Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 11:16 PM• Dominic Mostert

Arsenal have turned the city derby against Chelsea into a win for the second time this season. At Stamford Bridge, the team of trainer Mikel Arteta was 0-1 too strong on Wednesday evening, thanks to a striking goal from Emile Smith Rowe. Thanks to the win, Arsenal takes eighth place and the club retains a little bit of prospect of qualifying for European football.

Arsenal’s victory was due to a bizarre moment in Chelsea’s rear. Jorginho passed the ball back to Kepa Arrizabalaga, but did not notice that the keeper was far from his goal. Kepa therefore had to head headlong back to his goal line and cleared the ball just in time, after which Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was able to serve Smith Rowe and the attacking midfielder scored from close range. Chelsea responded relatively well to that early blow. The home team grew in the game and forced Arsenal back into their own half, without becoming really dangerous. Bernd Leno returned some attempts from Mason Mount.

Chelsea, which all lost the previous eight home matches in which it faced a deficit at halftime, thought they would be on the same level after an hour. Mount swung a corner towards the center of the box, where Kai Havertz jumped the highest and headed towards the far corner. Christian Pulisic finished from close range, but turned out to be offside. After that, the target hazard decreased. Threatening moments arose again in the final phase, but Leno did not have much trouble with a commitment from Pulisic, turned a header from Kurt Zouma and saw a rebound from Olivier Giroud hit the bar.

Arsenal has not been able to win on a visit to Chelsea since October 2011. Mikel Arteta’s team takes eighth place thanks to the victory and retains some prospect of qualifying for the play-off round of the Europa Conference League. For that, Arsenal must finish seventh. At the moment, that place is occupied by Tottenham Hotspur, which has one more point and another duel credit against Arsenal. Number nine Everton has the same number of points as Arsenal and two more duels credit, so the chance the Gunners is very small.