Three yellow cards in under 13 minutes of play is a good summary of what took place in the first minutes of Chelsea’s match against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge today. Bukayo Saka’s strike straight at Robert Sánchez, which would have been overturned for offside had it gone in, was the Premier League leaders’ only strike at goal in 45 minutes of play.
On the opposite side a Chelsea team who were eager to end the seven-year long winless streak versus the Gunners at home. Young Estêvão was perhaps too eager, sending a great chance inside the area well over the crossbar and following that with a long-range attempt that wouldn’t make David Raya break a single drop of sweat.
Had Anthony Taylor been more consistent with his refereeing — a tall task, after all — Arsenal would have been a man down at the 30-minute mark. His leniency would end with a straight red card to Moisés Caicedo with a foul on Mikel Merino.
Only then Arsenal would registre their second shot at goal, forcing another Sánchez intervention to keep things equal in the first half. They were hoping momentum would be in their favour going into the second half but a pair of Cobham boys, Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah, had a different set of plans.
It would have been very hard holding onto a one-goal lead without a presence like Moisés Caicedo on the pitch to help Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto hold the threats of Saka and Ezequiel Eze down on our left flank. It was the former who sliced our defence open to set Mikel Merino up for a chance at the far post that the midfielder turned forward wouldn’t waste.
The Gunners would try to increase the heat and get the winning goal up to the very end of the match. But with good defensive work we would at least retain the draw and the point.
