Arsenal secured a historic victory over Chelsea as Kai Havertz scored twice towards his former membership in a commanding 5-0 triumph on Tuesday, additional cementing the Gunners’ place on the summit of the Premier League desk.
Ben White added a brace within the second half, compounding Chelsea’s woes. They suffered a dramatic collapse after halftime, prompting most of their away supporters to go away the Emirates Stadium lengthy earlier than the ultimate whistle.
“It’s a great night,” stated Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard, who scored within the fourth minute. “The early goal helped us, and we played so well after that. We had a lot of chances and we turned them into goals.”
The win ensures Arsenal will go into the weekend with the league lead. Mikel Arteta’s group is three factors forward of Liverpool earlier than Wednesday’s Merseyside derby at Everton. Manchester City is 4 factors again earlier than it performs at Brighton on Thursday, with one other recreation in hand.
For Chelsea, it was one other dispiriting loss after a 1-0 defeat to Man City within the FA Cup semifinals on Saturday that ended any hope of ending a disappointing season on a excessive word.
Chelsea’s main scorer, Cole Palmer, was absent with an harm, however the method of the group’s second-half collapse will solely renew questions on what progress – if any – the expensively assembled group has made in its first season below Mauricio Pochettino.
The Argentine supervisor stated his gamers “gave up” after Arsenal’s third purpose and lamented his group’s inconsistency all through the season. Chelsea is languishing 30 factors behind Arsenal in ninth place.
“When we have bad days, we are so bad,” Pochettino stated.
Arsenal’s earlier largest league win over its London rival was 5-1 in 1930.
Pochettino, although, insisted he did not really feel let down by his gamers’ total effort, pointing to mitigating circumstances similar to Palmer’s absence, a younger beginning lineup and fatigue from what he known as “an amazing performance” towards Man City three days in the past.
“I’m not going to blame the players,” Pochettino stated. “The circumstances are bigger than the performance of the players.”
Trossard gave Arsenal the early lead by beating Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic at his close to put up from a good angle. Petrovic made amends by single-handedly conserving his group within the recreation with a handful of fine saves till the floodgates opened within the second half because the guests’ resistance melted away.
White swept house the second within the 52nd, and Havertz added the third simply 5 minutes later with a well-taken purpose after being teed up by an ideal via ball from Martin Odegaard. The Germany worldwide, who made an costly transfer to Arsenal from Chelsea final summer time, acquired one other one within the sixty fifth with a shot from the center of the world, and White added to the rout with a lucky second purpose when his try at a volleyed cross sailed into the online within the seventieth.
“The second one was a bad touch and it went in,” White acknowledged.
Pochettino responded by bringing on center-back Thiago Silva to stop the scoreline from getting even greater.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
