Arsenal gave their Premier League title hopes a huge boost with a 2-1 win over Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners took the lead in the 21st minute through William Saliba, predictably from a corner, as the Frenchman headed into the back of the net via a Mamadou Sarr deflection.
That set the tone for the rest of the match, with Chelsea equalising just before half-time as Piero Hincapie diverted a Reece James corner into his own net. The 66th minute yielded the third goal from a corner of the evening, this time with Jurrien Timber heading home Declan Rice’s deep delivery, though he was given some help by Robert Sanchez’s awful goalkeeping.
More corner chaos takes Arsenal one step closer
That Arsenal are strong on corners is no secret nowadays. In fact, the Gunners finding the net from such situations is becoming one of the most likely occurrences in any game they’re involved in.
There were three goals from corners in this match, and all three of them came via an Arsenal head, even if one of them was at the right end of the pitch.
Focusing on the right end, Saliba and Timber’s efforts take Arsenal to a whopping 16 goals from corners this season, which brings them level with Oldham (92/93), West Brom (16/17) and themselves two years ago for the record. With nine games to go, Arsenal will certainly add to this total and set a formidable new record.
Some may criticise them, and it’s often not pretty. But Arsenal’s corner supremacy is firing them toward a first league title since 2004, and for that, the fans will not care one bit about optics.
A tale of two Spanish goalkeepers
The outcome of Sunday’s match — and perhaps the Premier League title race — could have been very different, were it not for the contrasting efforts of the two Spanish goalkeepers.
At one end, David Raya was inspired between the posts, making a grand total of five saves worth XXX goals prevented, the pick of the bunch being his flying effort to keep out an Alejandro Garnacho cross heading for the far corner in the final minutes.
Raya was actually beaten deep into second-half stoppage time, but Liam Delap’s rebound was disallowed for an offside against Joao Pedro moments before. But even so, he still did his level best, making two superb stops to deny the Brazilian.
At the other end, Robert Sanchez looked like a bag of nerves from the very first moment he touched the ball. His passing was erratic, and he had no control of his penalty area, so it was no surprise to see Sanchez at fault for Timber’s winning goal midway through the second half.
Arsenal’s backline put in another heroic performance on Sunday, but it was the efforts of Raya that should be lauded the most. It’s performances like this and the moments Raya produced that define title races.
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What does Sunday’s result mean for Arsenal and Chelsea?
Sunday’s hard-fought win leaves Arsenal five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, with the result all the more valuable given Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.
Up next for the Gunners is a trip to Brighton on Wednesday as part of a busy schedule that sees them take on FA Cup, Champions League and EFL Cup commitments over the next few weeks.
As for Chelsea, they’ve sunk to sixth thanks to this result and other scorelines across the weekend, three points behind Liverpool in fifth.
The Blues travel to Aston Villa in a key battle in the race for Champions League football on Wednesday, before a testing FA Cup clash at Wrexham and a trip to PSG.