1. There is no love lost between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger
Over the years, a lot of harsh words have been exchanged between these managers with Wenger describing Mourinho as a stupid person made even more stupid with success while Mourinho called Wenger a specialist in failure, among other slurs.
They showed in this game that nothing has improved as they were already shoving each other outside their technical area in the first half. As to be expected, they did not even shake hands after the match.
2. Danny Welbeck can learn from Diego Costa
Both strikers are comparable in terms of their desire to go the extra mile in helping their team-mates. They both drop into pockets of space, they work across the width of the opposition defensive line but Costa has an incomparably better goal return than Welbeck.
One of the reasons for that is Costa’s movement. While the Spaniard can drift out wide to help out, he makes far more touches in the box than Welbeck, which increases his chances of scoring. Welbeck cannot suddenly get the staggering statistics of Costa by just improving his movement but that will significantly help him.
3. Branislav Ivanovic showed the ABCs of defending against pacy wingers
Most full-backs struggle to contain wingers that are quicker than them. Some concede a lot of free-kicks or even get sent-off, but not Ivanovic. The Chelsea full-back defended properly against Alexis Sanchez. Ivanovic knew that the Chilean winger was quicker than him so he quickly pickpocketed Sanchez as soon as he got his first touch of the ball, thus eliminating the need to employ illegal means to contain him once he had turned.
4. Arsenal missed Aaron Ramsey
Arsenal have enough technical ability in their side to manage spells in any game and their clash with the Blues was no exception. But the Gunners lacked a midfielder like Ramsey who could run beyond Welbeck from central midfield. If Ramsey were fit to participate in this game, he would have also tried a lot of shots from the edge of the box when Arsenal were stymied by a wall of Chelsea players. With all the sustained momentum Arsenal had especially towards the end of the game, maybe Arsenal would have left with something.
5. Eden Hazard defies the textbook way to take a penalty
The most advisable way to score a penalty is to target a bottom corner and hit the ball with enough power beat the keeper even if he guesses the right way but not so much power as to sacrifice accuracy in the spot-kick. To do that, a penalty-taker should concentrate more on the ball and less on the keeper.
Hazard did the opposite: he kept his eyes firmly on Wojciech Szczesny and waited until the keeper committed then directed the ball the other way. This carries the risk of misdirecting the ball as he has no time to look at the ball, but the Belgian forward now has a 100 per cent record with seven goals in seven penalties.
Once the keeper commits, top penalty takers like him and Mario Balotelli do not even care about getting the speed right (approximately 90 mph for a perfect penalty). They just direct the ball the other way and it keeps working for Hazard.
