Chelsea Edge Arsenal 3-2 in London Derby

Arsenal were beaten 3-2 by rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in their second game of the season.

Arsenal lost at home last week to champions Manchester City and Saturday’s match was to provide an opportunity to showcase their intent in the new season.

Arsenal did indeed rally from a two-goal deficit to equalise in the first half. But they were a shadow of themselves in the second half, with Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso’s late strike sealing a deserved 3-2 win for Maurizio Sarri’s wards.

Arsenal’s manager, Unai Emery said after the game: “It is clear the result is not good for us but the process is continuing.

“We had chances to do more… in the first half, I think we need to control the second half better.”

Maurizio Sarri’s side raced into a 2-0 lead in the London derby before Arsenal drew level in a thrilling first half at Stamford Bridge.

Pedro swept home with a cool finish in the ninth minute after woeful Arsenal defending and Alvaro Morata crashed in the second 11 minutes later.

Although Arsenal were rocky at the back, they were dangerous going forward and Henrikh Mkhitaryan got one back with a low strike in the 37th minute.

Alex Iwobi nabbed Arsenal’s equaliser with a clinical effort in the 44th minute.

But Chelsea bounced back from that blow, dominating the second half before Spanish defender Alonso finished off substitute Eden Hazard’s pass in the 81st minute.

Chelsea’s second successive win under new boss Sarri lifted them to the top of the Premier League with a 100 percent record, while Arsenal remain without a point under their new manager Unai Emery after back-to-back losses.

“We did very well for 75 minutes but inside that, 15 minutes were horrible,” Sarri said.

“I think the players were really very good because at 2-2 it was not easy with Arsenal.”

But to Arsenal’s full centre back, Greek’s Sokratis, Arsenal players had themselves to blame for not playing well against Chelsea.

“It was a difficult game. We didn’t start very well. For the first 20 minutes we were not playing as well as we wanted to be. After that we started to play. We missed a lot of chances but we managed to score two goals. In the end it difficult to find the goal to win the game. We didn’t score, they managed to and we lost.

“We didn’t defend very well in the first half, all the team. It was too easy for them to come into our half and score. After that, we started to play better, we pressed better, won a lot of balls in midfield and had chances. We had to score more because in the end we lost the game. We have to improve in the next game”.

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