A late Marcos Alonso strike ensured Chelsea made hard work of their first Premier League home game under Maurizio Sarri, but after giving up an early lead, the Blues eventually took all three points through the trusty left foot of their newly converted wing-back.
Chelsea raced into what seemed like an unassailable two-goal advantage within 20 minutes, as Chelsea’s Spanish contingent linked up expertly. Marcos Alonso got the ball rolling in the ninth minute when he squared the ball to Pedro who slid home his second goal of the season, before Cesar Azpilicueta’s searching pass found the run of Alvaro Morata, the under pressure and out of luck forward turning Shkodran Mustafi inside out and stroking the ball into the net.
Chelsea, however, capitulated, surrendering acres of space in and around the penalty area with cutbacks from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi causing havoc for Antonio Rudiger and David Luiz. The Blues were eventually caught out on two such occasions, with the aforementioned Mikhitaryan and then Iwobi powering in two-inch perfect cut-backs to bring the scores level, whilst Aubameyang spurned multiple opportunities to give Arsenal the lead dropping off into similar positions but without the finishing touch required.
The second-half was unsurprisingly a far less open encounter as both sides focused in on retaining possession and limiting space in behind. Sarri though had one more trick up his oversized sleeve, Eden Hazard, the Belgian winger came off the bench to devastating effect once again as his low cross was met by the onrushing run of Alonso who tucked his shot underneath Petr Cech in a similar fashion to the goal he scored against the Gunners last season. The left-backs first goal of the season ensured Chelsea won back to back games under the chain-smoking Italian Sarri, whilst also resigning Unai Emery to his second loss of the campaign.
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