Match date: 5 October 2014

A few different subplots to this match, including Cesc Fabregas’ first game against his former side, Arsenal, where he played for nine years. The feud between Wenger and Mourinho was another, currently tense due to Mourinho’s comments last year about Wenger being a specialist in failure. Regardless, the London derby was a very good match and Wenger added to the feud with a shove on Mourinho during the first half.

Mourinho named a similar starting XI to last week’s win over Aston Villa, with Schurrle coming in for Willian. Fabregas sat with Matic behind Oscar in a 4-2-3-1.

Wenger continued with a 4-1-4-1, with Flamini, Cazorla, and Wilshere as his central midfield three, while Sanchez and Özil played in the wide areas.

Arsenal Sit Deep, Chelsea Build

This was a very atypical tactical battle from both managers. Mourinho, in ‘big’ games, against teams that like to possess the ball, like Arsenal do, usually has his side sit deep, absorb pressure, and look to play on the counter. While Wenger rarely alters his desired style of play to counter an opponent’s and looks to keep possession, on the day, he had his Arsenal side drop deeper and look to absorb Chelsea’s pressure and it started from the back for Arsenal. In this fixture last year, Arsenal played with a high defensive line, which allowed Chelsea to score three goals in the opening 17 minutes of the match and saw Kieran Gibbs (rather than Oxlade-Chamberlain) sent off for a hand ball in the penalty area. Perhaps learning from that experience, Wenger had his back four play much deeper and rather than having his midfield and forward lines pressing Chelsea, they too sat deeper and defended in a mid to low block. Below, you can see a screen capture showing Arsenal’s back four very deep. Note that the ball in this situation was just played long by John Terry and Arsenal are only about ten yards outside of their penalty area.

It certainly would have been different last year. Arsenal’s line would have been much higher and that ball would have caused them more trouble, as we would see later in the match. Below, you can see the tackling diagrams from this match and last season’s fixture. Notice how Arsenal attempt significantly more tackles and do so in a more more compact area of the pitch rather than spread across the field as was the case last year with their pressing.

This allowed Chelsea to build play up quite easily rather than look to hit longer passes to Diego Costa and wait for support. Instead, the build up play was short, quick passes, usually into the wide areas, particularly into Hazard, who had the beating of Chambers for much of the day and who had an excellent run result in a penalty, which he scored for Chelsea’s first goal of the day. In the system that Arsenal were playing, it allowed the likes of Hazard and Schurrle to find spaces in the wide area. Despite playing a 4-1-4-1, Sanchez and Özil, the latter especially, did not offer their full backs too much support. Chambers was often 1v1 with Hazard and when the Chilean did support Chambers, Hazard would find space inside to Flamini’s right, who he was able to be isolated against due to Wilshere and Cazorla having to put some pressure on Fabregas and Matic, which is what happened on Hazard’s run for the penalty. Below, you can see Chelsea’s passing into the wide areas as well as Hazard’s take-ons.

Fabregas, Oscar, and Matic

The midfield trio of Chelsea were fantastic. On both sides of the ball as well. It was interesting that coming into the match Wenger was asked why Arsenal didn’t sign Fabregas in the summer and, among other things, the Frenchman said that Arsenal have Özil and thus did not need a player like Fabregas, which is interesting considering the role that Fabregas has played during the start of his Chelsea career, which is one of the two holding midfielders in Mourinho’s 4-2-3-1, a role that Özil would never be found playing in.

Against his former club, Fabregas played well in a holding role. He was able to dictate the play from a deeper position and, as mentioned above, Arsenal allowed him to do just that as they sat deeper than usual. Not only did he contribute to Chelsea going forward, but he wasn’t afraid to get tackles in. He and Matic cut down the space between the lines and kept the likes of Özil and Cazorla from picking up the ball in dangerous areas. At times, Wilshere was able to get past Chelsea’s midfield, breaking the lines with his dribbling, but was never able to really deliver a final ball. Oscar did a good amount of defensive work too, tracking Arsenal’s midfield runs well when Matic and Fabregas were deep and engaged. Both Oscar and Fabregas attempted a good amount of tackles, but weren’t too successful in their attempts. Nonetheless, the physical play disrupted Arsenal’s play going forward.

Going forward, Chelsea’s midfield were able to keep the ball well. Matic was mainly a pivot, while Fabregas dictated the tempo and looked for the likes of Hazard, Oscar, and Schurrle. Oscar mostly played central, but his movement was relatively fluid and it allowed Hazard to find space.

Fabregas was intelligent with his passing. He knew when to slow the game down and wait for Chelsea to get numbers forward and he knew when to attempt a quick out ball. He covered a lot of ground, always offering himself as an option for the ball carrier. His play going forward can best be summed up by his assist to Diego Costa. Chelsea, 1-0 up at times point, had allowed Arsenal possession of the ball, which made Arsenal’s back line comfortable in moving forward, but as soon as the ball was turned over, Costa made a good run and Fabregas got on the ball and played a well weighted ball behind Mertesacker and Koscielny for Costa to run onto and chip over Szczesny.

Conclusion

Wenger made two changes after Chelsea scored their second goal, bringing on Podolski for Sanchez and Wilshere for Rosicky, but at that point the match was completely in Chelsea’s favour with Mourinho’s side able to hold leads well.

Compared to last year, Arsenal were very much in the match, despite Wenger changing the way he usually wants his sides to play in order to contain Chelsea. Arsenal had more shots on the night, but none were on target.

Mourinho’s head games got to Wenger, with the Frenchman shoving the Chelsea boss after Gary Cahill’s tackle about 20 minutes into the match. Both teams have relatively easy matches in their next matches, with Arsenal facing Hull City and Chelsea playing Crystal Palace, but at this point Chelsea have a significant lead at the top of the Premier League, already five points clear of second place.