Chronicle Editor
It is too early to say this is Chelsea’s title to lose; but any club finishing above them has a fair chance of being champions.
This was the first sight of a Thomas Tuchel team that includes Romelu Lukaku and most definitely a marker was laid down. Lukaku scored, two Arsenal men were booked trying to contain him, and Bernd Leno produced the save of the match tipping his header onto the bar after 77 minutes.
The game was won, pretty much, by the time Chelsea went two clear 11 minutes before half-time and although Arsenal were much improved on their opening game at Brentford, they are not in Chelsea’s class. Consider the teams that might run Chelsea close this season, and Arsenal will not be among them.
Arsenal have spent £150m, the most of any Premier League club this summer, but where was it? Missing ill in the case of Ben White, signed too late in the case of Martin Odegaard, on the bench in the case of Nuno Tavares.
Chelsea addressed their biggest problem, where one imagines the rebuilding required at Arsenal is in its infancy.
Covid-related issues have ravaged the club with unfortunate timing yet the problems in the first-half here were unrelated to the absence of first-choice goalscorers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. Arsenal were simply too easy to pass through, and round.
Chelsea moved back to front, and from left to right with incredible ease. Kieran Tierney — one of Arsenal’s best players on day one against Brentford — struggled to contain a marauding Reece James on the right. And while Arsenal were game against Lukaku, the early goal rather negated any positivity about the defensive display.
It wasn’t like the surrender to Brentford, more that Arsenal are simply a significant grade below Chelsea. They didn’t start badly. Emile Smith Rowe forced a shot from Edouard Mendy after just two minutes.
But once Chelsea settled every attack was fraught with danger and possibility. Chelsea always looked likely to score and the first time they got in behind Arsenal, they did.
It was a lovely pass out to James by Mateo Kovacic. The England right-back was pushed high on Tierney and always an option. On this occasion he left Tierney for dust and hit a low cross which Lukaku converted from close range.
Cedric Soares played him on; Bernd Leno might have done more to cut the cross out. It was all very Arsenal. Too lackadaisical, nowhere near bold enough. Mikel Arteta hopes to have corrected some of these problems in the transfer market. He seems miles from a solution right now, however.
For Lukaku, it was the instant correction of a rather embarrassing personal record. This was his first goal for Chelsea, in what was his 16th appearance for the club, having waited nine years and 360 days since first making his debut as an 83rd minute substitute against Norwich on August 27, 2011. This was more like it. He returns a different man. — Daily Mail
Online Reporter