Arsenal prove that football is inexplicably weird in Chelsea rout

This is the greatest sport in the world. No debate, whatsoever. It’s also a low-scoring sport, which ensures occasions such as Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal are extra special. But also weird. So very, very weird.

Mikel Arteta’s side were in dire straits. Three consecutive Premier League defeats had them staring down the barrel of another season outside of Europe’s elite competition, an assumption based on form, not the table.

Because the table read that Arsenal still had their top four aspirations within their own grasp. Their own destiny to determine. Form, however, had many fearing they wouldn’t win another league game all season.

Now contrast that with Chelsea, who very recently scored three times at the Bernabeu and somehow didn’t reach the Champions League semi-finals, and easily dispatched Crystal Palace to reach the FA Cup final. Their previous league outing ahead of hosting Arsenal was a 6-0 demolition of Southampton a St Mary’s.

Arsenal prove that football is inexplicably weird in Chelsea Premier League rout

That very stadium just so happened to be venue for the Gunners’ most recent league clash, a 1-0 defeat. Using entirely logical means, Chelsea effectively went to the south coast and were seven better off than Arsenal. So, naturally, it ended 4-2 on Wednesday.

What is football? It’s weird. Inexplicably weird. We love it.

There is no reason why one team should smash a side 6-0, one lose to the same side 1-0, and then it end 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. Sometimes you just have to ignore tactics, form, and individual quality. Sometimes football writes its own script at the last minute and those partaking are thrust onto the stage without time for a rehearsal.

On one day you may be faced with a goalkeeper having the game of his life trying to sneak into Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad, and not long after the bounce of the ball may fall kindly for your onrushing striker who is without a goal in the league this season. In the second half a 23-year-old Frenchman might get his feet muddled up in the penalty area and your onrushing striker – who now has one goal this season – is presented with the chance to grab his second. Your painfully average midfielder with one start all campaign may have an absolute blinder.

Football works in mysterious ways. Arsenal went from scoring just once from open play or without the aid of a hideous deflection in their last five games to smashing four past the European champions.

Tactics and gameplans play their part. Luck isn’t the only factor, either. But every now and then a game or a result comes around that you just need to take a step back and applaud football’s masterful story tellers.

There was no explicable reason why Arsenal should have won this game. But they did. And they deserved it.

If Manchester United were to slap Arsenal about and Chelsea go unbeaten for the rest of the season it wouldn’t even come as a surprise. Unpredictable as it may be, long live football’s weirdness.