It’s a draw at the Bridge: Arsenal 1, Chelsea 1. A result that, in isolation, isn’t necessarily bad, but on the grander scale of things, it feels like a missed opportunity and hurts our title aspirations. Overall, I think the team played well. There are still some lingering defensive issues that have cropped up this season (See Neto wonder strike below), but aside from that, it was a solid performance from the players.
I think we can honestly attribute this improved performance to the reintroduction of Martin Ødegaard, who returned from injury. If there were ever any doubts about his importance to Arsenal, this game made it clear. I’m not saying this was Ødegaard’s best game in an Arsenal shirt—far from it—but for a player who’s been out for months, his mere presence in the midfield was immense. Ødegaard didn’t look like a player returning from injury; he provided a quality assist for Martinelli’s strike to give the Gunners the lead in the 60th minute. One underappreciated aspect of his game is his work rate, especially his defensive pressing.
One individual I expected more from in this game was Bukayo Saka. I think he had a tough day, and I begrudgingly have to give credit to Marc Cucurella for the way he defended against him. That said, we definitely needed a win, given the poor results we've had so far this season. We needed the three points to close the gap at the top and to regain some swagger within the squad.
In fact, we’re fortunate that our tough run of form has coincided with Manchester City’s own dip in results. If not for that, our slim title hopes would likely have evaporated by now. See Highlights and Comment below.
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