Arsenal showed what football is all about and Chelsea showed why they were eliminated from the cup competition

The London derby seemed…one-sided. Chelsea are unimpressive with their style and are suffering from major fluctuations in form, and today they played without their best player, Cole Palmer. We saw a great spectacle on the pitch, but absolutely nothing happened in this match that could surprise us.

If you can't get through the door, try through the window. And if the window does not work, you have to look for luck from the balcony, if it is a low floor, or rely on the open basement door. Anyone who has locked the keys to their apartment and tried to get them back one way or another, without having enough time to wait for the locksmith to arrive, knows this.

Mikel Arteta also knows very well that you need to constantly look for alternative paths. The pressure at the top of the Premier League has robbed him of any respite. To stay at the top of the table, Arsenal must win it all – and the Spaniard believes that can only be achieved if they have dozens of different attacking scenarios at their disposal.

Incidents of the massacre that occurred at the Emirates Stadium

Before we move on to general impressions, let's describe what exactly happened in the match. Chelsea were terrified from the start. She was not enthusiastic about attacking, and gave space to Arsenal from the first minutes. Leandro Trossard, who has been in good form recently, took advantage of this very early. He took the ball and put it into the net from close range.

Worse still, the league leaders had no intention of slowing down, and the visitors had no idea how to slow them down. They tried to foul from time to time – Nicholas Jackson's foul against Takehira Tomiyasu was particularly harsh. His legs hit at shin level. It seemed like a sure bet, but refereeing in England is what it is, let's be honest, so there was no need for the deserved Ace of Hearts, and nothing happened to the Japanese, he was very lucky and got off the field very quickly.

As the 25th minute approached, the Blues began to gain momentum. finally. However, for one powerful shot from Pochettino's players – which occurred mainly at the request of Arsenal's defence, which had major problems with concentration – there were four “hundreds” of players from the red part of the capital, most of whom were spectacularly wasted by Kai Havertz. .

The second half was no better, because after fifteen minutes the game was essentially over. First, Ben White took advantage of the chaos and shot the ball beyond the goal line, then (finally) Kai Havertz slotted it into the box. After that goal, Chelsea slowly tried to make a comeback, relying mainly on the individual flashes of Nicholas Jackson – effectively suppressed by his inability to finish – but in the 65th minute, the German shocked his former side for the second time.

Scenes in the Emirates. Kai Havertz destroyed Chelsea twice!

Arsenal doesn't stop already 5-0 #domPremierLeague pic.twitter.com/ndnqfULv2X

— Viplay Sport Polska (@viaplaysportpl) April 23, 2024

In fact, the referee could have ended the match then. Since then, we've watched a summer friendly where no one wanted more, and Mikel Arteta may already be studying his next opponent on the sideline. The ninth team in the table has given up its desire to fight.

Those who dominated the competition began training, testing out new forms of attacking play, and at one point scored a goal. White's central shot will likely remain in the hearts of fans for a long time.

Fear does not pay

Back to the introduction. This is, of course, the result of the match between Arsenal and Chelsea. Previously, we saw total football, where almost all elements of football craft were introduced in the first half. When the Gunners attacked from the flanks, they passed the ball low and low. They tried to score from deep and from the end line. Then they looked for their luck, so they passed in the middle of the field, played the ball, and then tried from a distance.

They tried to break into the opponent's goal in every possible way. Doors, windows, balconies and basements. They used everything they could. WSEO.

As you can see, this is not really clear. Because at first glance it seems that the way you play at this level is so simple that it is a shame to rely on one patent when millions of fans depend on you.

But you turn on this match and focus for a moment on the Chelsea match. You start counting: 1st lag of Madueke, 2nd lag of Madueke, 3rd lag of Madueke. Frustration sets in, followed by the required change in tactics. You are witnessing the first crackdown on Nicholas Jackson.

The gap was huge because Pochettino was simply afraid. It is a recurring theme that the Argentine has no idea how to react in competition with top rivals, as he locks himself behind a three-man guard. This extreme pragmatism has no right to lift Londoners out of the current recession.

We are very sharp because if someone read the previous part of the text carefully, he would have seen a small note about concentration problems among the defenders of the winning team. You see, when I watched the match, that comment wasn't trivial at all. Especially in the first half, the red shirt defense repeatedly gave gifts to the opponents. That's it Asked About use. That's how the hosts played she gave myself defeat.

But this requires a little courage and skill. We've already covered the first part, focusing mainly on the fearsome boss of the Stamford Bridge gang. As for the second, here the problems of losers have the face of Nicholas Jackson. We don't like to deny professionalism to footballers who spend their whole lives working on their skills during eight-hour training sessions. This is usually an unfair and wrong approach, perhaps due to the fact that someone does not want to think deeply about the problems of a particular team. Just turn it off, job done.

But not with Jackson. One thing is for sure, let him finally be effective in front of the opponent's goal. In early February and March, he had a run of three games in which he scored, yet when he plays in a one-on-one match, we're not convinced he'll score. It depends on how he chooses and whether he gets enough sleep.

He messed up at least a few situations during the party. The most notable of these was from the 60th minute, when he shot into the side netting from a distance of two meters, and Raya started a counterattack from a penalty kick, which resulted in a goal. It takes eight chances to hit once.

And you know what's worse? That such a Senegalese was the best player in the visitors' attack. Because at least there was a chance to be angry with him. Mudryk, Madueke, Cucurella, as he rose – they all simply disappeared, hiding in the holed pockets of Ben White and his comrades, from which they could not get out anyway. In the London Massacre, a minus sign must also be added to the name of Gallagher, who, although he created a sensation in the first half, later faded away. But we won't bully him, because he's generally a strong player on his team, but he had a bad day today.

Arsenal won, of course, but against an opponent who didn't want three points at all. God forbid that after defeating his eternal rival, he would have to stop talking about rebuilding the team and actually start fighting for the highest goals.

Arteta has an amazing range of attacking moves, it is poetry written on the pitch. However, we hope he tightens up the defense somehow, because you can't rely on Nicholas Jackson's fantasy nature forever. One day something will happen, and hopefully it won't be the goal that will ultimately decide Manchester City's advantage.

Arsenal 5:0 Chelsea

Trossard 4, B White 52, 70, K Havertz 57, 65

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