Chelsea 3-1 Arsenal / Hazard mesmerises Gunners to tighten Premier League grip

[Devolz]

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to this renascent Chelsea side, now the title race is becoming a procession and it is starting to feel like we are witnessing one of the great managerial performances of the modern era, is that there are still three months of the season to go and nobody can surely expect them to surrender their position now.

What other conclusion can we possibly draw after their latest freewheeling victory and another day when it was laid out in precise terms why Antonio Conte’s men are pulling clear with the chasing pack little more than in the speck in the distance? Chelsea have now won all but one of their matches at Stamford Bridge this season. A team who finished 10th last season have reinvented themselves as champions-in-waiting, averaging more than two points a game, and in the process they have accelerated what is becoming known as the annual Arsenal meltdown.

This was just another demonstration of why Arsène Wenger was horribly mistaken to believe his team might be authentic title challengers and, with four defeats in their past nine league fixtures, the most pertinent question for Arsenal now is not whether they can make up the 12-point gap to Chelsea but whether they have the fortitude to continue their long sequence of top-four finishes.

That cannot be guaranteed on the evidence of their latest defeat and a day memorable for Conte throwing himself into the crowd after Eden Hazard had waltzed through to score his team’s second goal. Hazard chose a good day to play at his most exhilarating peaks and it was a wonderfully taken goal from the player whose decline seemed to epitomise the team’s shortcomings last season. At this stage a year ago, they had 29 points and were languishing in 13th position. Their latest win puts them on 59 points without even a crumb of evidence to suggest they may be susceptible to the collective loss of nerve Arsenal seem to encounter with a frequency that must be infuriating for their supporters.

Wenger’s team have lost their past five visits to Stamford Bridge, with a combined score of 15-2, and perhaps the most alarming aspect for their fans is that it is the same deficiencies on each occasion. Every time, we come away with questions about Arsenal’s nerve, their competitive courage. Once again, we saw a key game unfold without any meaningful contribution from Mesut Özil. As has become the norm, we came away wondering whether they are too fragile, mentally and physically, to sustain a title challenge – and, in fairness to Özil, he was far from the only one to suffer in Arsenal’s colours.

Petr Cech, returning to the ground where he enjoyed so many highs, made a wretched error to present Cesc Fàbregas with the ball for the Chelsea’s third goal and the moment, more than any other, that will have stung Arsenal’s followers.

Hazard’s goal was a beauty but a more resilient side would surely never have allowed him to run through their defence, eluding four defenders before aiming his shot past Cech, and it probably typified the modern Arsenal that one of the smallest players on the pitch out-muscled Francis Coquelin, supposedly Arsenal’s midfield enforcer, on his merry way.

This, however, was the theme of a match in which Olivier Giroud’s stoppage-time header essentially meant very little and a legitimate argument could be made that Chelsea were stronger in every department, from A to Z.

Marcos Alonso’s elbow inadvertently caught Héctor Bellerín on the side of the head as the Chelsea player headed in the opening goal, 13 minutes in, and it was to easy imagine Wenger’s protests had Arsenal’s manager not been banned from the technical area.

Yet, first and foremost, Wenger should reflect on the fact it was Bellerín who challenged Diego Costa for the initial header, and the same player who picked himself up to try to stop Alonso after the ball struck the crossbar, looped up and dropped into the six-yard area.

Not one of his team-mates helped out. Closer analysis of the goal showed Theo Walcott drifting half-heartedly back when if he had shown even a touch more effort he could conceivably have cleared the danger himself.

Gabriel, who replaced Bellerín, had a chance to equalise with a first-half header from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s central delivery but there was never any part of the match when the away side put their opponents under concerted pressure. Chelsea had the mix of Costa’s power, Hazard’s nimble running and a player in midfield, N’Golo Kanté, who did not give his opponents a minute’s peace.

They looked stronger physically and, all the time, Conte stalked the touchline, throwing out his arms, screaming to the skies and doing a fine impression in the more dramatic moments of someone who had realised his shoes were on fire. To see the Italian in action is to get a better understanding why Chelsea’s players dare not lower their standards and why it is starting to feel like his team are unstoppable.