Azpilicueta got a yellow

Arsenal are such a tease aren’t they.

The moment Saka goes down it look soft but Azpilicueta was holding him much more clearly before the cross had even come in

Then moss booked Gabriel.

Mental. Hopeless ref

Huge huge win !
That's how it should be, always!

The same player who avoided the red card in the most recent Arsenal v Chelsea cup final when he took down Aubameyang for the penalty with no genuine attempt to play the ball

Never any doubt.

Can anyone recall another non violent straight red for "No attempt to play the ball" other than that Luiz one? Coz I can't.

That feels a lot better

That is a huge win. Spurs will have looked at this as guaranteed dropped points.

We looked strong going forward, off the pace in defence in the first half but top class defending in the second half.

To pick a couple of unsung heros, I thought Xhaka and Elneny were excellent. For Elneny to come in from the cold and play like he did was very impressive. In many ways it is the ideal game for him. No attacking expectation, we won't have a lot of the ball he just needs to keep it simple, close down space, tackle and be available and positionally excellent. We'll move on from him in the summer but that was a good performance.

Holding as well really grew in to the game. and in terms of his development it is great for Tavares to play and win a big game like that and be pretty solid down his flank.

4-2 at Stamford Bridge, can't say it's not a very good overall performance. Looking at chances created, we deserved to win, missed a couple of really good ones and still scored 4. A proper team performance, bit part players coming in and raising their level when it matters is exactly what you want to see.

Wow. Didn't see that one coming at all. Didn't even see us scoring one let alone four

I thought Nketiah was really excellent tonight, his movement and hold-up play were both really good and he looked sharp.

Our build-up play was far better, we didn't have much possession but what we did have was quick and progressive.

Agree with all of that. Mirrors my take on those performances.

Oddly there is something about us facing Chelsea where I feel we can always get a result in a way I never feel about facing City or Liverpool. It has gone back a number of seasons now.

Kante should have been sent off for a 2nd yellow about 5 mins prior as well.

As for the pen, Saka has ben robbed of a couple of penalties recently because he has refused to go down. I have no problem with him going down a bit easier this time.

Eddie has been playing 10 mins a month. Some playing time, bit of luck and his confidence soars.

I’ve bitten my lip on the subject in recent weeks but I remain convinced that he is no mug.

As one of my sons has just pointed out - 3 academy lads scoring in the same game. Happy days.

And I've probably been one of his harshest critics, but can't fault anything about his performance tonight. Energy, determination, hold-up play, goals, if he can keep this up he'll be a real weapon in our fight for top 4. No question he should start next game as well.

I’ll say this. His overall game is dysfunctional but at least he gambles. He will make a run, chase down a pass back, attack the 6 yard box. Lacazette just doesn’t do that anymore. 1 goal in 29 previous games tells a story and he was awful v saints but he can finish.

Think today suited him.

Koscielny got one in one of those infamous 5-1 drubbings by Bayern….but I don’t think that was the example you were after!

Chelsea also had at least 3 occasions when they could have had a man sent off.
Mount with the studs over the ball tackle
Sarr with the clear second yellow on Cédric where advantage was played
Azpilicueta for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity with no genuine attempt to play the ball

Am I missing something

That’s a totally blatant penalty but.. apparently it’s not

The only person defending it is Jamie Redknpp. Not just on the telly but also our own fans

Definite pen. Surprised it was given though.

Massive win
Wasn't expecting that at all.
Thought we were losing that tonight.
Thing is beat Chelsea and utd and we would really be putting the pressure on spurs against Brentford.
But really non goer as had to beat Chelsea.
And we have against all the odds.
Beat utd and we practically seal europa spot at least as we'd go 6 points clear of utd and stay 5 clear of west ham at least.
Maybe that will relax us to push on for fourth.

What the *%^@ was that little prick azplicueta complaining about.
That's a clear penalty ffs

Thomas Tuchel:

"We scored five goals and lost 4-2. That's easy. Three own goals, two regular goals for us and one for Arsenal. That makes it 4-2."

This is a classic sour grapes response. Won’t give us any credit, we only won because they gifted it to us.

Tuchel also blamed the pitch, the same pitch for both teams and the pitch that Chelsea have full control off in preparing for their home games.

Seen someone say that our starting 11 today would be an 11 that could play in the Prem League 2 U23 competition and be within those rules. You are allowed 3 over age players xhaka, elneny and holding and every other player had to be 23 or under at the start of the season.

Onwards to Utd, and another 3 points to us!

Seems like a very strange interpretation of own goal.

Best to ignore those ‘experts’. Especially Merson who kept banging on about how Saka’s left foot had slipped when taking the penalty.

Our three losses against Palace, Brighton and Southampton made Chelsea last night, a match where I thought a defeat wouldn’t be the end of the world, a must win game. I think the Manchester United fixture is now exactly the same.

Looking at the table we’re level on points with Tottenham with the same number of games remaining. But their goal difference is eight better than ours. Unless we have a couple of very heavy wins it’s probable we’ll have to win a point more than them to come fourth.

From a debate many years ago That’s why goal difference matters throughout the season. Every single goal scored and conceded from the first to the last fixtures has an impact on where each club is likely to finish.

Currently Tottenham are favourites for fourth as that eight goal advantage may end up being worth a point. Arsenal are second favourites and Manchester United, while not out of contention, are third favourites.

We are back in the race for top four but with our remaining games I still think its unlikely we will do it as our margin of error is miniscule. At least we got our mojo back last night. Saturday could be another wild game.

I think Chelsea did us a favour last night with their selection. Lukaku instead of Havertz. Resting Rudiger who is easily their best CB, and I think Kovacic is their best central mid who was also missing. But having said that we were missing both first choice full backs and Partey.

With such a young team we're going to have ups and downs. Over the previous 3 games I don't think we played as badly as the results suggest. 1st half v Palace was awful, set up v Brighton was all wrong but we did a lot of good things in those games as well we just finishes very poorly and our opponents finished very well born out of the stat that we've conceded I think 10 goals from the last 17 shots on target faced

Actually I'd also add to this Mason Mount had 2 studs over the ball landing higher than the ankle tackles that were both easily yellow cards

I would have taken 2 points from these two games so we are already ahead of the game. Mind you, I would have expected at least 5 points from our previous 3.

At this stage of the season you might as well just throw darts at a board. Except for the top two, form is all over the place!

Having said that, what a performance last night! Our backup players aren't nearly as bad a people have been making up. Hopefully mean reversion won't occur against United, and confidence, and the players who have been brought into the team bedding in a bit, also play some role.

Also give credit to Arteta for bringing in El Neny and Holding.

Played out well didn’t it.

Also last night will have improved our available squad due to playing time and confidence.

This is the first season since the 1930's that Arsenal have had two U21 players reach 10 league goals in a season. Emile Smith Rowe and Saka both reached 10 league goals last night.

To be genuine title challengers we would need 80+ goals I think, we currently have 49, given there are 6 games remaining I would think that would be a further 20+ goals from the current team. The obvious place to be getting those is from a pair of new strikers. Getting 10+ league goals from your 3 first choice attacking midfielders is pretty good

In light of Gabriel's unfair yellow card last night I thought I'd just check our yellow card tallies to see if anyone is close to a ban. If you reach 10 yellows you get a 2 game ban. Gabriel has 5 yellows, Saka has 5 yellows, Lokonga has 5 yellows and Xhaka has 7 yellows. With 6 games left it would be very difficult for the first 3 to tally up 10 yellows but Xhaka needs to be careful not to pick up 3 more yellows.

I'm not sure what happens if you reach your 10th yellow in the final game of the season, to be fair you should be banned for the first two games of the next season in the same way if you're sent off in the final game of the season you'd be banned for the first game(s) next season