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| Costa is embraced by John Obi Mikel after scoring his goal. The Spanish striker was a peripheral figure but scored when it mattered at Stamford Bridge |
A one-man team? Chelsea are so much more than that this season. Those who believe the title race rests on the hamstrings of Diego Costa may have to reconsider after this.
For a good 75 minutes, Arsenal snuffed out Costa’s threat. It did not matter. Chelsea were still on course for victory, through the quite brilliant Eden Hazard.
Just when Arsenal began imagining they might get a point from the game, a perfect long pass by Cesc Fabregas killed them.
Outstanding at the back, tireless through midfield, this Chelsea team is the real deal.
They are five points clear of their nearest rival, Manchester City, after seven games going into the October international break and if that margin is repeated through the season the title comes to Stamford Bridge before the first blossoms of spring.
As the Premier League does not get won by gaps of 25 points, that is unlikely to happen, but finding a way of stopping Chelsea in this form is easier said than done.
Not least because when Thibaut Courtois, arguably the best goalkeeper in the League, gets injured, his replacement is Petr Cech, arguably the second best goalkeeper in the League. Chelsea’s strength in depth sets them apart.
Jose Mourinho has built a powerful squad, full of options and nuance. This was not the 6-0 monstering of Arsenal from last season, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Aside from a Jack Wilshere shot that struck Fabregas’s hand, inspiring a penalty shout, Arsenal did not really threaten. They had good possession, minus the cutting edge, and Danny Welbeck was made to work too hard to have an impact. He ran and ran, but barely got a touch in an area that mattered.
Chelsea cut to the heart of the matter at least twice. Once, when Hazard burst into the penalty area, again when Fabregas set up Costa for his ninth goal in seven Premier League games.
There were two other occasions when Chelsea could have extended their lead, and both were Hazardous. In the 58th minute, the Belgian broke down the left and hit a cross which Mathieu Flamini almost deflected into his own net but for the outstretched hand of Wojciech Szczesny.
Although his goal was a penalty, what preceded it was quite lovely, the breakthrough coming in the 27th minute with a touch of the mazy Maradonas.
Hazard jinked his way through Arsenal’s defences before Laurent Koscielny dashed across and felled him with a clumsy tackle that earned a booking and the inevitable gesture towards the spot by referee Martin Atkinson. Hazard slipped the ball low to the right as Szczesny dived the wrong way.
And then, with 12 minutes remaining, came the moment every Arsenal fan had dreaded. Fabregas, playing his first game for his new English club against the one that made his name, struck the sort of pass that used to define matches in the red and white of the Gunners.
It wasn’t a long ball. That sounds too crude. It was accurate and intelligent and left Costa (left) free of Arsenal’s attention for once, setting him up for a chance that was only ever going to end with the ball in the net. On Costa ran, outstripping the defence before drawing Szczesny and lobbing him, deftly, to put the result beyond doubt.
A lesser team than Chelsea might have been rattled by the misfortune of goalkeeper Courtois after 10 minutes. Then again, a lesser team than Chelsea would not have been summoning Cech from the bench. Arsenal’s stand-in, for instance, was Emiliano Martinez, a 23-year-old Argentinian who spent much of last season on loan at Sheffield Wednesday. Cech spent it being the Premier League’s best goalkeeper.
Arsenal were rumoured to have wanted him this summer, but Chelsea would not sell to a rival on this occasion. This match showed why. Losing Courtois proved no loss at all. His replacement was as good, just older.
Courtois soldiered on for 13 minutes before conceding that, yes, an earlier collision with a charging Alexis Sanchez had affected his vision. He took the full weight of Sanchez’s thigh to the head and at first looked out cold, splayed like a boxer on the receiving end of a sucker punch. Revived, Courtois continued, but a break in play saw him sit down and call for treatment, and there appeared to be evidence of bleeding in his right ear.
There has been much discussion of late about the treatment of head injuries, but one of the complications is that players tend to disguise the extent of any problem.
Courtois would no doubt have been asked whether he had lost consciousness and whether he could see straight, and would have replied to the medical team’s satisfaction, either being too brave, too foolhardy, or both.
Are football’s rules sufficient? As medical staff are club employees the suspicion will always be that they are under pressure to keep the team at its strongest, although this is a grave slur against any professional carer. A compromise would be to have independent doctors, appointed by the League, at each game making the call on head injuries, and for replacements to be provided without this counting as a substitution. Yet how long before that advance was abused by an unscrupulous coach looking to make a change without cost?
It could happen. Put it this way: who would have believed the circumstances of rugby union’s Bloodgate scandal before it occurred?
He marched down the touchline towards the incident, encroaching on Chelsea’s technical area in the process. This upset Mourinho, who attempted to stop him, at which point Wenger placed both hands on the Chelsea manager’s chest and gave him a shove.
For a split second, Mourinho seemed a little concerned, as if he might have to summon John Terry or Didier Drogba as back-up. Instead, the fourth official stepped in and restored order, although Wenger did seem keen to go back for seconds. He retired to his corner, an amused smile on his face, with the look of a man who had taken round one on points.
Wenger later said if he had wanted to properly push Mourinho, he would have gone at it a lot harder. He doesn’t know his strength, that boy. Worryingly, Chelsea probably do.
