What can a Cole Palmer-less Chelsea do, even when the protagonist of this team isn’t in form? Maybe they could do something against the opponents we faced in the last four games where we won on very thing leads. Against Arsenal, it would be an interesting challenge to say the least.

Playing at home against a Chelsea side without a real centre-forward upfront, Arsenal who were themselves playing with a false-nine felt very comfortable. The Blues offered very little in the final third when they had the ball and couldn’t really keep it, while the Gunners attacked the opposition at will with several bodies and infiltrating runs that left our defenders eating dust from time to time.

As coordinated as those attacking moves are Arsenal have become known this season for their set-piece proficiency. They hadn’t scored from corners in a while, but against a Chelsea team who seemingly don’t know how to make the most out of their own set-piece specialist they would get back in track with a Mikel Merino headed flick.

Even with Chelsea barely making it into their final third we almost got a tying goal from an absolute David Raya howler. But we didn’t make our own luck in the first half today, and luck itself wasn’t on our side as the ball rolled a few centimetres off target from Marc Cucurella’s volley.

In the second half Chelsea were able to get closer to Arsenal’s level of play. But we were still not creating good enough chances to score, which left them quite comfortable to just close out the game and take the three points home.

• No Cole Palmer in the squad today due to injury.
• Reece James back in the starting lineup, playing in central midfield.
• A couple more Robert Sánchez giveaways in this first half, although none of them really hurt us like they were expected to.
• If Cucurella’s volley/Raya’s howler goes in, this would be a very different second half. Unlucky!
• Next up: Tottenham at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, after the international break.
• KTBFFH.

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