Match date: 19 September 2015

The London sides met in the Community Shield before the first weekend of the Premier League with Arsenal winning and Wenger getting his first win over Mourinho. The league, however, is far different and Mourinho doesn’t lose at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were back to their winning ways in the Champions League midweek after a poor run of form in the league. Mourinho would certainly be hoping that their Champions League win helps steady the confidence of his players. The Chelsea boss set his side out in a 4-2-3-1 with Matic and Fabregas as the holding midfielders while Oscar was back in the side behind Diego Costa. Kurt Zouma partnered Gary Cahill at the back with John Terry on the bench.

Arsenal struggled in the Champions League, losing to Dinamo Zagreb while being reduced to 10 men. Wenger had rested a number of players in that match, but was back to full strength against Chelsea in a 4-2-3-1. Walcott started as the lone striker while Gabriel started at the back with Koscielny.

Walcott Up Top, Kurt Zouma in - Reflection of The Managers’ Plans

Starting Theo Walcott up top was the most interesting decision on Wenger’s part for a number of reasons. The first being that it gave a hint as to the mindset of Wenger’s approach to the match which was to allow Chelsea to have the ball, for the most part, and look to exploit them on counter attacks. Defending in a low block like this is something that Arsenal did in ‘big games’ a lot last year for the first time. The Frenchman talked about how his side needed to be less open so as to avoid big defeats like those suffered to Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea over the last few seasons. So being away from home against Chelsea, Wenger instructed his side to sit deep, but needed an outlet that could test Chelsea and so Walcott was named as the lone striker, supported by Sanchez and Ramsey, two players that make vertical runs very well. Overall, while Walcott was always a willing runner, he rarely got his chances when Arsenal were defending deep. Walcott and Arsenal had two very good opportunities to counter, but with Kurt Zouma on the pitch, Chelsea had a centre back that was willing to match Walcott’s pace making Arsenal’s counter attacks less effective.

Walcott’s best moments of the match came in the first half, before Chelsea settled into dictating the rhythm of the match and before Gabriel was sent off. Arsenal were able to get some good possession in Chelsea’s half and Walcott was a good option for the Gunners in behind the Chelsea back line, something that Giroud doesn’t offer. Walcott was called offside a few times, but he was making runs off of the Chelsea back line which the likes of Sanchez, Cazorla, and Özil were looking for. Below are good examples of such runs.

As mentioned above, however, Kurt Zouma was able to contain the runs of Walcott well throughout the match and the young Frenchman’s inclusion was at the expense of John Terry. It is difficult to think that Mourinho would have been able to predict the inclusion of Walcott in the Arsenal side. Walcott did score against Dinamo Zagreb, while Giroud struggled to have any real influence on the match, but Wenger seemed to already have the plan to start Walcott against Chelsea for the reasons stated above in regards to how Arsenal would look to play. So Zouma’s start was a reflection of Mourinho’s approach to the match. At home and needing to win, he needed his side to be in complete control of the match, taking the game to Arsenal rather than the other way around. With that idea in mind, Zouma has the pace that allows Chelsea to play higher up the field and squeeze the space without the worry of a pacey player getting in behind as Mourinho would have to worry about with John Terry at the back with Cahill. We saw this earlier in the season when Chelsea played Manchester City. Chelsea were in need of getting back into the match and controlling the game with the ball, but could not allow counter attacks and so at half time, Mourinho replaced Terry with Zouma, which led to a slightly better performance from Chelsea in the second half.

Above you can see Chelsea’s centre back pairing playing a higher line against Walcott than the would have been able to had John Terry been in the side. It allowed Chelsea’s midfield to play higher up as well and put Arsenal under pressure once they won the ball.

Chelsea’s Midfield

There has been a lot made of Chelsea’s midfield over the course of this season. They struggled against Manchester City in the 3-0 and they struggled against Everton in the 3-1 loss. The troubles have been the balance of Matic and his holding midfield partner and the player at the top of the 2-1 triangle. In those previously mentioned matches, Fabregas and Mikel partnered Matic. Against Manchester City, Fabregas pushed too high from his position, leaving holes behind him for David Silva to exploit. Against Everton, with Matic and Mikel partnered, the two were consistently dragged out of the middle, leaving space for the likes of Ross Barkley and Steven Naismith.

In this match, however, one of the key parts to a better midfield display was the return of Oscar. With the Brazilian in front of them, Matic and Fabregas were able to sit a bit deeper, knowing that Oscar was doing to close down the central passing lanes. With Matic and Fabregas deeper, the likes of Sanchez, Ramsey, and Özil struggled to find space between the lines, with all three Arsenal attackers looking to come inside. The narrowness of Arsenal’s trio could have caused problems, but Oscar disrupted passes into the midfield which forced the Arsenal players back out wide where they were less than effective. Below you can see where Cazorla was able to link up with Özil and Ramsey. Notice that the passes are largely in unthreatening areas of the pitch.

As you can see in the screen capture below, the midfield kept it’s shape fairly well and were able to close down Arsenal’s midfielders quickly.

Arsenal could have caused Chelsea more problems than they did. Had Alexis Sanchez stayed out wide and been able to run at Ivanovic, it would have required Chelsea’s midfield to shift over and help their right back, but Sanchez played through the middle. Other times, Chelsea caused their own problems as there were a few times when Hazard and Oscar switched positions during a Chelsea attack. When Arsenal won the ball back, there was not enough time to transition back to Oscar through the middle, which allowed Cazorla a bit more time on the ball. Overall, however, it was a much improved performance from Chelsea’s midfield and Mourinho will be happy to have Oscar back in the side.

Chelsea Attack the Left, Red Cards

Chelsea overloaded the left side of their attack throughout the match. Diego Costa would drift into the wide spaces on the left to offer a target for when Chelsea needed to play a direct ball and from there attacks would continue to develop. When Chelsea built their play up a bit slower, the focus of the ball would still be down the left as Hazard, Costa, Oscar, and even Azpilicueta made some runs forward in an attempt from to open up the Arsenal right side of defense.

Arsenal did well to defend Chelsea’s attacks on the left and neither goal was conceded from that side, but the persistent play put Bellerin, Gabriel, and later Chambers, under a huge amount of pressure and it would have been interesting to see whether Chelsea would have eventually broken down that side had Arsenal stayed at full strength.

The red cards lost the game for Arsenal. While Chelsea were probably the better side in the opening 45 minutes, they were certainly going to be on top of Arsenal with a man advantage. Arsenal switched to a 4-4-1 which allowed Chelsea’s midfield to have more time on the ball. Arsenal still managed some opportunities to get forward and possess the ball, but they were ultimately undone by a set piece early on in the second half that saw the Gunners have to look for a goal, leaving them a bit more open.

Conclusion

A lot can be discussed about the red cards, but the fact of the matter is that both players were sent off and the game changed because of it. Mourinho again got the better of Arsene Wenger and the Chelsea boss will be happy with the overall performance. They were not too smooth going forward, but defensively they looked strong through the middle as the midfield three was arguably made up of Mourinho’s first choice combination.

Wenger was disappointed with Mike Dean at the end of the match and while he does have reason to be as Costa’s off the ball flailing on Koscielny was worthy of something. Perhaps the best part of Arsenal’s match was that early on, Walcott looked very bright and sharp at centre forward and Wenger should be looking to use him more often.