In what was billed as a battle between Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice, it was Reece James enjoying a makeshift midfield position that stole the present as 10-man Chelsea held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
All through the match, the England worldwide stood miles above everybody else, stopping Rice from controlling the competition as he has this season, whereas additionally posing a menace on transitions together with his excellent passing.
His problem elevated significantly after Moises Caicedo acquired a pink card within the thirty eighth minute. But, the right-back nonetheless delivered one of many most interesting performances of his profession in the course of the 1-1 stalemate, establishing Trevoh Chalobah’s end from a nook to carry up the defender’s tenth Premier League objective.
Half of these strikes have come from headed efforts at corners, and it marked his fourth objective in a London derby for Chelsea, with solely John Terry (13), Dan Petrescu (7) and William Gallas (5) having extra derby objectives as defenders for the membership within the competitors.
The Blues captain dominated bodily, profitable an excellent 11 of his 12 duels towards a combative Arsenal aspect and recovering possession twice. The 25-year-old might simply have completed the match with extra assists from his 4 crosses if not for David Raya’s very good cease to disclaim Joao Pedro.
Reece James was ‘incredible’ towards Arsenal
Nonetheless, he can be happy that Chalobah made no mistake in heading residence his inswinging nook to place Chelsea in entrance—their tenth set-piece objective of the season, bettered solely by Arsenal.
It’s no shock that Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, talking in his post-match interview, described the Englishman as ‘incredible’, as his relentless work charge restricted Arsenal’s adventurous ahead play whereas additionally conserving his staff harmful on the counter, making six entries into the ultimate third and creating two possibilities, which finally secured him a well-earned man of the match honour.
Chelsea delivered a robust exhibiting, although Arsenal had been equally happy to maintain their unbeaten sequence intact — now on 17 factors — whereas sustaining a five-point cushion on the summit of the Premier League.
This end result ensures Chelsea stay with out defeat of their previous 9 Premier League London derbies (W5 D4), marking their longest streak below a single supervisor because the opening 9 derby fixtures of José Mourinho’s second tenure in the course of the 2013-14 marketing campaign.
