Two goals for Eddie Nketiah, and one each for Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal a 4-2 win over Chelsea on an extraordinary night at a Stamford Bridge which was half-empty because their former owner was sanctioned for being a crony of war criminal Vladimir Putin.
Arsenal went ahead twice in the first half, but twice let the blood-money funded Blues back into it, but in the second period Nketiah grabbed another before Saka’s late penalty sealed the deal.
“There’s nobody here,” sang the away fans, “just like the old days, there’s nobody here!”
A massive win for the team after a difficult few weeks, and one we absolutely deserved.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal report and see the goals here
Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
10/10 every one of us (including me) who groaned at seeing Nketiah on the team sheet. Well done Eddie!
Uhm…I think you mean 0/10
Blogger gave Song no chance, Coq nada and Nketia non. Kids need minutes before you call it. I’d love to see Eddie given same trust as ESR Saka and Martinelli. Where they fuck up and they are still trusted before I call it on him
You don’t become England U21 record scorer if you’re shit. But, if you’re the England full team record scorer, you are a cunt for sure!
England U21 top 5 record goalscorers are Nketiah, Shearer, Jeffers, Berahino and Redmond. Let’s hope Eddie is more Shearer than the other lot (a bit less cunty though)
hahaha Very well put!
Quite possibly, I reconsidered after I had already hit post. Much like Nketiah this season!
Fair play – I was one of those lamenting his continued ‘flattering to decieve’ but the lad done good!
10 for everyone… except Jon Moss… he gets 1.5…
Also f*ck Mason Mount.
I really dislike him.
Xhaka woulda walked for that open studs on Tavares 😬
No chance, Xhaka was just having his usual blinder against Chelsea. Saka is building a rep at stamford bridge and most importantly, Holding still has Chelsea in his Pocket and Arteta knew that, well played..
P.S Check ESR’s miss at around 44:10 – what if?
You mean on Cedric, right? I know, he gets forgotten too easily.
No question. Card would have been out so fast, even Jon Moss would have been stunned. The Premier League has strenuously denied that it’s cards are programmed to flash out on their own whenever Xhaka’s foot is raised beyond a particular angle. But why should we believe them?
Twice he was allowed to get away with a studs up stamp, first on Tavares, second on Cedric, and fucking nothing done about it.
Xhaka would have been publically executed. One rule for others, another for us, classic refs.
Yeah mason mount is a nasty little turd, he belongs to a scumbag team like chavski!!!
While I get the sentiment, him having the balls to award a pen against the home team in the dying minutes redeemed him in my eyes
I really don’t want to give him any credit, so how’s this: Cowardly awarded Arsenal a penalty to make it a 2-goal game so that he wouldn’t have to make any other important decisions in extra time.
That’s why 1.5 and not 1
It’s clear Jon Moss gets 3.14.
Jon Moss runs a record shop in Leeds. Let’s not go in and support it if we should find ourselves in the vicinity.
Fuck yeah, roll on Man United on Saturday. COYG!
Overall we never lost faith in winning the game 👍🏻
Can we get a manager rating some day?
I liked Mikels setup today. Different but greatly balanced with some nice crispy flavour up top in the shape of Eddie.
I’d also like to see that. Some days I feel the boss gets the big calls right and deserves the kudos for that, some days I feel he doesn’t and doesn’t change it until the 79th bloody minute and would be nice to get a rating for that
Since Tierney’s injury for the Palace game, then losing Partey as well late on in that game, he has tried different things, against Brighton, Southampton and now today against Chelsea. And today it worked. People accuse El Boss of being stubborn, but give credit where it’s due.
I agree. I wish he just went to this right at first time. He already tried Xhaka at LB before. Should have brought EL on the first game.
yeap Eddie returned the call!
It was a brave setup, and one that could easily have turned south. Clearly, the players were a bit unsure of themselves at first, but I love how their confidence and cohesion grew as the game progressed.
Honestly, when I saw the starting line up, I was expecting a thrashing. We were playing Eleney and Holding, both has almost zero play time this year. But I think Chelsea morale is probably low from all the happenings recently. Anyway, glad the gamble pays off.
Chelsea FC and saving Mikel Arteta’s job. Name a better duo.
His job was not at risk at this point. I guarantee it. I have absolutely zero inside knowledge, but I guarantee it anyway.
Poor decision-making. Shaky on ball occasionally. Poor positioning sense. He needs to go on loan for awhile. The Egyptian was solid tonight.
You’re not allowed to be pragmatic and realistic when we win or you will be down voted and branded “not a real supporter”. You’re supposed to jump on the band wagon of over enthusiastic blind optimism and not let the truth get in the way.
I happen to agree with you that the 2 goals glossed over another very shakey performance from him , however I’d take a shakey performance with the 2 goals if it was offered again. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll get as much generosity as the chelski defender offered in the next few games.
Well done hale end. Bloody love you
Ramsdale having a 7 and Xhaka a 7.5…
I gave Ramsdale a 4.5
I thought he should have done way better on the deflected goal. He was also really shaky at the start.
Downvote me, but it’s true. And I like Ramsdale.
He made me nervous the whole game, 1st time since he’s come into the team.
He’s been poor since Feb
Well done Eddie. I was commenting in the week saying that he wasn’t at the right level and a parting of ways was necessary, and while my opinion hasn’t necessarily changed and I still think a change would be the best thing for all parties, he was brilliant tonight.
Keep it up and get yourself the best possible move for your career this summer fella
It’s a new Eddie! Wow!
Xhaka was a true boss today 💪
Yeah, thought he was the best player today. 7.5 a bit unfair for that performance blogs 😉
Well Odegaard was pretty good too.
His best game in an Arsenal shirt for me. Needed him to really stand up with the injuries and the last three losses, and I thought he was exceptional. He even kept his head when others threatened not to- ushering Gabriel away at the end was noticeable.
For all his faults, tonight he was exceptional.
I’ve been all over his case recently but this was one of his best games for us. But kudos to Ever-Ready Mo’Menny who just trucks around rock solid for 90 mins. Bloke really gets a bad rap on here… proper banker for us imo.
^ This is what I came here to say. He was incredible. Particularly, in the opening 10 mins of the second half.
This is why I love this sport, and this is why I love Arsenal. When things were looking bleak, we can turn in a performance like that. Keep the faith.
Great away result with some performance to match, elneny is a much better replacement for partey than lokonga atm. I’d stick with this starting 11, with maybe cedric back in. Crucially it regain some much needed believe after a horrible run of results, 6 games to go COYG
Hardly. Elneny was very good in the game but he’s still not good enough overall. Let’s not forget Chelsea were a mess in the game too. Lokonga is new and young, and should be the first preference.
Back in the day, I used to read MAD magazine. Although American, they tried to add some gags to appeal to the British as well. One edition, there was a comic called “Where to hide the nukes so that no-body will find them”. Amongst such obvious examples as “In a Hell’s Angel’s wash room”, was included “At Chelsea’s soccer stadium, whether or not they are playing.”
The Arsenal fans’ chant mentioned in the intro here, brought back that old memory!
Great team selection.
We forget Eddie hitting the woodwork in each of his last 3 sub appearances and looked great earlier in the season like at Everton. Tonight should be no surprise.
Eddie is instinctive. If he starts to find range and hit them in, woe betide.
Yes the gaffer can take a bow for getting it spot on today. If anything he is MOTM for me.
Smith-Rowe…what a finish son!
Absolute quality
Especially love Martin slapping the turf immediately after that goes in… like a well-planned training ground move coming together.
Felt so happy for Xhaxa and Nketiah in particular. All you want is for players to prove you wrong.
Elneny has to be the most professional professional. Anyone who watches the Arsenal training vids knows the guy looks like the hardest trainer despite hardly playing and always has a smile on his face. Real good guy.
Good set up from Arteta too. Wasn’t happy with some of his decisions in the last few games but that was a brave lineup and they executed it.
Elneny isn’t the best midfielder by far and truth is we needed to upgrade on him last summer. Not doing so then and again in Jan was a big mistake. That said, he is vastly more experience then Lokonga. Reliance on the younger man also a big mistake which should never have been allowed to happen The other thing about Elneny though is he is hard working and has improved himself over last season on loan. The experience tells. He’s always been professional if anything and willing. Did good today playing passes responsibly and (along with Xhaka) covering inside channels… Read more »
Mo. E. Passed to Martin o regularly as well. Mo is a sizable unit , fast and tidy with the ball. And s physical presence. He a xhaka played well together. I never understood why Wenger bought them and never played them together . When we were in the past soft there.
Today was tactically bang on. Missing key players in multiple positions and rallying the backups in Holding and Elneny, who both grew into the game and were so damn crucial in converting the win. Elneny in particular was quietly everywhere, not flashy at all but perfect positioning. Massive props to Arteta for today’s game plan and more so for keeping the squad players invested and ready to put in these performances when called upon. Very hard to keep them motivated when not playing, and today that paid off big time.
I don’t get why he’d be upset considering how much money he makes. Players who have tantrums have lost all sense of proportion.
At last a joy to watch well done Arsenal
Rasputin
Xhaka gave one of his best performances tonight, 8.5 score for me. Same with Saka, and Nketiah who was my MOTM,
10/10 for Saka for taking that penalty, boy has huge cojones.
Another 10/10 for ESR, that goal, sweet sweet sweet,
Aaah and another 10/10 for Nketiah boy was a hound, a menace, and made his luck and took his chances.
10/10 for Arteta, he found a fix and damn it was a good fix.
How do i rate Tuchel for his comical claim Chelsea scored 5 goals and lost 4 – 2
COYG!
Massive cojones indeed. I thought why would he take the penalty now.
When arsenal win who else watches all of the match analysis, reads every article possible, rewatches the highlights over again and smiles for the rest of the day! And then reads more articles on the game! 🙂
Same here… then if we lose, who else does the reverse – don’t watch any other team match, don’t watch highlights of our match and don’t read any articles until the next game pre game press.
Good lord, I always thought I was the only one doing that! 😂
Dem’s da rules. It’s impossible to watch, read anything or enjoy any football the same day your team loses.
Massive result. Well done everyone, xhaka and nketiah are the standout performers imo, but it definitely was a team effort. Long may it continue
I can’t lie, I’d kinda given up on Eddie, but tonight he turned in the kind of performance I’ve been waiting to see from him in the Premier league ever since I saw him score two goals against Norwich in the League Cup back in the day, now can he replicate that kind of performance and finishing against the Mancs this weekend?
We so need him to do just that because the difference in our attack with his work-rate, application and finishing as they were this evening was transformative.
i could do without the political/ war criminal shit on a football blog.
Well, it shouldn’t be forgotten.
ya, after years of covid politics i thought we had finally all agreed that football was a place where we could go to get away from politics. this brings nothing to the discussion of rating player performance . ive been on arseblog news since literally the begining, with my boy fatgooner and i always loved that you could come here and say cunt, shit or whatever and not be moderated. This political shit makes the blog just another shithole of opinions that i dont really give a shit about. And Putin and Roman are cunts. but this aint the place… Read more »
You can still do all that.
But I don’t remember anyone agreeing that football was a place to get away from politics, especially when politics – for example Abramovich – has used football to whitewash terrible things.
I’m not asking you to give a shit, you can just ignore it if you don’t care for it.
aye, agreed. ignoring is always an option. I choose to voice my displeasure of mixing politics with player ratings. call me old fashion, but youre never going to convince me that Abromovich’s politcal actions/views had anything to do with eddie banging in 2, or Xhaka not shitting his pants in a big game today. Republicans buy sneakers too.
Calling Putin a war criminal and Roman’s money blood money is somehow anti-GOP? Why isn’t that something all Gooners can agree upon? You seem to agree as well. So what’s wrong with stating the obvious?
“Republicans buy sneakers too,” is a quote by Michael Jordan explaining why he wasn’t openly political.
I’m sure that’s what he’s referring to, and not that calling Abramovich a cunt is criticizing the Republican party.
Mate – we were on (very) hostile turf… in a stadium peopled by cunts who’d flown a russian flag bearing the word ‘Empire’ during the first days of this planetary-scale crime against decency and humanity.
We took that flag, prized open their filthy yob-gobs and forced it down the halitosis-ridden throats!
What’s not to take pleasure in, ffs?!
Well thats just your cunty opinion mate.
no shit captain obvious. Its blogs house, he can write whatever he wants. I can also post my “opinion” on it. Its how these things work.
Also, as a side note, it should ne noted that we are following a football club from London, England. The country with Possibly the highest number of “war crimes” in history hahaha
Everything is politics.
The decisions these people make have direct or knock on effects in all facets of life.
Football is not exempt, especially when it consistently trades its morals for cash.
And frankly, I’m quite happy to be reminded that Chelski is a big part of that deal, because fuck them.
I agree, everything you say has truth to it. If this article was titled ” politics, morals and money in modern English Football”, i would have absolutely nothing to say. but…… this is titled “….Player ratings” . Sounds like a great place to voice OPINIONS on player performance, not Politics to me.
You’re an idiot.
“Everything is politics”
What a cop-out.
Agreed, I’m tired of politics being inserted into football.
Well, it was inserted into Chelsea by that Putin lapdog Abramovich – alongside a shitton of money, for which they bought the players who played tonight. The entire point of sportswashing is to get people to associate a country (or in this case, a member of a country’s elite) with successful sports club first, and human rights abuses not at all. The entire reason they do it is because of people like you and frog, who like to keep politics out of sports. I say fuck ’em. A next round of sanctions should require all of Chelski’s ill-gotten trophies to… Read more »
To be clear, when I say “fuck ’em,” I mean the sportswashers, not the fans.
Great post. How can we care about football but ignore all the things that create the game? PSG have Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe. Are we not supposed to remember how that can happen? Chelsea were champions of England once in their first hundred years of existence, and five times since Abramovich bought the club. Am I supposed to forget why?
Spot on mate plus, having highlighted why Stamford bridge was half empty, blogs did mention the fans contribution (which is a key part of a football match): “There’s nobody here,” sang the away fans, “just like the old days, there’s nobody here!” Indeed, the fans also chanted “murderers, murderers” again referencing their dubious ownership!!! Personally I think it is disgusting that chavski have been allowed to buy titles, some of which surely would have come to us (thinking title in 2005) so I think it is right to moan about it – it’s changed the football landscape forever in a… Read more »
Not just titles players too. Hazard instead of Gervinho, maybe Kante, Cole would have stayed…
I agree with SarcasmBOT… basically never – but he’s nailed this comment. I prefer to disassociate politics and sport as much as possible, but it can’t always be done.
We’ll said man!
“Well said…”
And yet you’ve been on here bemoaning Chelski’s being able to buy whoever they want because of Roman’s cash… and where did you think he got all the Putin pocket-money?
perhaps find another blog… on another planet maybe? One with loads of nice fine sand you can bury your head in.
Mason Mount is a thug.
He’s the cnut who hides behind his hard mate throwing sneaky digs outside a club. Or puts the boot in when someone’s on the ground.
He’s dodged at least 2 deserved red cards this season already. Like most young English lads who are part of the national team set up he’s still a very good player but also become a massive cunt. Ditto Reece James.
Thought the 3-4-2-1 a good move given injuries to Tomy and Tierney. Speed of Saka and Tavares as wings helps on the counter. Good to see strong performances from players who have taken some abuse lately – Eddie, Xhaka and Tavares. Tavares play key role in first and third goals. Also Elneny and Holding, who have hardly played, were great once they shook off the rust.
Is that not a little low for Saka, I thought he had a brilliant performance, driving the team on, defending, playmaking, exelent decision making for the second goal, he had psychopath-like coolness and composure when the norm in that play would be get to the byline quick or square first time.
Yep, he was awesome but can ‘psychopath’ be a good thing then?
Can we get a rating for Holding’s hair treatment? Bloke was a Prince William look-alike 6 months ago.
He really looks much younger doesn’t he? He’s still better than Cannavaro.
Extra marks for Gabriel sprinting 60 yards to defend his teammates after the late penalty decision! Leader
Mix of good and bad today even if result much welcomed with a huge slice of luck but also opportunism on on our part. A word on the team effort today before we hone in on individuals : Team started shaky (If Arteta right decision to go 3 at the back and match them) …plenty of (understandably) nervy mispasses from players with ring rust or just knock on effect from poor run recently. But we got it together as it wore on and encouraging to see us press aggressively high up (IN UNISON) but then also have the discipline to… Read more »
Not to be a dick (albeit, too late…), I mentioned last week that Eddie should start above Martenelli (who I don’t think is the same out and out striker) and got the obvious thumbs down nonsense. Kudos to Eddie to proving that’s the case. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to give him more minutes to find out if the majority remain right, or not, that he is or is not cut out for this. He looked energetic, he looked good, he scored, twice, and perhaps all the naysayers need to hold out just for one moment. One game doesn’t make… Read more »
Spot on👍
I made a similar comment about Eddie that was surprisingly unpopular.
https://arseblog.news/2022/04/southampton-1-0-arsenal-player-ratings-2/#comment-1402757
One game doesn’t make a striker but Eddie does have a history of important contributions. He also has a killer instinct and he is cutthroat. These are underrated qualities. I think he’ll be a good striker wherever he ends up in the future.
This is our golden generation of U21s. Emery bought and promoted these boys for a reason. I think they are capable of big things and I hope we don’t waste this opportunity.
Not sure he ‘proved’ it… yet. My gripe with Eddie is that he has consistently flattered to decieve. The acid test will be him bossing it against the manure on the weekend (please god Eddie!!!).
He’s always had the talent – just been way to sporadic in how he’s channeled it… may this be the rise and rise for King Ed!
He doesn’t even want to be at the club
Not sure he’s good enough to make it here but when he’s started in the last couple of years it’s often been in patchwork cup teams, and had the odd appearance off the bench. Being rusty and having the importance of his misses amplified by the general dearth of chances we create it’s easy to come to the conclusion he’s no good. I’d suggest we’ve not seen the best of him. It’s only a few games but hopefully he does get that run in the team that he’s after and some decent supply. I think he might surprise a few… Read more »
Kudos to Eddie for a very good performance and he took his chances well but he’s a Championship striker at best
With this midfield we need to play counter attacking football from here on out.
Problem is that a lot of teams just sit back with a ‘low block’ in the premier league making counter attacking tricky at best
Kudos to Arteta. He got it right.
One of Xhaka best games all season… Rates him 7.5. Ok.
I rated him a 9
Honestly.
Nuno Tavares was absolute dog shite today. We won despite him. Need a better option for next year as it’s obvious that Tierney can’t be relied on.
Huh!?
what game were you watching. A young foreign player who gave Chelski
fits with his attacks. So he can’t shoot – but he sure kept the full back busy.
Not many successful attacks down his wing until he tired later.
I thought he played brilliantly. And arteta’s set up really played to his strengths. Was directly involved in two of our goals. His young and raw but he’s a beast. I like him and I’m glad that arteta is showing him trust.
I thought he was decent going forward but entirely culpable for their 2nd goal. Glad to see him getting games to help restore his confidence. There is a good player in there but it’s not a defender
He was shaky first half but so was much of our defending. He put in a solid shift and has bounced back from 2 terrible performances. Credit to him and to the manager for backing him.
‘Mesut’ tells you all you need to know
Football is much more enjoyable when you’re able to score goals…
Dear Chelski,
I just nutmegged the sh*t out of you in front of our own goal. And then we scored.
Sincerely,
Granit Xhaka.
Overall I think we showed the mental strength tonight to win the game. Overall I think Eddie Nketiah is a good playa.
We should keep Elneny on the books, signed him for £5m? Absolute bargain and a great squad player!!
The reason he’s considered such a good squad player is because our recruitment has been so poor for such a long time now that if we have enforced absences we are very light on strength in depth from the bench
Just goes to show that it works when you keep things simple and play players in their correct positions!
Ramsdale was very iffy tonight and has been for the last few matches – he’s getting beaten far too easily. But generally a very good team performance. Bring on United…
Wowww! I can’t still believe my eyes
How can Ramsdale get a 7, he’s performances are deteriorating every game, I think he was poor on the first goal regardless of the deflection. Can we please be realistic in how we analyse our beloved English players.
Fantastic result and 3 points that none of us, if we’re completely honest, would have anticipated. I thought Chelski looked ‘on the beach’ at times but that said, they are the European champions, have the most revolting fan base in the world, are funded on dirty laundered money by a Russian jail dodging crim so they really only have themselves to blame. Alonso is the reason why the good lord invented the nutmeg and he got ‘banjoed’ so often he must have thought someone in the Arsenal coaching team was an massive Earl Scruggs fan. (If his Mum had kept… Read more »