Chelsea recorded its first home win of the season on Saturday, when it defeated 9-man Arsenal, 2-0 at the Stamford Bridge.
Here are 5 things we learnt from the encounter:
If Chelsea had somehow lost the match, it would have been utter disaster. Forget the fact that they beat lowly Maccabi Tel Aviv at home in mid-week, this was the one that mattered. The last time in the League, Crystal Palace ran away with all three points. And it was very important they won today. It remains to be seen how they fare in subsequent matches.
Naive Gabriel
Like I said on Twitter, Gabriel Paulista was rather silly to get himself sent off. Diego Costa is a dirty player and will pull and scratch at opposing defenders. But take the case of Delaney last week, who dealt comfortably with the Spain international. It’s always a two-way result: either he loses the battle or you fall for his trap.
Dean nightmare
Officiating has been quite horrendous from last season and today was another case. Mike Dean somehow missed Costa trying to take out Laurent Koscielny’s eyes, but spotted the little kick out from Gabriel on the striker. He always looked pressured from the Chelsea players and missed another chance to send off Costa in the second half.
The Wenger-Mourinho record
Forget the Charity Shield – which many term a glorified friendly. It appears that Arsene Wenger never gets one over Mourinho. In their last two League encounters at the Bridge, the Frenchman actually set up his team to deal with the champions. But on both occasions, something went wrong and they lost. As it stands, he has only beaten the Portuguese once in 15 meetings.
Impressive Zouma
As captain John Terry watched on from the bench for the entire 90 minutes, Kurt Zouma produced yet another fantastic performance. The French defender, who was drafted in to deal with Theo Walcott’s pace, nullified the England speedstar severally and still had enough time to power in the header for their first goal.
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‘Ifreke Inyang tweets via @Ifreke
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