Arsenal Plays Above Expectation, Defeats Chelsea 3-1

Arsenal defeated Chelsea tonight with 3-1, snapping a seven-game winless skid. Earlier today, Leicester City and Manchester United played 2-2 at Kings Power stadium.

The Gunners played above expectations using Chelsea’s pale performance to clinch massive three points. After seven contests in which they haven’t won, Mikel Arteta’s crew dominated today, teaching the Blues a lesson they won’t forget anytime soon.

The scorers for the hosts were Alexander Lacazette from the penalty in the 34th minute, Granit Xhaka ten minutes later with one of the best free-kicks of the year, and Bukayo Saka eleven minutes into the second half. On the other side, Tammy Abraham cut the deficit three minutes before the end, and Jorinho missed a penalty after that, wasting a chance to spice up the contest in the closing moments.

“We needed that today. We needed to give the fans something to be positive about. We’ve had a few bad results this season, so that was a good start,” Kieran Tierney told the journalists following the match.

We can say without any hesitation that the Gunners surprised the majority of the soccer fans today. They were looking efficient, rational, and, more importantly, confident, which is something this unit lacked over the past month.

Xhaka’s rocket from some 30 yards was the highlight of the match, with the controversial Swiss exploding following the goal. All the Arsenal’s players went wild, and already in those moments, it was more less evident that the Blues won’t have a pleasant night at the Emirates.

Arteta’s team had several more chances to score and make this match a real disaster for the guests, who are apparently in a crisis. Tonight’s defeat was the third straight on the road for Lampard’s crew. The young manager and the legend of the club from Stamford Bridge admitted that his team isn’t strong as many hoped.

“The teams that win, win, win relentlessly weren’t winning two or three years ago. We are not there yet, that’s clear. I felt it when we are on our long unbeaten run, and I feel it now. We got a lot wrong today,” he said.

There wasn’t a sense of urgency among Chelsea’s players until the late part of the match, but once they woke up, it was too late, and the rivals were already far ahead.

The pressure on Lampard is getting bigger and bigger because his team isn’t competitive against the big teams, and all of their Premiership victories this year came against the teams from the lower part of the standings.

🗣 "Not good enough, the players have to take the responsibility"

Frank Lampard vents his frustrations with his team in his post-match interview pic.twitter.com/Rw0JJjJkkJ

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 26, 2020

Chelsea hosts Aston Villa in two days, while Arsenal heads for Brighton one day later.

In the opening game of the day, Leicester saved one point at home against Manchester United, coming back twice to erase the Red Devils’ lead. The final result was 2-2 with Barnes and Vardy netting for the Foxes and Rashford and Bruno Fernandes for the guests.

In the matches after that, Aston Villa rolled over Crystal Palace, 3-0, despite having a player fewer on the pitch for the entire second half. During that time, the Villains netted twice more, completely destroying the eagles who lost 0-7 last week against Liverpool.

Fulham once again posted a draw, this time a goalless one following a tough and hard game against Southampton.