Arsenal beat Chelsea in the International Champions Cup on penalties, after the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.
The game started off with Chelsea dominating Arsenal in every department. Jorginho was instrumental in breaking up the play and he played it forward very quickly past our high press. This gave Chelsea a lot of space in the final third to exploit. They took the lead with Antonio Rüdiger’s header from a corner. It wasn’t great man to man marking in the box by Arsenal. Smith Rowe was picking up Rudiger, when clearly it should have been someone more solid defensively. Callum Hudson-Odoi won Chelsea a penalty, but it was saved by Petr Cech who had a fantastic match throughout. As the game went on, Arsenal started getting more and more into it, and in the last minute of the game – Alexandre Lacazette slotted home a well deserved goal to make it 1-1 after 90 minutes. Then, the match went into penalties. We were very efficient and scored all our six. Loftus Cheek’s penalty was saved by Cech and Alex Iwobi slotted in from the spot to give Arsenal the win.
ARSENAL PLAYER RATINGS:
CECH: 9/10 (MOTM) – Had a fantastic game throughout. Not only did he save a penalty, he also made countless other crucial saves to keep Arsenal in the game. His distribution looked a lot better too.
BELLERIN: 5.5/10 – Was poor by his standards. Lacked efficiency in the final ball, had a few sloppy touches and got exposed defensively by Hudson-Odoi. Gave away a cheap penalty, that thankfully for us, was saved by Cech.
MUSTAFI: 7/10 – Had a decent game. Couple of sloppy moments, but he did well overall. Yet another game where he has shown his quality of playing out from the back.
SOKRATIS: 6/10 – Was average. Had some careless moments, but he’s still in his early days at the club and has to get used to things.
KOLASINAC: 5.5/10 – Passing was poor and he lacked quality in his final ball. Got exposed defensively and got caught out of position a few times.
GUENDOUZI: 8/10 – Ran the show for us in midfield for the third game in a row. Lost possession in dangerous areas a few times, but he was oozed class overall.
ELNENY: 5.5/10 – Was poor defensively. Did not offer much going forward. Always played the safe pass, which often mean’t Guendouzi had a lot to do all by himself.
SMITH ROWE: 5.5/10 – Only started because of Aaron Ramsey’s injury, just before kickoff and he kept things tidy. Obviously, this is a huge step up for the kid and you could sense that he played with the hand brakes on.
OZIL: 8.5/10 – Oozed class with his touches. Perfect weight on most of his passes and was involved in some nice combinations. Played a cute cut back for Reiss Nelson, which lead to the goal in stoppage time.
MKHITARYAN: 7/10 – Thought he could have been a little stronger on the ball at times, but his dribbling into space and combination play was top notch.
AUBAMEYANG: 6.5/10 – Not his best game. Came deep to receive the ball at his feet too many times for my liking. Prefer him making runs off the shoulders of the defenders than getting involved in the build up play to the extent he did today.
SUBSTITUTES:
Iwobi: 6.5/10
Lacazette: 8/10
Maitland Niles: 6.5/10
Reiss Nelson: 7/10
Calum Chambers: 6.5/10
