Romelu Lukaku put in a man of the match display on his first appearance back in a Chelsea shirt as he was instrumental in his sides 2-0 victory against Arsenal. After the Gunners initially started brightly it was a first half dominated by the European Champions, as Lukaku got off to the perfect start back in Blue, converting from a Recee James cross and opening the scoring after 15 minutes. Doubling the scoreline ten minutes before half time was Reece James, latching on to Mason Mount’s pass and firing the ball into the top corner brilliantly.
Team News: White out for Arsenal, Lukaku starts
Chelsea fans eagerly awaited the team news and just over an hour before kick-off the news everyone was waiting for dropped. Romelu Lukaku would make his first appearance after since returning to the club from Inter Milan for a club record fee.
Supporting him in attack would be Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, with Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho trusted to control the midfield. Reece James and Marcos Alonso were the starting wing-backs, outside of a back three consisting of Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rüdiger.
Arsenal’s line up also saw changes as Mikel Arteta attempted to recover from their embarrassing opening day defeat away to Brentford last week. New signing Ben White was ruled out after testing positive for Covid, being replaced in central defence Rob Holding. Bukayo Saka returned to the side to make his first start of the season and captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was named on the bench.
First half: Reece James stars
As seen right across the stadiums in the league so far this season, the atmosphere at the Emirates as the game kicked off was bouncing and Arsenal responsed by having the first shot on target after a minute. A long ball forward towards Saka was only half cleared by Christensen, dropping to Smith-Rowe on the edge of the box who tested Mendy with a low drive that the Chelsea keeper managed to hold on to.
The home side had started well and had much a better opening ten minutes than their opponents, looking comfortable in possession and building patient attacks – enter Romelu Lukaku. Having barely had a touch in the opening 15, suddenly Lukaku found the ball fired into his feet by Kovacic, with his back to goal as he pinned Pablo Mari. The panic started to set in for Arsenal as defenders were dragged out of position to try and deal with the threat, leaving space for James on the wing. Lukaku laid it back to Kovacic who fed James down the right, before he whipped into Lukaku for a tap in inside the six yard box. Big Rom had arrived. Silence (barring one particularly loud corner) at The Emirates.
The goal brought about a complete momentum shift in proceedings. All of a sudden a Chelsea looked purposeful every time they had the ball. Lukaku had gone from an isolated figure in the early stages to a constant thorn in Arsenal’s side, often receiving the ball and dragging his side forward by holding up the play and laying it off.
Following on from 20 minutes of domination after opening the scoring, Chelsea doubled their lead in emphatic fashion. Breaking down the left was Alonso, before attempting to cut it back to Lukaku who had peeled off to the edge of the area. Again dragging defenders out with him, the pass missed Lukaku and dropped to Mount in space, who found James breaking into a huge gap down the right. Taking the ball in his stride like a top striker, James took a couple of touches before smashing the ball across Leno and into the top corner to make it 2-0. Arsenal managed a slight resurgence before half-time, including a succession of corners and a reasonable penalty shout. James and Saka got in a tangle just inside the area but referee Paul Tierney instantly waved the claims away.
Second half: Tuchel’s team see out the match to away Emirates victory
As the teams emerged for the second half, Chelsea seemed to have regained their foothold in the game following Arsenal’s burst at the end of the first. However, with fans now back and stadiums full again, the power of the 12th man has returned and after one spirited bout of pressing from full back Kieran Tierney, the Emirates had perked up and Arsenal had their tails up. That meant Mendy’s first real test came five minutes after the break, as Saka’s deflected drive from the edge of the area needed to be acrobatically tipped over the bar to keep the score at 2-0. After saving well from Saka, Mendy couldn’t have done anything to stop Arsenal’s next close attempt. A long ball aimed forward towards Martinelli was nodded out for a corner by Christensen. The subsequent set piece was crossed into the back post before being headed back into the danger area, where defender Holding could only divert his header just wide of the post from close range.
Mendy was suddenly a much busier man and showed his alertness with 25 minutes to go, as he sprung off his line to intercept a through ball aimed at substitute Aubameyang, snuffing out the danger completely. Tuchel made his first change with 20 minutes left, as N’golo Kanté was brought on to replace Kovacic.
A worrying moment occurred for Chelsea fans immediately after the first substitution, as James took a knock in a mid-air collision and appeared to be knocked out, however after some treatment he was back on his feet and ready to play on.
Chelsea so nearly wrapped up the points with just over ten minutes on the clock, with Lukaku in disbelief as to how he hadn’t doubled his tally for the afternoon. Finding space in between Arsenal’s centre backs, Lukaku called for a ball in from Mount who duly obliged, wonderfully clipping the ball into the Belgian who powered a header towards goal which Leno tipped onto the bar impressively.
Arsenal were a spent force now and as the Emirates began to empty, Chelsea turned the screw looking for a third. Tuchel’s second substitute came as Hakim Ziyech returned from his shoulder injury sustained in the Super Cup Final to replace Mount. Ziyech was immediately involved in a now more stretched game, turning into space in Arsenal’s half before feeding Lukaku, who in turn played Havertz though before Leno made another save to deny Chelsea.
Chelsea’s final change saw Timo Werner come on in place of countryman Havertz, as Lukaku played a full 90 minutes on his debut – picking up the Man of the Match award from Gary Neville along the way too.
As the final whistle went, Chelsea moved joint top of the league with Liverpool after another convincing display.
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Written by Dom (@dmdsport)
Edited by Tom Coley (@tomcoley49)
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