Chelsea are the Achilles heel of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. Time and time again, the Gunners have been undone by their London neighbours and today was no different.
For the second time this season, Arsenal got one of their centre-backs sent off against the Blues. Following Per Mertesacker’s red card, Arsenal had to play with ten men for the majority of the game and in the end, they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat.
Diego Costa forced the German defender’s sending off and scored the only goal of the game in the 23rd minute. The Spaniard has come alive again since Jose Mourinho’s dismissal in December and the Blues have not suffered a loss since Guus Hiddink joined them on the bench: three wins and four draws, resulting in 13 points under the Dutchman.
Chelsea, therefore, are up to 13rd place in the table, after they were down as much as 17th place on two occassions this season. Gaining a European tickets will still be a very difficult, maybe even impossible, goal to reach, as the Blues are nine points behind fifth placed Manchester United.
The defeat has halted Arsenal’s charge towards the Premier League title, and there is a bit of panic settling among the Arsenal fans.
6 – Arsenal have gone 6 PL games without a goal against Chelsea, their joint longest such run against another team in PL history. Shy.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 24, 2016
Two points from 9 for Arsenal. February fixtures: Southampton, Bournemouth, Leicester, Man Utd. Oh, and Barcelona. 0-1 v Chelsea full-time.
— Paul Hayward (@_PaulHayward) January 24, 2016
Spurs winning Arsenal’s title would be amazingly hilarious.
— Daniel Harris (@DanielHarris) January 24, 2016
Oh Arsenal. Not again surely!
— Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) January 24, 2016
That’s a v poor result for Arsenal. Just as City win felt like more than 3 pts gained, this feels like more than 3 lost. 1 win in 4 now.
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) January 24, 2016
Arsene Wenger will never win another title for Arsenal
— Ouriel Daskal (@Soccerissue) January 24, 2016
If Wenger won’t spend our £200m this week, then sack him and I’ll do it. No chance of this squad winning the League. #afc
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 24, 2016
Arsenal continue their relentless march towards the Premier League title… pic.twitter.com/1eL5ejQTU4
— Bootifulgame (@bootifulgame) January 24, 2016
When trying to be classy fails – Walcott leads out the team. Mertesacker hands him the armband. Mertesacker gets sent off. Theo is atrocious
— Arsenal Edits (@ArsenalEdits) January 24, 2016
This should be the beginning of the end of Mertesacker’s Arsenal career. Ageing legs and never had any pace in the first place. Finish him.
— Arsenal Edits (@ArsenalEdits) January 24, 2016
At least those three fucking games are over and we shouldn’t ever have to see Walcott LW again
— Culann Davies (@CulannDavies) January 24, 2016
Fuck that. I’m off to try and build a machine to get me into the parallel universe where Cech headed home a last-minute equaliser.
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) January 24, 2016
Come on, Arsenal. If you want to be title contenders you can’t lose at home to one of the smaller teams. #AFCvCFC
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) January 24, 2016
The most Arsenaly game of the season. Since the last time we played them.
— arseblog (@arseblog) January 24, 2016
Specialists in Arsenal.
— Micha? Zachodny (@mzachodny) January 24, 2016
Even with this loss we’re 5 points ahead of 5th place. #4thplacetrophy
— Arsenalist (@arsenalist) January 24, 2016
Willian could write the book on effectively affecting a game. Walcott to do with reading it. Arsenal down to 3rd. A frustrating month.
— Messi Minutes (@MessiMinutes) January 24, 2016
