Arsenal put in a battling display to earn a point at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal defended well for the whole game and even created a few decent opportunities. On another day, we could have been talking about an Arsenal win.
Still, given Arsenal’s recent struggles against the top six, a draw away from home is more than respectable. The performance and the result defied all expectation. It was a very refreshing, albeit nerve-wrecking, experience.
There’s plenty that we can take away from the result, so here are five things that we learned.
1Arsenal CAN do it – it’s just a question of will
If I was doing Arsenal’s report card, I’d be giving them full marks for application and effort. It’s two basic principles that any football team should be following, but have been lacking from Arsenal’s game whenever they visit the big boys.
It’s those horrendous displays that have created the impression that Arsenal can’t defend and can’t cut it against the best teams. However, this result, as well other similar results in the past, prove that Arsenal can defend and can compete against the best. They just have to want to do it.
In many ways, that’s much more frustrating than just simple incompetence. Incompetence can be fixed by buying better players or changing the manager. Getting this team to perform with such focus and effort consistently, on the other hand, is a tough ask.
2The 3-4-2-1 works against Chelsea
Of all the Chelsea’s Arsenal have faced in recent years, Antonio Conte’s version has been the least worrying. While being a quality team, Arsenal have played them on five occasions and have only lost once. On three of those occasions, Arsenal matched Chelsea’s 3-4-2-1 formation and came out the better team each time.
The sample size may still be small, but there’s evidence to suggest that matching up man for man has been the best approach to stifling this Chelsea. As demonstrated on Sunday, the wing-backs tend to cancel each other out.
Without the most important outlet of the formation, it comes down to a battle in midfield, and more than once now Arsenal’s pairing of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey have come out on top.
3Playing players in their preferred positions works
Who knew that playing players in their preferred positions would make them perform better?
Arsenal’s back five were all over the place at the start of the season, with wingers playing wing back, wing backs playing centre back and midfielders playing centre back as well. However, in the second half against Cologne, and now against Chelsea, we played with a recognised defence and have done better.
Shocker.
At risk of labouring the point, it really does help when defenders are playing in positions where they are comfortable and have good relationships with other defenders.
The strength of our defence today owes much to the understanding between our defenders.
Plus, not having to shoehorn Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain helps immeasurably.
4There’s a midfielder in Aaron Ramsey somewhere
Ramsey is meant to be a central midfielder but the way he tends to play often defies the standard definition of one.
His performance against Liverpool was distinctly un-midfielder like. Unable to time his runs forward nor efficiently protect his defence, people wondered if we’d just be better off putting him somewhere else.
Against Chelsea, though, he proved that he can be a very good midfielder.
He put in a performance any box-to-box player would be proud of. If he performed like that on a consistent basis, our midfield problems would be solved.
5Sead Kolasinac proves he’s part tank
Every game Kolasinac plays, I fall deeper in love with him.
If he’s not scoring volleys or rampaging down the left, he’s going into 50-50 tackles with no fear whatsoever.
He came off second best against David Luiz and took some studs to his ankle, but he managed to get up and walk it off no problem.
Arsenal have collected a number of fragile players over the years, but it seems the Bosnian won’t be one of them.
He is the anti-Diaby.