Arsenal Scores a Late Fightback in a
2-2 Draw with Chelsea
Arsenal showed grit to come back and earn a draw, maintaining
their perfect start to the Premier League season.
After VAR intervention, a somewhat harsh handball judgment on William Saliba resulted in
Arsenal behind by Cole Palmer's penalty after 15 minutes. Arsenal had gone 335
minutes in away games without allowing the opposition to score, including to
the end of 2022–23, when they had their first away goal of the current campaign.
As a Premier League goalkeeper, David Raya has faced seven penalties, and he has failed to save any
of them. Although he is still some distance behind Craig Gordon's record of 15
faced, 0 saved, only four goalkeepers in Premier League history have faced more
penalty kicks without saving one.
Throughout the entire first half, the Gunners provided virtually no offensive effort. Despite
managing Arsenal for 143 Premier League games, Mikel Arteta has only seen his
team try two less first-half shots than they did today.
Fewer first-half touches in the opponent's box than today (three) have occurred in five games,
and their first-half expected goals (xG) total of 0.12 was their tenth lowest
across the 143 league games played under the Spaniard.
For Arsenal, things got worse before they got better. Mykhailo Mudryk attempted to cross the ball
to Raheem Sterling in the middle, but instead mistakenly floated the ball over
Raya, who was left alone. With his poor positioning for this goal as the latest
instance in recent shaky moments for the Spanish goalkeeper, Raya was caught
off his line and in no man's land. On the hour mark, he was fortunate not to
let up another goal due to his own mistake when Palmer was unable to benefit on
his bad delivery.
Chelsea was in command at 2-0. They later decided to waste the three points, though.
Arsenal had a chance to tie the game again when Robert Sánchez of Chelsea made yet another error in
goalkeeping. Declan Rice was able to cut the lead in half on the 77th minute
with a magnificent first-time strike into an open net as a result of his faulty
pass. Leandro Trossard, a replacement, scored at the back post to tie the score
seven minutes later on a wonderful cross from Bukayo Saka. Before those goals,
Arsenal hadn't taken a single shot at goal, but all of a sudden, they had two
straight goals. Trossard made history by becoming the first player for Arsenal
to score all three of his team's opening goals in the Premier League.
In their nine Premier League games this season, Arsenal's subs have contributed three assists
and five goals. This season, only Newcastle and Brighton's substitutes have
contributed to more goals (each nine) than Arsenal's (eight), while Brighton is
the only team whose replacements have contributed to more goals (seven) than
Arsenal's (five).