Was Anyone Thinking Of Arsenal Getting a Point From Chelsea At Stanford Bridge?

Arsenal beat Chelsea 4-2 in the Premier League helped by two Eddie Nketiah goals, leaving the Gunners running neck-and-neck with north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the race for a Champions League spot.

  

The Gunners went ahead twice in the first half at Stamford Bridge thanks to Nketiah - who pounced on a weak back pass by Andreas Christensen - and Emile Smith-Rowe, only to be pegged back by equalizers from Timo Werner and Cesar Azpilicueta.



   



Nketiah restored the visitors’ lead in the 57th minute when he seized on another mix-up in Chelsea’s defence to make it 3-2, stabbing the ball home after Thiago Silva’s interception bounced into his path off Malang Sarr.




Bukayo Saka rounded off the win when he converted a penalty in the 92nd minute after he was adjudged to have been fouled by Azpilicueta.




The win left Arsenal just outside the Champions League qualifying positions in fifth place but level with Spurs on 57 points, with six matches to go.




Tuchel also moved to clarify that his decision to take Andreas Christensen off at half-time was not because of his blunder for Nketiah’s opener.

“He said he cannot continue, so I think he had some problems,” Tuchel told reporters. “I don’t take a player out because he makes one mistake.” and that's very reasonable.


  

Tuchel also provided another injury update on Antonio Rudiger, who missed last match and is unlikely to return against West Ham this weekend.

“Not good, I don’t think he will play against West Ham,” Tuchel said.

But Chelsea's coach now went ahead to say something funny and not acceptable as a reason for their loss at home against Arsenal.

“To say that the pitch is difficult to play here is maybe sounds like an excuse but it is a very, very difficult pitch that we have here,” Tuchel said.

“It is not to our favor. The ball bounces very, very awkwardly in front of Andreas [Christensen] when he wants to play this ball.

“But still, we had the same mistake against Real Madrid that cost us the Champions League next round, this one cost us the next match, I cannot remember when we got a goal like this.”