By Toby Prince
Chelsea brushed off London rivals Arsenal 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday with goals from Kurt Zouma and Eden Hazard.
Here are five observations from the game.
- Zouma is the future
When Zouma joined Chelsea in 2014 for £12 million from Saint-Etienne, many thought he was probably going to join the long queue of young lads shipped out on loan by the club.
Described by Jose Mourinho as the “fastest defender in Chelsea”, Zouma is blessed with exceptional power and technique, an unbelievable attribute considering his age.
He has progressed to become an integral part of the first team being paired alternatively alongside Gary Cahill or John Terry and even had stints in midfield.
Against Arsenal he displayed character, leadership and composure to score his first Premier League goal, a typical centre-back goal.
Aside scoring the crucial first goal, Zouma made three tackles, two clearances and won all three of his aerial duels.
- Costa is master of his craft
Jose Mourinho praised an unlikely hero, Diego Costa, after securing his first Premier League home win of the season.
“Man of the match for sure was Diego Costa,” Mourinho said after the game. “He brought everything into the game, he played the game like a game like this has to be played.”
Costa was somewhat an architect of Arsenal’s downfall in the game, playing a key role in the first half sending off of Gabriel Paulista.
“He can do what he wants, and he stays on,” Arsene Wenger said of the Brazilian-cum-Spaniard after the match. “He will do same next week, and week after, and get away with it.”
Like him or not, Costa do know how to get the better of defenders with his antics.
The players who try to play him at his own game often aren’t quite so lucky. They aren’t masters of the craft. They aren’t so clever.
A statistic that Arsenal fans won’t enjoy, but Chelsea fans certainly will – Costa wasn’t penalised for a single foul during his 82 minutes on the pitch.
- Mourinho’s dominance over Wenger continues
The Blues are now eight Premier League matches unbeaten against their London rivals, their last defeat coming in October 2011, when Andre Villas-Boas’ Blues were beaten 5-3. Chelsea have kept six clean sheets in their last eight league matches against the Gunners, including the last five in a row.
In 15 matches against his Chelsea counterpart, Wenger has lost 8, drawn 6 and won just once – last months’ Community Shield triumph at Wembley.
“15, 16 times I play Arsenal, only once they didn’t moan – maybe that was the time they won,” Mourinho mocked his counterpart after the game.
Arsenal have now gone 482 minutes without a Premier League goal against the current champions.
- More handshakes or shame for Wenger/Mou?
As fans counted down the minutes to the clash between the two sides, all eyes turned to the touchlines ahead of the game to see whether Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger would shake hands.
Mourinho appeared on the touchlines first and waited for Wenger to come out of the tunnel and, despite the Arsenal manager looking slightly hesitant to meet the Portuguese manager, he came over to shake his hand before taking his seat.
With an unending feud between these pair, will the recent handshake spark the necessary catalyst towards more handshakes or probably ignite greater broil yet to come? We wait and see.
- Hazard becoming hazardous
Chelsea’s slow start to the season hasn’t been down to any one player – many of last season’s stars failed to get anywhere near matching last season’s performance levels in the early weeks of 2015/16, with reigning PFA Player of the Season Eden Hazard among them.
But the signs are that the Belgian is finally starting to click onto gear. The 24-year-old was back to somewhere near his creative best against Arsenal – he made more attacking third passes than any other player (45), created more chances than any other player (5), and dribbled past more opponents than any other player (8).
He rounded off in injury time by scoring his first goal of the season. It wasn’t ‘vintage’ Hazard, but it was certainly something a lot more like it.
