Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal - As it happened

Dimitris Kontos 8 years ago 17.4k
Chelsea vs. Arsenal starting line-ups on 4 February. BeSoccer

Re-live Saturday's London derby

Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal - As it happened

Re-live Saturday's London derby

FULL-TIME: Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal

A well-deserved win for Chelsea, who extend their lead at the top of the table to 12 points. While Courtois had to save the hosts on a couple of occasions, the hosts were the better side overall, they looked more dangerous, more efficient, and far more physical than the Gunners. Hazard's second goal was one of the bets of the season so far.

GOAL: Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal (Giroud, 90 mins)

Monreal sends in another great cross from the left flank, Giroud is unmarked and heads it past Courtois with ease. Arsenal do not even celebrate, there is barely any time left to the game.

Chance for Chelsea

Diego Costa drives from the left but his effort from an impossibly wide angle goes high and wide

GOAL: Chelsea 3-0 Arsenal (Fabregas, 85 mins)

A horrendous mistake by Petr Cech enables Fabregas to get the ball just inside Arsenal's area with all the time in the world to aim and score. Fabregas, a former Arsenal captain, does not celebrate, but this game over for the Gunners

Double change for Chelsea

Pedro and Hazard are replaced by Willian and Fabregas.

Huge save by Courtois

A cross from the right finds Welbeck who flicks a header towards the far post but the Chelsea goalkeeper dives to his right-hand post and saves

Matic gets booked

For bringing down Welbeck who made an immediate impact after coming on

Second substitution for Arsenal

Welbeck comes on for Walcott

Dangerous free-kick to Chelsea

David Luiz lines up to take it and everybody is reminded of his amazing free-kick at Liverpool midweek, but it is deflected by Arsenal

Substitution for Arsenal

Giroud comes on for Coquelin as the Gunners look to put more bodies in attack

No change for Chelsea

Alonso is back up and will continue

Alonso injury

The scorer of the first goal clashed heads with team-mate David Luiz in an attempt to clear a cross and is receiving treatment

Chance for Arsenal

Monreal pings a low cross from the left but Cahill gets to the ball a split second before Walcott can tap it in and all Arsenal get is a corner

GOAL: Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal (Hazard, 53 mins)

A repetition of the previous action in a way as Hazard again charges through the middle, but this time he slides away not only from Koscielny but the entire Arsenal defence and fires past Cech with spectacular ease. A truly beautiful goal

Hazard denied big chance

Koscielny matches the speed of lighting-quick Hazard and takes the ball away with a perfect sliding tackle as the Belgian was a split second away from a face-to-face with Cech

Second half under way

Arsenal re-start the game at Stamford Bridge

HALF-TIME: Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal

Arsenal had two chances to score, one in the opening minute and one after 40 minutes, but Chelsea controlled the middle stretch of the first half and deserve the lead. Alonso's goal will  be deemed lucky by some, but it is more accurate so say that it highlights Chelsea's physical advantage as he out-muscled his compatriate Bellerin to get the rebound.

Arsenal miss a chance

Ozil receives on edge of the box with his back to goal, he turns and fires but Courtois does well to block.

Four minutes added time

Which seems to be suiting Arsenal better, as they are now putting pressure on the hosts

Huge save by Courtois

A great Oxlade Chamberlain cross from the right finds Gabriel unmarked in the heart of the box, he heads it with good force but Courtois punches it away

Cech saves

Alonso crosses from the left side, Pedro finds it his stride and fires a strike from a wide angle but the Arsenal goalkeeper saves.

Chelsea long seize comes to nothing

A prolonged Chelsea possession -over three minutes long - right outside Arsenal's area is finally resolved as the Gunners defended in numbers and managed to close down all lanes

Mustafi gets booked

The Arsenal defender sees a yellow for a hard challenge on Hazard, who was going on a run down the left. Free-kick to Chelsea in a good position

Great tempo so far

It remains a back-and-forth affair, very entertaining game

Chelsea miss a chance

Diego Costa muscles his way in the area, stays up and fires under pressure, but his shot hits the side of the net

Pressure from Arsenal

A prolonged seize of Chelsea's area ends in a Coquelin shot which goes over the bar

Forced change for Arsenal

Bellerin cannot continue after clashing heads with Alonso, he is replaced by Gabriel.

GOAL: Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (Alonso, 13 mins)

Costa heads a Perdo cross from the right, Cech flies to his left-hand post and saves but it bounces off the bar and Alonso beats Bellerin to the rebound a couple of meters from the line to head it in Arsenal's empty goal.

Cahill header goes over

Cahill rises above the Arsenal defence to meet the ball as it is curled in from the free-kick, but his header goes over the bar

Dangerous foul to Chelsea

Coquelin brings down Moses who was on a superb run from the right

Chelsea waste back-to-back corners

Chelsea break, Hazard wins a corner, Arsenal clear, Chelsea win another corner but this time they play it in to Pedro whose timid shot is dealt with easily by the Gunners' defence

Big chance for Arsenal

Miss-communication between Courtois and Luiz, Arsenal steal but Iwobi's shot is saved by the Chelsea goalkeeper

Kick-off!

Chelsea get us under way, get ready for a great afternoon of football!

The teams are coming out of the tunnel

Kick-off is in three minutes, great atmosphere at Stamford Bridge despite the early kick-off.

Starting line-ups:

Here is how the two teams are lining-up today. There are so interesting things to point out in the offensive line of both teams as Pedro starts instead of Willian for Chelsea, while for Arsenal both Welbeck and Giroud are on the bench with Walcott and Iwobi in the starting XI.

Chelsea XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Kante, Matic, Alonso; Pedro, Diego Costa, Hazard

Subs: Begovic, Terry, Zouma, Chalobah, Fabregas, Willian, Batshuayi

Arsenal XI: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Coquelin, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Alexis Sanchez

Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Maitland-Niles, Reine-Adelaide, Welbeck, Giroud

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