(Football news) Only hours after the Blues became their own worst enemies, losing to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, the Gunners took the lead with a 2-0 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
After losing to Aston Villa at home in the Premier League for the first time in 2024, Arsenal’s hopes of winning both the Champions League and the Cup were dashed in a matter of days when they failed to defeat Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals.
Bouncing back at an injury-hit Wolverhampton Wanderers side was therefore of the utmost importance, and while Saturday’s Molineux encounter was at times a painful watch for the away end, goals in either half from Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard sealed the deal.
As well as setting a new club record of keeping six straight clean sheets on the road in the top flight, Arsenal’s triumph on April 20 propelled the Gunners back to the summit over Man City as the holders fulfilled their FA Cup commitments against Tuesday’s visitors to the Emirates.
Mikel Arteta’s men will temporarily increase their advantage over the treble winners – who do not play again until Thursday – to four points with a 24th Premier League success of the season in midweek, and not since April 2022 have the hosts lost back-to-back home games in the division.
Furthermore, the Gunners have to go back to the behind-closed-doors era (November 2020) for the last time that they suffered consecutive top-flight defeats at the Emirates without scoring, and they will not be taking any attacking pointers from Mauricio Pochettino’s men this week.
Chelsea’s lengthy recuperation period was evident against a Man City side wounded from their Real Madrid-inflicted Champions League heartbreak at Wembley, where the Blues were carving out opportunities at will in their bid to meet Coventry City or Manchester United in the showpiece.
However, a glut of chances came and went without Pochettino’s profligate troops finding the back of the net once – Nicolas Jackson in particular did his reputation no favours – and one deflected strike from Bernardo Silva was all it took to ensure that the Chelsea boss’ agonising wait for a trophy in English football will go on.
As applaudable as Chelsea’s overall performance was against the jaded treble winners, the Blues only had themselves to blame for failing to convert their multitude of openings, although Man City’s Jack Grealish was perhaps fortunate to escape giving away a second-half penalty for handball.
Chelsea’s wastefulness was in stark contrast to their Cole Palmer-inspired 6-0 beatdown of Everton in their last Premier League match, marking the sixth top-flight contest in a row where they have netted at least two goals, and they have now scored in their last 15 Premier League games since coincidentally going down 2-0 to Everton in December.
Chelsea is still very much in the running for a European spot as the season comes to an end, sitting ninth in the rankings thanks to their eight-game winning streak in the major leagues, RANKINGS UPDATE.
Arsenal rode their luck in their encounter with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in October, but they came out on top in a 2-2 draw that extended their winning streak over the Blues to four games, which also included a 3-1 victory at the Emirates last season.
Also read: Manchester United defeat Coventry on penalties and enter the finals
