Arsenal Better Than Chelsea, Sarri Slams His Players

Arsenal defeated Chelsea 2-0, in the English Premier League’s game of the day. Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny managed to beat Kepa twice in the first half and to secure the triumph for the home team. The Gunners were far better than their city rivals, who had only one shot on goal during the whole game.

Without any doubts, this was the poorest performance of the Blues since the season began. It is why their manager Maurizio Sarri didn’t choose words at the press conference while criticizing his players.

“I have to say that I’m extremely angry, very angry indeed, because this defeat was due to our mentality more than anything else.” told Sarri furiously. “You can find yourself in difficulties from time to time, but we need to react to those difficulties a lot better than we did today.”

MUST WATCH: Sarri goes to war with his players. #PLtonight reacts. @rioferdy5 @jjenas8 @martinkeown5
pic.twitter.com/vxA1LF4p36

— Jake Humphrey (@mrjakehumphrey) January 19, 2019

The Italian reminded that this same problem happened against Tottenham just a few days earlier, and that he thought his team already dealt with it. It seems that it still hasn’t.

“We thought we’d overcome that problem, but it seems we really struggle to get ourselves up for these games at times. I don’t mind losing but I don’t like losing in this manner.” Sarri said.

Chelsea didn’t provide a decent chance except for Marco Alonso’s header which deflected of the post, for the entire 90 minutes. On the other side, Arsenal was waiting for its opportunity from the counter-attacks. The Gunners had almost twice as less the possession of the ball and completed passes than Chelsea did, but their attacks were much more straightforward.

Aubameyang had two excellent chances to put his name on the scoresheet, but he missed them both. Sokratis was also in a perfect position to hit the back of the net, but his header finished way of the goal. In general, almost all the chances and dangerous attacks took place in front of Kepa.

GOAL Koscielny! Arsenal double their lead in this London derby! pic.twitter.com/VEJ7GDEVAb

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) January 19, 2019

And all the action happened in the first 45 minutes. Arsenal won the game in that period because Chelsea couldn’t do anything in the latter half. The guests didn’t have any reaction on the current state on the field, and they looked pretty pale in that part of the contest.

This was a life or death matter for Arsenal, who simply couldn’t afford to lose. In that case, Chelsea would have nine points ahead of them, and the Gunners’ chances of getting to the Champions League would be much lower.

“We wanted to win for our fans. The difference in the table was six points, but this victory can help us be optimistic. We can be happy after today, but we need to take things game by game.” Unai Emery at the press conference.

Chelsea has 47 points, Arsenal three fewer, same as Manchester United who rose from the dead and got within one win away of the fourth place.

Arsenal has a game with the Red Devils this week, in the FA Cup, while Chelsea plays against Tottenham in the rematch of the English Football League semifinals. So, there is no rest for these two sides.

Before this match, other 8 were played. Two of them ended with 7 goals. In a bizarre encounter at Anfield, Liverpool defeated Crystal Palace 4:3, coming back from behind, with two goals scored by Mohamed Salah who spurred the Reds when they needed it the most. In the round opener at Molineux stadium, Wolverhampton beat the former champions Leicester City with the same result, after Diogo Jota’s last-minute dagger which sealed his first hat-trick in the EPL this season.

Manchester United didn’t have any problems with Brighton and Hove Albion, 2-1, Southampton defeated Everton, 2-1, while Bournemouth snapped a streak of bad results outplaying West Ham with 2-0.

Newcastle was better than Cardiff, 3-0, and Burnley managed to stay unbeaten in Watford, snapping one point, 0-0.