Chelsea (0) 0 v 1 (1) Arsenal
16 Smith Rowe
Yellows: none Partey
Played Wednesday 12 May 2021 at an empty Stamford Bridge.
With their surprise 0-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge Arsenal completed the Premier London Derbies (PLDs) double over their heavily invested in rivals. It was by all accounts a dull game, perhaps typified by the Gunners’ goal. It came from a defensive error when Jorginho passed back “blind” to ‘keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga who was not in his expected place, scrambled a clearance with the loose ball running to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who passed to the scorer Emile Smith Rowe. His effort was not crisply struck and went in off the post. Phew!” Arsenal had only 1 other attempt on target, and Chelsea 5 and 68% of the possession. The closest they came was Christian Pulisic’s “goal” ruled out by VAR for offside.
Chelsea will rue this as points lost in their tussle with Leicester City for 3rd or 4th place. The 2 Clubs meet on Saturday 15 May 2021 in the F.A. Cup Final at Wembley and then again on Tuesday 18 May 2021 in the Premier League (PL). I said Clubs not teams because it will be interesting to see how the teams compare in these two fixtures. For Arsenal it was definitely 3 points gained and although they are 9th (55 points from 36 played) behind Everton (56 from 35) and Tottenham Hotspur (56 from 35) it looks like it is those 3 Clubs for 7th and the new Europa Conference League. West Ham United (58 from 35) are in there too having been pushed down to 6th by Liverpool (60 from 35) winners over Manchester United.
The Arsenal have one more PLDs match to play and that will be against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Wednesday 19 May 2021. There are usually goals in this one: 3-0 in 2016-17 season; 2-3 in 2017-18; 2-2 in 2018-19; and 1-1 in 2019-20 but the Eagles are currently gliding down the table so this could well be 3 more points for the Gunners. Crystal Palace’s big question is what will Roy Hodgson be doing next season? How about Director of Football with Eddie Howe as new Manager/Head Coach?
Until next time, “Keep Safe” and enjoy your football, Andrew at PLDs.