Arsenal bounced back from a disappointing defeat against West Ham United to beat Chelsea convincingly at the Emirates Stadium and keep their top four hopes alive.
Even in mid-January, this was a must-win game for Arsenal. A defeat would’ve left them nine points behind Chelsea, three points behind Manchester United and a potential 10 points behind Tottenham Hotspur (depending on Sunday’s result). Even with a few months to go, overtaking two of those teams would be a massive task.
The players seemed to understand the importance of the game, putting in one of their best team performances of the season. Scoring twice in the first half, Arsenal then managed to grind out the victory in the second, without ever really looking like throwing it away.
It was one of Arsenal’s hardest-earned results, with the team covering more ground (121.7km) than in any single match since Opta started tracking the stat in 2013/14.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
4Substitutes
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7.5
Maitland-Niles made a couple of tackles and a didn’t misplace any of the few passes he attempted after coming on. He did accidentally walk the ball off the pitch at one point, but he otherwise filled in for Bellerin pretty well. He’s going to have to get used to that job after the Spaniard’s injury.
Alex Iwobi 7
Iwobi wasn’t very involved in the final half an hour, but he did create one chance and make one tackle, so his rare contributions were positive ones.
Mohamed Elneny 7.5
Like Iwobi, Elneny also created a late chance for a goal, but he was also a bit more involved in the general play, coming on in midfield. Considering he’s only played 59 minutes of league football all season, it’s good to see the 26-year-old is still ready to help out when called upon.