Arsenal’s pedigree as defending Premier League champions faced its first big test of the season, with the Gunners hosting title aspirants and big spenders Chelsea on the third matchday. It is not often that games built up with such hype and expectations live up to their billing, but Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea certainly delivered on Sunday. Breathless action, sub-plots galore and a total of 99 minutes and 35 seconds of edge-of-your-seat football drama.
We may only be three rounds into the marathon 38-game Premier League season, but it was the first real test of the credentials for Arsenal and new-look Chelsea after their $473m summer outlay. Here are five things we learned from the featured clash at the Emirates. What do you get when you pit arguably the league’s meanest defence against one of its most exciting new attacks?
The scoreline might suggest it was a close game, but in reality, it wasn’t. Chelsea did muster 13 shots on goal, but eight of those came from outside the box, and they combined for an expected goals statistic of 0.35. The Blues had just 25 touches inside the Arsenal penalty area.
Of the 30 Premier League games played among all 20 teams so far, Arsenal have now recorded three of the four lowest totals of expected goals scored against them. Arsenal’s defensive prowess was even more impressive in the absence of their first-choice defenders William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, who played at least 30 games each in their team’s title-winning run last season. In their absence, defensive options Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie and Ezri Konsa have all fared admirably.
As a result, Arsenal have won their opening three league games this season while conceding fewer than two goals for the third time ever. They will hope the omens follow the 2003-04 season, when they finished as unbeaten champions, rather than the 1924-25 season, when they ultimately ended up in 20th. With young defender Jurrien Timber sidelined following groin surgery, Ben White has filled in at right-back in the opening three games of the campaign.
He has also filled Timber’s big attacking boots in addition to keeping things tight at the back. A whopping 47 percent of Arsenal’s attacks against Chelsea came down the right flank occupied by White and Bukayo Saka. As busy as Riccardo Calafiori and Christos Tzolis were on the wings, only 28 percent of Arsenal’s attacks came down their left flank, with only 25 percent coming through the middle of the park, occupied by Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Odegaard.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
