Romelu Lukaku made a dream return for Chelsea with a goal on his second debut as Thomas Tuchel’s side maintained their winning start to 2021/22 with a 2-0 victory at Arsenal.
It was a bad home opener for Arsenal in-front of full capacity Emirates crowd, who lost two games in a row to start the new season.
Mikel Arteta made three changes from the side that lost to Brentford last week, with Cedric, Rob Holding and Bukayo Saka coming in for Calum Chambers, Ben White and Folarin Baolgun. White was missing due to Covid, but Lokonga made his home debut, with Nuno Tavares on the bench.
Romelu Lukaku was one of three changes Thomas Tuchel made to his starting line-up, with Kai Havertz and James handed their first league starts of the campaign. Timo Werner, Trevoh Chalobah and the isolating Christian Pulisic made way.
Lukaku, a summer signing from Inter Milan, took just 15 minutes to score his first goal in his second spell with the Blues, sweeping home Reece James’s inviting delivery from close range.
James doubled Chelsea’s lead on 35 minutes, controlling a pass from fellow Academy graduate Mason Mount before rifling the ball beyond goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Arsenal tried to get a foothold with Rob Holding heading wide moments before substitute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s 63rd-minute shot was saved by Edouard Mendy.
Lukaku might have added his second, and Chelsea’s third, but Leno produced a superb save to turn the striker’s bullet header from Mount’s cross on to the bar.
Match Stats
| Arsenal | Chelsea | |
|---|---|---|
| 35.1 | Possession % | 64.9 |
| 3 | Shots on target | 5 |
| 6 | Shots | 22 |
| 503 | Touches | 816 |
| 331 | Passes | 636 |
| 20 | Tackles | 11 |
| 13 | Clearances | 22 |
| 9 | Corners | 8 |
| 5 | Offsides | 0 |
| 3 | Yellow cards | 0 |
| 10 | Fouls conceded | 4 |
What Next ?
- Arsenal will face another stiff test, as they visit Manchester City on August 28th.
- Chelsea will travel to Anfield on August 28th, to play against Liverpool.
Post-Game reaction :
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal manager :
“It’s another defeat, the second one of the season which is really tough to take. Chelsea deserved to win, I think they were the better side overall. We had moments at the start of the first half and at the beginning of the second half. After conceding the goal they started to manage the game exactly how they wanted. When we had them in good areas and without the ball with our press they still managed to come out with the incredible quality that they have.
They showed in moments why they are the champions of the Champions League. What I liked about the team is that at 2-0 they never gave up, they tried right up to 90 minutes. With our limitations, because at the moment we are missing eight or nine players. I’m sad, sad for the fans because we really wanted to give them something special today. Even though we know the circumstances we have with the team at the moment, and not being able to do that and enjoy this moment with them is sad.”
Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea Manager :
“I had the feeling in the first half that we lacked a bit of sharpness and activity. We were a bit passive in some moments and we had a long training week where we trained very hard with double sessions so I had the feeling we were a bit leggy.
In the second half, we overcame some minutes in the beginning and then we controlled it very well. We created more chances and I think we deserved to win but still room to improve.
I’m very happy with the way he has integrated already. He’s a very smart guy, he likes to be in the group and he’s a very democratic leader so he talks to everybody.
He is very friendly, humble and totally competitive so he gives something to our game that we did not have so much to protect balls and play very direct up front into the last line.
He cannot start better than with a goal. He almost scored a second one but for a big save from Bernd Leno and he assisted some half-chances and chances as well so it’s a good start. Now we have to improve from here.”
