At the final whistle, Chelsea and Arsenal players vied for one last time to see which group of players could convey the keenest frustration. Some fell to the turf, others threw their arms about or rolled their eyes first towards the sky, then downwards as sullen handshakes were exchanged.
Even in that, they could not be separated. Sunday’s breathless London derby at Stamford Bridge ended with the kind of mutual disappointment that reinforces a draw as the right result.
Chelsea sensed an opportunity against a stumbling Arsenal and competed on equal terms throughout. For long stretches, the two teams looked almost mirror images of each other: compressing their defensive structures to squeeze out elegant left-footed playmakers (Cole Palmer for Chelsea, Martin Odegaard of Arsenal), ‘inverting’ a defender into attacking midfield (Malo Gusto for the hosts, Jurrien Timber of the visitors) in an attempt to generate numerical superiority.
Arsenal are the bigger, more physically imposing side and have bullied Chelsea in previous meetings, but not here.
New coach Enzo Maresca’s team matched the intensity of their guests from across town, competed gamely in the air at set pieces and recovered from one disastrously error-strewn sequence to exploit one of their own, Pedro Neto striding into an ocean of space to fire in the equaliser after Gabriel Martinelli had squeezed an effort past Robert Sanchez at his near post.
Mikel Arteta likely left Stamford Bridge feeling as if Arsenal had missed the better chances, but their most memorable misses — as well as Kai Havertz’s neat finish from a quickly-taken free kick — were followed relatively swiftly by offside calls. According to Opta, Chelsea created 1.3 expected goals (xG) in the game to their 1.4.
“We played in the way we want to play on and off the ball,” Maresca said in his post-match press conference. “The game in some moments was open — anything can happen on both sides — but we deserved a point and this is important.”
The importance becomes immediately evident with a glance at the Premier League table.
Chelsea go into the November international break in third, the first time they have finished a day in the top three since the end of the 2021-22 season. At the end of an exacting run of fixtures that has seen them battle surprise packages Nottingham Forest, leaders Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United and now Arsenal, that is a very encouraging place to be.
Chelsea only won one of those five matches, inspired by Palmer at home against Newcastle last month. That record acts as a reminder of the formative nature of Maresca’s project and a hint of just how much more favourable the broader Premier League landscape is proving to be this season.
At the same stage of last season, Chelsea had only picked up three points fewer (15) from their first 11 Premier League games than they have this time. The big difference is that a year ago, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa had all started at lightning speed. Mauricio Pochettino’s early teething problems at Stamford Bridge left his team nine points adrift of Champions League qualification by the second week of November, and they never fully recovered.
Events elsewhere in these opening three months have smiled upon Maresca. Liverpool appear to be marching serenely towards the title and champions City remain ahead of the rest despite dipping well below their usual standards, but beyond those two just four points separate Chelsea from designated crisis club Manchester United in 13th.
Their current pace would yield Chelsea 66 points when the music stops in May — enough to improve on last season’s effort by only three points, and one position higher than the sixth-place finish Pochettino delivered. But there was ready acknowledgement from the club’s leading decision-makers going into the Maresca era in the summer that the team’s form in the first half of his debut year was unlikely to be blistering, as well as an expectation that things would improve as time went on.
“We are behind this kind of club, like City and Arsenal,” Maresca reiterated after Sunday’s 1-1 draw. “They have worked every single day in the last five years (Arsenal), or nine years (City), with the same manager, so we are behind them.
“This doesn’t mean when we face them, we are not going to compete and try to win. Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in Europe, in the world. Yes, we need to compete and try to win games. We competed (on Sunday) and tried to win the game and very soon we will win this kind of game.”
Chelsea are still waiting for a true signature victory under the Italian, an extension of a trend that predates him; since the 2021-22 season, they have won only once in 19 matches against the previous campaign’s top three, with 10 draws and eight defeats. Neto’s equaliser yesterday was the bare minimum in this context, a thrilling and deserved reprieve from what threatened to be a dispiriting loss against elite opponents some way short of their best rhythm.
The league schedule looks considerably kinder over the remainder of 2024, with Villa and Spurs — talented teams, but with plenty of their own problems — the most formidable opponents on paper. Chelsea and Maresca will hope this is the stretch that enables them to establish themselves on a firm trajectory towards Champions League qualification for 2025-26, rather than remaining at the head of a pack in which two bad results can prompt talk of a crisis.
“I try to focus on the day by day,” Maresca added. “They just asked me where I see the club at the end of the season, and I said that I am not (currently) worried about where we can be. I am relaxed, because we have an international break, but when we work every day, I’m more worried about how we can improve the players and the team. This has been the most important thing.”
Chelsea’s performances flash improvement and real tactical acumen from Maresca, even if mistakes persist. They fought Arsenal to a draw here without Palmer being anywhere near his best, and with Sanchez continuing to look less than convincing in goal.
There is plenty of room for improvement, plenty of time, and, looking at the Premier League table, plenty of incentive too.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
