Arsenal steals 3 points at Stamford Bridge

I am thrilled Arsenal defeated Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for the first time in many moons, and it is exciting to see the Gunners sweep the “double” from the Blues, again for the first time in many more moons. HOWEVER, as an Arsenal supporter, it’s hard to be completely thrilled by the team’s performance on Wednesday. First, Arsenal had only 32% of possession for the entire match, and the team managed only 5 shots, with just two of those on target. Second, our goal was a Chelsea gift, alertly knocked in by Emile Smith Rowe following a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set-up.

This was not a matter of winning the game, it was a matter of not losing the game. One has to give the Arsenal players a ton of credit for how hard they defended a relentless Chelsea offensive assault in the match’s closing minutes. Since the Gunners were unable to maintain any ball control as the clock wound down, the Blues kept coming and coming and coming. Thomas Tuchel’s men saw two shots bounce off the Gunners’ woodwork in the closing seconds, including one by our old friend, Olivier Giroud.

Yes, we picked up three points, and yes, our hopes for a Europa League spot are still alive, but this was not a good performance by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the Gunners were basically dominated for 90 minutes, box-to-box.

As I have have written many times this season, our defense has shown signs of improvement, however, our offensive output at the other end of the pitch has been horrid.

Number don’t lie. Here are Arsenal’s league rankings in the following categories after 36 matches…

Goals scored – 9th

Shots – 9th

Shots on target – 10th

Goal inside the box – 8th

Goals outside the box – 13th 

Goals from counter attacks – 13th

Our current Premier League place – 8th

Obviously, as stated many times by me and by hundreds of others, Arsenal’s attack is underwhelming, uncreative and extremely weak. Changes need to be made this summer. A lack of goals has been our Achilles heal all season, and one of the main reason we are where we are.

Wednesday was great, but Arsenal probably didn’t serve those 3 points.

Cheers for the win!

Gunner1953