Arsenal vs Chelsea: Arsenal Still Lack Finishing Touch

Arsenal vs Chelsea hasn’t been pleasant for the Gunners in recent match-ups, but fresh off a 4-1 stomping of Galatasaray, Arsenal were incredibly confident and going into Stamford Bridge didn’t seem like too big of a deal.

To Arsenal’s credit, they did look decent on the ball. They looked nothing like their 6-0 defeat last year. But that being said, it’s another loss and further fuel to all those claiming that Arsenal cannot hang with the major teams in the EPL.

Chelsea struck first when Eden Hazard danced through the Arsenal defense and was handed a penalty on a do-or-die challenge by Laurent Kocielny. He put it away easily. Diego Costa put in another to solidify the win late into the second half.

With Theo Walcott, Mathieu Debuchy and Aaron Ramsey, they could very easily have pulled some sort of points out of this match.

It was a whole lot of missed chances for Arsenal. Jack Wilshere found himself in on goal but a heavy touch dribbled the ball into Piotr Cech. Santi Cazorla had a decent shooting opportunity as well, but it remains painfully clear that Arsenal still lack that clinical finishing touch. They dink and dunk the ball around in and around the box and no one will pull the trigger.

Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck were completely irrelevant. The two catalysts as of late might as well not have been there. Ozil gave the ball away like his old self and Welbeck literally disappeared.

Probably the most entertaining aspect of the game was Arsene Wenger taking offense to a rash (and should have been red carded) challenge and venturing out of his prescribed area to lay a few good shoves on his nemesis, Jose Mourinho. Naturally, no handshakes were had post-match.

More from Arsenal Match Reports

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• A tough night for Arsenal Under-18s in the FA Youth Cup Final
• Does Emile Smith Rowe still have a future at Arsenal?
• Mikel Arteta’s in-game management cost Arsenal against West Ham
• How overconfidence cost Arsenal against West Ham

Of course the other story that was being followed was Cesc Fabregas’ return to face his former club. As can be expected, he shined and proved himself much more capable than his “replacement” Mesut Ozil. He put up his seventh assist on a beautiful over-the-top long ball to Diego Costa. It got a little testy at the end when Tomas Rosicky shoved him down and Danny Welbeck followed up with a very malicious challenge.

For as disappointing as the result was, Arsenal didn’t look that bad. With Theo Walcott, Mathieu Debuchy and Aaron Ramsey, they could very easily have pulled some sort of points out of this match. But alas, we’ll just have to wait and see, as Arsenal are likely to drop out of the top four following another heart-wrenching loss to Chelsea.

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