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MOTD: Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea

By on January 24, 2016

In years past, Didier Drogba always seemed to save his best for meetings with London rivals Arsenal. In his nine years at the club over the course of two separate spells, the Ivorian striker netted fifteen goals in fifteen matches against the Gunners, amounting to a goal every 78 minutes.

Diego Costa has continued in that rich tradition for the Blues with another goal-scoring performance against Arsenal in Chelsea’s 1-0 win at the Emirates. He was also involved in another red-card flashpoint, as in a heated meeting between the two sides back in September, as he outran Per Mertesacker early in the second half and came clattering down from a late challenge nowhere near the ball.

Tonight was supposed to be the occasion for Wenger’s men to finally bury their ghosts of the past and a long winless streak against Chelsea in the Premier League, sitting a full nineteen points above their rivals, but their acrimonious plot swerved wayward after the red card, ending with a familiar sense of disappointment. Costa popped up to bag the only goal of the game whilst Arsenal were still adjusting to the sending off and Chelsea put on cruise control from thereon out.

Arsenal have now gone a full nine-and-a-half hours without a goal in league play against the Blues, and Arsene Wenger’s men registered just a single shot on target in these last ninety minutes.

The game was fairly balanced early on, but Mathieu Flamini was quickly exposed in the midfield in the absence of the injured Francis Coquelin. Eighteen minutes in, Willian ran at him on the break from an Arsenal corner and Flamini didn’t close the Brazilian down quickly enough to stop him from curling a lovely through ball in behind Mertesacker, onto the run of Costa. The forward pushed the ball in on goal just before his German defender stuck a leg out, bringing Costa tumbling down to the ground.

Perhaps if either of Arsenal’s centerbacks had been a hair faster in tracking back, a red card could have been avoided, yet it is fair to say that the Gunners were thoroughly out-played by their streetwise opponents in this moment. Wenger hauled off Olivier Giroud for center-back Gabriel soon afterwards and it was in this quick adjustment that Chelsea pounced. Branislav Ivanovic whipped in a tantalizing ball to the near post and Costa nipped between Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny to poke the ball past Petr Cech.

Arsenal briefly threatened in brief flashes throughout the rest of the ninety minutes, especially when Flamini volleyed a clipped pass over the crossbar with acres of space in behind Chelsea’s defense on the brink of the half, but the match was otherwise rather sterile for what is so often a heated affair. Chelsea had Arsenal pinned down quite nicely and had the luxury of bringing off Costa just after the hour mark. He was greeted with a chorus of boos, but gave the Emirates a polite round of applause in return accepting his role of pantomime villain once again.

Photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.