Surprisingly still in this. Quite solid. Thought we would get hammered.
Oh no!!!
Hope jack is alright. He seemed to walk off quite comfortably.
Sods law especially with new contract being discussed.
Hope just a precaution.

Cracking strike from Iwobi

Oh dear iwobi. Why on earth would you think a toe punt strike from 25 yards was the best option at all let alone the best way to shoot at goal!
If Courtois wasn’t there I’m not even sure it would have rolled as far as the goal line.

Iwobi does a lot of neat things but he HAS to improve his final pass and shots at goal

What's the deal with our new Greek defender????
Didn't wenger say he wasn't ready and was going on loan.
So why is he on the bench????

Thank you for your feedback. Coming from you I will give it the respect it deserves. I will look out for your appearances on mastermind.

The shots on target stats are going to make it look like Chelsea have battered us but most have been pretty comfortable for Ospina

Xhaka getting close. I would take him off.

Ah a mouthy Aussie

May Camilla Parker Bowles be your queen you *%^@ !

Xhaka treading a fine line.

Stop stop your too clever for me with those witty comments. But wouldn't she be your queen as well.

Because of the very sparse cover at CB.

Read some very good reports about him when he was playing in Greece. Came on for his first game and managed to hold his own. Very composed and good on the ball.

Looks like he might get his chance with us earlier than was expected.

Free kick in shooting range and Sanchez plays it square to elneny who wasn’t even ready for it.

Was it 26mil we could have purchased Fabergas back from Barca a few years ago.

Looks like the tv editors are desperate for the VAR to be used for a big decision. How many replays did we see of welbeck clearly getting the ball before Fabregas fell over!?

The lack of support and movement when we have the ball is a real concern. Still Wenger looks like he is starting to own Conte.

As opposed to when our player was fouled and a potential penalty. A quick look and dismissed at that time

Brilliant result.................

Good solid performance . A relief and a surprise. Still got the attacking threat of a powderpuff but at least we didn’t look as clueless in defence.

As I said, no way will this be a tight game.

Fair play to the team today. With our best creative players not playing we struggled to create chances, but we defended well and fought for the entire 95 minutes. Not a bad result in a difficult away game.

VAR gets a thumbs up from me. Gives the ref more reason not to favour one side or the other as evry decision he now makes could be looked at.

Atkinson coped very well.

Holding, Mustafi, Chambers and Xhaka really good today. They've been rightfully criticised a lot this season, so they deserve to be recognized when they play well.

0-0 FT
At least we’re still in the tie at half time, that was my biggest fear before the game.
It wasn’t a great game to watch, credit to the players and wenger for restricting Chelsea to mostly pot shots from range. Even first half but Chelsea dominated the second.
The players got behind the ball, tracked runners, tackled and generally did the things we cause them of not doing. The consequence was that we completely stifled our own creative attacking play.

This was an arsenal team without Kos, Monreal, Kolasinac, Ramsey, Özil and Giroud. Lost Wilshere through injury and had Sanchez on the bench. If only we had this sort of discipline in more of our prem away games against the big teams. Chelsea at full strength and we got a battling 0-0 away from Home.

Need to get these injured players back and start adding to the squad. For once can we not scrabble around on jan 31. It is so amatuer

Agree with all of that. Seemed to take the heat of of potential situations and stopped the haranguing by a melee of players.

Can't wait for Monreal or Kolasinac to come back. Give Ainsley a chance to show what he can do in a midfield role.

Still in with a chance of the final so overall a good result. Neither side seemed that urgent in their approach.

It's ours to lose..............

Yes I can see some real potential in this player.

Usually the way Niall , lot of my pearls of wisdom go unheralded ....well spotted

Plenty of movement upfront , quick diagonal balls balls unhinge our defence

I thought Chelsea fell into the trap of playing a slightly improved version of our type of play .

On this showing you have to wonder why Nottingham Forest aren't third in the Premier League .

Glad we didn't buy Morata . Don't think it's major advantage to us to go back to the Emirates with a 0 - 0 ... we can still quite easily cock it up at home

Would've liked to say Iwobi was really good as well because I thought he did a lot of positive things, but his final ball is just shockingly bad. Both when finishing and trying to pass it. Most important thing to improve if he wants to make it at this level.

Excellent result with so many players missing. We lacked any real quality but battled well. Mustafi sums that up really, a real trier who is aggressive and committed but makes too many rash challenges and basic errors to be considered top class.

Why do we get so many injuries, are our players made of balsa wood?

The more I see of Lacazette the less convinced I am by him. Not much service but he really struggles to get into games. You can see why so many big teams haven't been able to make up their minds about signing him.

In my opinion to have a hope of top four we need at least two big first eleven signings and to keep either Özil or Sanchez. I'd say a CB and a central midfielder (especially if Coq goes) at the very least and probably a wideman too but I won't be holding my breath.

Wenger has confirmed that Coquelin is going to Valencia

Yeh, his dribbling and energy are really good but his final ball and decision-making are just so erratic.

Great to come away with a result from the Bridge and to still be in the tie in a fortnight.

Have to shout out Holding's brilliant block on Hazard when Mustafi dived in yet again and went to ground during a dangerous Chelsea attack. Whilst he did some things well, the German was a bit reckless for my liking tonight in certain situations.

Arsenal's MOM for me tonight was Granit Xhaka who passed the ball solidly and looked to get it forward when possible. Would most likely have been Wilshere of course but for his unfortunate injury. Shout out to Elneny who stepped in well and was tidy on the ball when he came on.

I thought Rambo was only supposed to be out a couple of weeks.

Going forward Xhaka was good, although his set piece deliveries were shocking. I thought defensively, though, he was awful as usual due to his lack of mobility and could have easily been sent off.

Regarding Lacazette I also share some concerns. When we purchased him I recall that a female on one of the podcasts I listen to had watched him a lot. She said he had been prone to really struggling when not scoring. However she indicated that in the last 2 years he had been a lot better and did not suffer from the problem. However I am starting to see a player whose head drops when he misses a chance and especially when he is subbed off around the 65-70 minute. The other day I saw the first moment of real doubt in a game when he took too long to shoot. He was second guessing himself. He is starting to look like Chamakh rather than Henry.

Yeah I mentioned his set pieces at HT. I don't think he was poor defensively tbh and he got his yellow for a cracking foul that Arsenal players should commit more often. Ok, he got caught for 2 fouls in quick succession after but neither were worthy of a yellow. All in all, a good game from the Swiss in my book.

Yet to be convinced myself though I don't think he's had the chances you would have expected him to receive this season. I don't recall many glaring misses from him. He was poor tonight though - didn't make enough runs into the channels; poor effort in the first half and he deserved to be subbed by the manager.

I agree with all your points. The Giroud injury might cause us some concern as he scored so many late goals.

This was one of those games that shows how hard it is to assess players in this current Arsenal setup. Most have given up on Chambers and Holding (I'd like to see Holding get one more season) but today they showed why they were considered such promising players at one point. There's clearly plenty of talent there. They were composed, made the right decision at pretty much every opportunity, strong in challenge and worked well as a unit with Mustafi. Can't help but wonder how much of their lack of progress is because of them and how much is because our lack of defensive structure.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if a new manager who is good at setting up a defense could sign only one defender in the summer - a replacement for Mertesacker - and build a good defense from that.