Arsenal's unspoken flaw got brutally exposed against Chelsea

Given how this season has gone, you'd think that Arsenal were a flawless team. And indeed, until facing Chelsea, we'd be forgiven for thinking that. Arsenal hadn't shown any frailties, even in the draws against Man City and Sunderland, and the loss against Liverpool.

Even in those dropped points, the Gunners played well. It was more a case of the other team being sublime, rather than Arsenal playing badly in any way.

But tonight, at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal played bad. That's an understatement; they played terribly, the worst Arsenal game fans had the displeasure of watching in quite some time.

Arsenal's silent flaw was put on blast against Chelsea

Perhaps this exacerbated the grim feeling about the game, but Arsenal were playing against 10 men for most of the match. Still, Chelsea scored the first goal of the game (like they often do) and Arsenal never looked like winning after that.

Mikel Merino did provide some respite, though, and the feeling was pretty good for around 30 seconds. Then, Chelsea immediately controlled the game, and Arsenal fans fell asleep again.

Truth be told, Arsenal failed to let their attack flourish because they approached this game negatively.

With Gabriel and William Saliba both out injured, the Gunners were bound to be targeted more heavily from the Chelsea front-line. However, Arsenal didn't help themselves, and they felt like a team without their two brick walls at the back.

And we don't mean that as an insult toward Piero Hincapie or Cristhian Mosquera, both of which playing well in the game. We mean that as an insult to Mikel Arteta, though.

Credit where it's due, and criticism where it's due, Mikel Arteta approached this game poorly. Chelsea were there for the taking. Even with Arsenal's injury concerns in the defense, the two defenses were pretty much on par in terms of quality.

However, due to the frailties at the back, the Gunners were not confident to flurry forward. Even when they had the opportunity to do so, Arsenal did not attack in numbers. And this was completely on Mikel Arteta.

Nevertheless, a big concern for Arsenal going forward remains their defensive depth. Yes, they invested in the summer transfer window, but for whatever reason, it wasn't enough to approach a winnable game like this.

Thankfully, William Saliba should be back from injury sooner rather than later. But even he, watching the game, would have been wishing for his teammates to flurry forward more often. Heck, Mosquera and Hincapie were more than capable of defending David Raya.