Arsenal beat London rivals Chelsea 3-1 for their first league win in nearly two months as goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Granit Xhaka and Bukayo Saka lifted the pressure on coach Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal, missing several first-choice players, surprisingly took the lead in the 35th minute when Lacazette sent Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy the wrong way from the spot after Kieran Tierney was adjudged to have been clipped in the box by Reece James.
Nine minutes was all it took to double the lead as Xhaka sent an unstoppable freekick over the wall and beyond Mendy’s dive.
A visibly frustrated Chelsea coach Frank Lampard tried to turn the tide at halftime when he replaced out-of-form Germany striker Timo Werner with winger Callum Hudson-Odoi and Mateo Kovacic with Jorginho.
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But Chelsea were only marginally more threatening for most of the second half and Arsenal sealed the win in the 56th minute when Saka floated what looked like a cross over Mendy and the ball hit the far post and went in.
Chelsea managed to pull one goal back as Abraham chested in a low cross from Hudson odoi in the 85th minute. It took the interference of the VAR to award the goal as the referee initially called for offside against Tammy Abraham’s goal.
However, in the 90th minute Chelsea missed another opportunity to close in the gaps as Mason Mount was tripped in the box by Pablo Mari. Jorginho was unlucky as his penalty kick was saved by the Arsenal goal keeper.
It ended in defeat for Chelsea as the blues are currently 6th on the table,they also face the possibility of dropping all the way to 10th if opposition teams secure the points needed.
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