First Half:
Arsenal had the better of it because surprisingly, Wenger actually paid attention to the defensive structure of his team. By swamping Chelsea's midfield two, he forced Chelsea to play long. Unfortunately, this is not Morata's favourite style of play. He consistently failed to hold the ball up and was routinely bullied by Mustafi's physicality. Morata is a fine forward, but his strengths clearly lie with finishing crosses and ball to feet interplay. Don't ask him to accept long/hard passes from deep. At least not until he has gotten used to the tough-contact nature of the Premier League.
Wenger decides to adapt his tactics to take his opponent into consideration about once a year so it was quite annoying that this game was the one time this season he chooses to compromise. As a consequence of Chelsea's impotence Arsenal's better general creativity resulted in Ramsey hitting the post and Welbeck missing a header he should have buried. Pedro should have scored for Chelsea when one on one with Cech though...
Second Half:
Seeing that Chelsea's midfield was being stifled, Conte brought on Bakayoko. Thanks to his impressive physical and technical qualities, Chelsea were better able to transition the ball through midfield and had much the better of a frenetic latter half. I don't know if Chelsea actually switched to 3-5-2, but Fabregas dropped into midfield and helped the team move the ball into attacking positions. Hazard came on for the last twenty, but was probably trying a bit too hard to make a breakthrough. Ultimately, Arsenal defended well and Chelsea didn't do enough to win this game.
David Luiz got arrogant/frustrated, dribbled the ball further than he should have, lost the ball and ended up clattering Kolasinac in the shin studs up. Red card against Arsenal again. Lol?
Conclusion:
It's strange to say but Arsenal actually had a game plan that worked. They prevented Chelsea from playing out from the back, relying on Morata's inability to hold up long balls to stifle Chelsea's attacking quality.
When teams embarass Arsenal they typically defend deep and counter attack ruthlessly. Chelsea managers of the past have happily employed this tactic, particularly Ancelotti and Mourinho. It doesn't look like Conte aped them. It looked like Conte tried to outplay Arsenal. Unusually, they were prepared for this approach. Hopefully this performance reminds Conte how simple it should be to beat Arsenal. Christenson should get more game time now Luiz will miss games.
Nonetheless, congratulations are due Arsenal - they got a draw at Stamford Bridge. Well done.
No comments:
Post a Comment