Chelsea edged out London rivals Arsenal in the opening game of Mind Series thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Tammy Abraham. The German was back after a stellar EURO 2020 campaign, while Abraham continued his recent good record against Arsenal. Chelsea made it back-to-back 2-1 wins in pre-season friendlies following their win at Bournemouth on 27th.
Chelsea Team News
Pre-season is all about experimenting formations and testing out the fringe players. Thomas Tuchel did all of that with Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic deployed as wing-backs. There were starts for Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Nathaniel Chalobah too, while Havertz was utilized as a false-nine. Chelsea began the second half with five different players and ended with 11 different players.
Havertz continues Golden touch
Havertz opened the scoring midway through the first half. Having scored the winner in the Champion’s League final, Havertz’s confidence looks to be back, with a successful EURO campaign in his bag too. In a lively first half, both teams then struck the post, courtesy Emile Smith-Rowe and Hakim Ziyech. After a marauding run from left wing-back that included a dummy to effortlessly get past Pablo Mari, Hudson-Odoi found himself one-v-one against Bernd Leno. The angle was tight though and he was unable to poke it through.
The second half began with the chance of the game, or should I say, miss of the game. After a brilliant ball from Pulisic, Ziyech rounded past Leno, but just couldn’t make proper contact to finish off. Arsenal eventually forced an equalizer through Granit Xhaka from a corner in the 69th minute. Parity though was short-lived as a calamity at the back from Hector Bellerin gifted Tammy Abraham a goal. Abraham has now scored in his last three visits to the Emirates (though this one hardly counts). Following that, the Gunners pushed for an equalizer, whereas Chelsea were playing on the break. Joe Willock came closest and his effort looked to have crossed the line but no goal was given.
Chelsea ultimately held on to clinch their second pre-season win with the same score line. Arsenal on the other hand are yet to record a pre-season victory with two defeats and a draw to boot.
Up next
Both teams will face Tottenham Hotspur next. Chelsea will go first on Wednesday, Arsenal will have to wait till Sunday.