It was groundhog day once again as Arsenal lost to Chelsea with only ten men on the pitch.
Once again the Gunners were their own worst enemies, so here are five questions we were left with after losing to the Blues.
1) Why can Arsenal never take advantage of their rivals’ troubles?
Like a care in the community scheme, if you need a helping hand, Arsenal will be only too willing to offer it. When everyone in the country was beating Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson left Arsenal conspired to keep losing to them, and the same is happening this season with Chelsea.
Sure, they might have beaten them in the Community Shield, but in the Premier League? Let’s just hit self-destruct.
2) Why are Arsenal so stupid?
Per Mertesacker is supposed to be the calm head in an Arsenal team filled with players who are capable of losing the plot with annoying regularity.
Diego Costa might have made the most of it, but Per dived in and gave the referee a problem. He should have known better. He should have let Costa score.
Arsenal had more than enough on the pitch to break Chelsea down if they had went behind but still had 11 men on the pitch.
3) Why can’t goalkeepers keep the ball in play from a dead ball?
On Sunday we saw both Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois kick the ball out of play after taking goal kicks.
Both of them are immensely talented keepers, how can they not manage to keep the ball in play?
If I had my way, any keeper who kicked the ball out for a throw from a goal kick would be fined a week’s wages.
4) Why do Arsenal always shoot themselves in the foot?
This game was the perfect chance for Arsenal to say ‘we’re here and we really are going to go for the title this season’.
Chelsea were so far behind Arsenal that the points meant nothing between the teams yet somehow, despite having key players returning from injury, home advantage and the incentive of the title, they managed to blow their own foot off once again. Will they ever learn?
5) What could Arsenal have done with 11 men for 90 minutes?
In the second half of the game I actually forgot that Arsenal only had 10 men, so it just leaves me wondering how well they would have played had they retained their full complement of players for the whole match.
Chelsea had a few chances but, for the majority of the second 45 mnutes, Arsenal dominated and if it wasn’t for Mathieu Flamini thinking he was a centre forward and wasting three glorious opportunities which he should have scored, they could have easily won this a game.
Yet again for Arsenal, it was a case of ‘what could have been’ after a Chelsea game.
It’s getting boring now.