Chelsea denied by late Arsenal equaliser

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Arsenal 2 Chelsea


Hector Bellerin’s injury-time goal denied Chelsea victory in an action-packed derby at the Emirates Stadium. 

Eden Hazard’s penalty hauled them level three minutes after Jack Wilshere had put Arsenal ahead.

And when Marcos Alonso scored from close range after brilliant work on the right by Davide Zappacosta with six minutes remaining, the points appeared to be Chelsea’s.

But Bellerin’s half-volley rescued a point for the Gunners and Zappacosta then fired the loose ball against the bar after Petr Cech had denied Alvaro Morata.

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Hazard had equalised from the spot after Bellerin was controversially adjudged to have fouled the Belgian while attempting to clear the ball.

It came after Wilshere started and finished the move which led to the opening goal.

Mesut Ozil collected his pass on the left and played the ball across the edge of the penalty area to Rob Holding.

When Holding’s pass found its way to Wilshere despite Morata’s attempted interception, the England international fired in off the near post. 

In the first half, Morata made a complete mess of an early chance for Chelsea.

Arsenal defender Calum Chambers inexplicably allowed a long ball from Victor Moses to drift over him, putting Morata through with just former Chelsea keeper Cech to beat.

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But the striker steered his shot well wide of the target – and his team almost went behind a couple of minutes later.

Moments after Arsenal appealed in vain for a penalty after Ainsley Maitland-Niles went down in the box, Alexis Sanchez’s shot was tipped onto the post by Thibaut Courtois and then rolled along the line before hitting the other post.

As Arsenal continued to threaten, Chelsea keeper Courtois was quickly down to his left to keep out a low shot from Alexandre Lacazette.

At the other end, Cech tipped over a shot from Tiemoue Bakayoko after the midfielder had been played in by former Arsenal man Cesc Fabregas and Alonso sent a free-kick over the bar.

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Arsenal responded with Mesut Ozil firing narrowly wide, and Fabregas had the final chance of the first half, scooping a shot over after being cleverly teed up by Hazard.

Cech produced two saves in quick succession to keep Chelsea at bay early in the second half.

He saved with his legs to deny Hazard, and when Bakayoko was first to the loose ball and crossed to Alonso, Cech dived to push away the Spaniard’s header.

Then it was Courtois’ turn to make himself a hero, saving at point-blank range from Lacazette after the Frenchman had turned away from Gary Cahill.

Courtois was unable to do anything about Wilshere’s emphatic finish on 63 minues, but the visitors were not behind for long.

The misfiring Morata then missed a great chance to put them ahead, shooting wide of the near post after being put through by Fabregas.

Alonso, on the other hand, made no mistake.

Zappacosta, on as a substitute, whizzed past Maitland-Niles and squared the ball for Alonso score his sixth goal of the campaign.

However, when Alonso could only head Shkodran Mustafi’s cross as far as Bellerin, the Arsenal wide-man smashed home.

Chelsea: Courtois, Cahill, Christensen, Azpilicueta, Moses (Zappacosta 56), Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Fabregas (Drinkwater 70), Hazard (Willian 82), Morata.
Subs not used: Caballero, Rudiger, Pedro, Batshuayi.