{"id":409002,"date":"2026-01-15T15:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409002\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:31:07","slug":"arsenals-power-statement-shows-this-time-they-have-the-muscle-for-the-battle-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409002\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal\u2019s power statement shows this time they have the muscle for the battle | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody said it had to be pretty. And for large portions of Arsenal\u2019s 3-2 win at Chelsea<\/a> in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg on Wednesday, it certainly was not. But for Mikel Arteta and his players, there was a beauty in the physicality, the remorseless levels of aggression.<\/p>\n

Arsenal won because of what they did without the ball. Yes, there were nice moments from them in possession, most obviously Mart\u00edn Zubimendi\u2019s goal for 3-1. His gliding run from right to left inside the penalty area, especially the fake-to-shoot move that removed the Chelsea defender, Wesley Fofana, from the equation, the composure amid the maelstrom before the execution, was jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n

Yet the biggest takeaway was that maelstrom, the sense that Arsenal had expected a scrap and refused to countenance anything other than winning it. There was a chest-out power from them, evident in the duels but more than that, in the battle to close the spaces, to mass men around any opposition player who got on the ball.<\/p>\n

When Chelsea, bravely, tried to play out from the back, each pass felt fraught in the face of the pressure; they had to be perfect to avoid dangerous turnovers. In fairness, they showed plenty of skill and personality in this regard. But still, getting out was precarious, draining.<\/p>\n

It was also easy to fixate on the moment when Est\u00eav\u00e3o Willian blasted clear of a posse of red shirts in central midfield on 37 minutes. When the Chelsea winger went right, trying to make something happen, he saw no teammates in support, only more red, Arsenal players swarming around him. Eventually he lost the ball for a goal-kick.<\/p>\n

Ben White watches his header find the Chelsea net as Arsenal once again scored from a set piece. Photograph: Javier Garc\u00eda\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The overall impression was of an intimidation factor, which Arteta has long wanted to bring. And that is before we get to the set pieces, particularly the inswinging corners, which Arsenal have turned into an exercise in chaos; an example of their desire to unsettle with brute force. They scored the opening goal at Stamford Bridge when the Chelsea goalkeeper, Robert S\u00e1nchez, was boxed in on a Declan Rice corner, Ben White heading home.<\/p>\n

When Arsenal had their last Premier League title-winning team, one of the Invincibles, Gilberto Silva, commented that rival players got the losing feeling before a ball was kicked. \u201cWhen we got into that Highbury tunnel, we knew we were going to win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is a feeling that Arteta remembers from his days as a visiting Everton player, most notably when he was on the wrong end of a 7-0 mauling in May 2005<\/a>. \u201cI have been in the tunnel playing with a different shirt,\u201d he said in 2024. \u201cLooking at the Invincibles, I had that feeling \u2026 tonight is going to be really tough. Hopefully we can create that.\u201d<\/p>\n

William Saliba is one of the symbols of Arsenal\u2019s strength and the defender believes his team are intimidating their opponents on a physical level. \u201cYes, I think so,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are a good team and we are all connected. We need to keep going like this. Always when we play against Chelsea, it is a big fight and we want to win every duel. I think we dominated them.\u201d Saliba was asked whether he saw the beauty in the approach. \u201cYes,\u201d he replied. \u201cIt\u2019s good. We want to be like this. We want to be strong everywhere \u2013 in defence and attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frustration for Arsenal was that they did not put the tie to bed. After Zubimendi\u2019s moment of magic, they had two clear chances for 4-1 before being pegged back by Alejandro Garnacho\u2019s goal, the substitute\u2019s second of the game. Both of them were soft concessions from an Arsenal point of view. The overriding feeling, though, was that this was a statement of intent. Suffocating defence is the hallmark of trophy winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody said it had to be pretty. And for large portions of Arsenal\u2019s 3-2 win at Chelsea in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-409002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}