Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings

Same old, same old

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Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea, Premier League: Post-match reaction, ratings

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 01 Pedro Neto of Chelsea reacts towards Referee Darren England after showing him a red card during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on March 01, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) | Getty Images

David Pasztor

Sun, March 1, 2026 at 6:28 PM UTC·
2 min read

A slightly cautious start devolved into a surprisingly open game rather quickly, though that had as much to do with Chelsea’s inability to string passes together than anything special that Arsenal might have been doing.

That said, a goal was never likely to come from any source other than a corner, and that’s precisely how Arsenal would take the lead.

But Chelsea kept at it, to the best of our abilities (and to the best of our abilities when not being bearhugged by Declan Rice), and remarkably got back on level terms right at the end of the first half. Fittingly, that goal also came from a corner.

Half time brought little change, though Chelsea did actually start threatening from open play a bit, too. Alas, another corner goal would arrive, giving Arsenal the lead once again.

Before we could respond, Pedro Neto got a second yellow for a foul that not even the Arsenal player being fouled thought to take as a foul, and that was that. Neto was apoplectic, but probably because his first yellow had arrived just a couple minutes prior, for dissent. Classic.

Arsenal saw our the remaining 20 minutes with the man advantage without too much trouble. Chelsea remained decently competitive and even had a chance to snatch the draw at the end, but Liam Delap’s last-second equalizer was ruled out (correctly) for an offside.

Carefree.

“The beautiful game”, without any actual beauty

Arsenal stay ahead of Manchester City at the top of the table

Chelsea now stuck in sixth, behind Liverpool; lots of work to do

Next up: Villa away on Wednesday; massive game for any top-four/five ambitions

KTBFFH

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