, and eventually moved inside with his man, too.
Arsenal then changed their press to use Saka more with Viktor Gyökeres, pressing from out to in. This limited how Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez could find his centre-backs directly, so the visitors continued to look for their central midfielders to bounce their way out and find Trevoh Chalobah or Mamadou Sarr. But with Arsenal having a central presence via their high centre-back, and Sánchez at times making some awkward decisions and passes, Arsenal gained some high regains and momentum. They did little in terms of turning this into chances, but it did disrupt what had been sustained Chelsea possession.
In the second-half Arsenal again adapted their press, this time to force the play wider to totally nullify any central Chelsea play and attempts to bounce the ball out wide. Gyökeres started the press, showing the ball to Arsenal’s right side. Eze then dropped back, stopping Chelsea bouncing the ball behind Gyökeres, but also leaving Sarr free as an obvious pass to receive from Sánchez – Saka’s defensive positioning initially being much deeper. Once the ball moved to Chelsea’s left, Eze jumped across, cutting off the pass to his direct man in the process. Saka would then do the same as the ball was funnelled to the wide area, as Arsenal’s amended press nullified most of Chelsea's deeper build, especially from goal kicks.
Limited attacking play
Unlike Arsenal’s defensive adaptability and quality, with the ball they too often lacked conviction and quality. A key pattern for the home side saw left winger Trossard roll inside to receive on the move. This often came when Rice dropped out, pulling his direct marker across as Chelsea used a 4-2-3-1 to defend, operating man-for-man in central midfield. Palmer jumped from the visitor’s left as Trossard came inside to receive, with Piero Hincapié running the other way, largely as a decoy run to free Trossard. From here, Timber ran off the back of Palmer to work the ball into Saka, who was Arsenal’s main threat.
Whenever James followed Trossard (and later his replacement, Gabriel Martinelli), Arsenal spun balls into Gyökeres, who made bending runs across Chelsea’s back line. Here, he looked to take advantage of space left by the Chelsea right-back, ending up in a physical and combative 1v1 battle with Chalobah. Although Arsenal did manage to work the ball into the final third at times, they lacked numbers, with many of their central midfielders showing short or dropping under the ball, giving Gyökeres limited options and support.
Arsenal’s attacking from open play was limited, but two goals from corners – plus Chelsea’s red card – put them in a position to claim all three points. As the season reaches its climax, results will be all that matters to Arteta and his team as they chase trophies on all four fronts – not least a first Premier League title for the club since 2004.
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