Antonio Conte and Arsene Wenger came up against one another for the fourth time in four months as Arsenal and Chelsea played out a goalless Premier League draw at the Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Wenger got the better of the Blues boss to win the FA Cup in May, while also winning the Community Shield following a penalty shoot-out.
Following a pre-season friendly in China, this was another level London derby between the two sides as Chelsea finished with 10 men.
Much of the focus was on the two premier frontmen with Alexandre Lacazette and Alvaro Morata locking horns and here we analyse their performances.
Goals – 0
Shots – 2
Shots on target – 0
Touches – 38
Key passes – 0
Dribbles – 2
Dispossessed – 2
Aerials won – 4
Morata and Shkodran Mustafi battle for possession
Goals – 0
Shots – 2
Shots on target – 1
Touches – 23
Key passes – 0
Dribbles – 0
Dispossessed – 1
Aerials won – 2
Lacazette competes for the ball with Cesc Fabregas
Not often this is said of Arsenal players but they bullied the Spaniard at times. Conte has put their record signing on a regime to gain some muscle and on the evidence of this performance, he’ll need some extra hours in the gym.
Too many times he hit the deck with relative ease and for a player of his lanky frame that’s got to change. In his defence, though, he came out on top in his personal duel with Shkodran Mustafi but missed his only real chance of note.
It’s been said before how isolated he is without a partner up top, specifically Eden Hazard, and that point was further emphasised against Arsenal. Their build-up play was slick and enterprising but then it fell to his feet and would break down. Ultimately, he spent most of the day on the deck instead of trying to get the ball in the back of the net.
Will the real Lacazette please stand up? Arsenal fans must be wondering where the prolific frontman who blazed a goalscoring trail in France is because he was largely anonymous against the Blues.
David Luiz sucked the life out of Lacazette by giving him no breathing room but he suffered from a dire lack of service with perhaps the absence of Mesut Ozil hurting him most. His link-up play was the most disappointing aspect of his game, though as he repeatedly gave the ball away.
And he had chances to score, a bit more quality was required in a game which was bereft of it. He was hauled off just past the hour for Alexis Sanchez in a peculiar swap as the pair should be playing together but it wasn’t the Frenchman’s day.
10th min CHANCE: Chelsea start on the front foot and Morata shows some lovely early touches and he almost gets on the scoresheet. Willian finds Alonso and the Spaniard gets himself between the two centre-backs to head just off target. It wouldn’t have counted anyway as he’s flagged for offside.
47th min CHANCE: Morata sprints free and beats Mustafi but instead of going for it himself he tries to flick the ball to Willian and Arsenal can clean up the danger.
88th min SUB: Andreas Christensen replaces the Spain international after Luiz is sent off.
Morata vies for the ball with Laurent Koscielny
16th min CHANCE: Slick interplay between Ramasey and Bellerin sees the former slip a dangerous ball into the front post and Lacazette times his run perfectly to hit a first-time shot which is comfortably gathered by Courtois.
41st min CHANCE: The Frenchman should have scored. Ramsey gets the break of the ball to squirm through Chelsea’s defence and he nips his shot against the post only for the waiting Lacazette to awkwardly fire over the bar from point-blank range.
66th min SUB: Lacazette’s miserable day is brought to an end as he’s subbed off for Alexis Sanchez.
Lacazette lies injured after a collision with Victor Moses
A lightweight display but he got the better of Mustafi. Missed his sole chance to score but will certainly have better days in front of goal.
Arsenal’s club-record signing can score goals but he missed a sitter in this one and seemed out of sync with many of his team-mates.
All statistics are compiled using whoscored.com
