Chelsea have done the double over Arsenal, who lost to the Blues at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, score reading 1-0. Chelsea had emerged triumphant in September as well. Chelsea's Diego Costa was the difference between the two teams with the Spaniard drawing a foul, which saw Per Mertesacker receive the marching orders, and the striker also scored the crucial goal.
Both teams got off to a decent start in the initial few minutes of the game, but the visitors got a huge advantage when Arsenal's key defender Mertesacker was shown the red card for a lunge on Costa in the 18th minute of the game. Though replays showed no contact between Costa and the defender, the home team were handicapped for the remainder of the game.
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, as a result of which, was forced to make an important change and decided to remove Olivier Giroud and bring on Gabriel. The home fans, as expected, were not pleased with the change as Giroud has been one of their best players in the EPL.
Things looked even worse for Chelsea a few minutes later as Costa, who was the most booed player on the pitch alongside Cesc Fabregas, scored a clinical goal to help the Blues take crucial lead in the 23rd minute.
Despite Arsenal playing with 10-men, they did pose some threat, but were lacking in the final third as they could not find the back of the net. The last kick of the first half witnessed Flamini come close, but his shot was well above the crossbar, which was Arsenal's story in the first 45 minutes. They did not have a single shot on target in the first half.
The home fans, who were egging their team to draw level in the second half, were encouraged when Alexis Sanchez was brought from the bench in the 57th minute of the game. The Chilean looked sharp and definitely fired up the team, who came close to scoring in the 63rd minute, but the penalty area was too crowded with Chelsea players for them to score the equaliser.
Arsenal, who were not giving up despite being a man short, were pressing and pressurising Chelsea, who defended really well. With Arsenal keen to score a goal, there were plenty of empty spaces for Chelsea to exploit on the counter, but they failed to double their lead.
Arsenal gave their all in the final few minutes of the game, but could not bring smiles on the faces of the home fans as the Gunners lost to Chelsea despite Sanchez's wizardry in the final quarter of the game.
With this victory Chelsea have moved to 13th place in the EPL standings while Arsenal remain in third place.
