Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea: Mikel Merino goal hands Gunners first win in four Premier League games | OneFootball

Gunners secure important win as Chelsea’s poor form away from home continues

Your matchday briefing on Arsenal, featuring team news and expert analysis from Simon Collings

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Arsenal have beaten Chelsea by a goal-to-nil, thus ending a run of three Premier League games without a victory.

With Nottingham Forest beating Ipswich on Saturday, all of a sudden the Gunners were looking nervously over their shoulder and the potential of being dragged into a top-four battle.

However, the Blues’ hopes of ending their poor run of form away from home in the Premier League were rocked before kick-off with Cole Palmer not fit enough to even make the matchday squad.

Arsenal made a strong start, helped by a jittery Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea goal but Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice failed to make the most of presentable chances, whilst Marc Cucurella avoided conceding a penalty after a VAR check.

The Gunners did eventually open the scoring and it was from a corner too - ending their drought of 98 corners without a goal in the proccess.

Martin Odegaard whipped the ball in to the near post and Mikel Merino was first to make contact as he helped on the cross and the ball somehow looped into the far corner.

The goal certainly sparked a reaction from the Chelsea players, though they threatened to cross the line with Wesley Fofana committing a poor foul on Declan Rice before Levi Colwill was booked for a late tackle on Trossard.

Their first shot on target, however, nearly resulted in an equaliser as Cucurella hit a volley which Raya allowed to squirms through his gloves. The ball could have gone anywhere but, fortunately for the Arsenal keeper, the ball went about a foot wide of the post for a corner.

Sanchez made a superb save in the second half to deny Merino doubling Arsenal’s lead but that would prove to be the closest either side went to scoring as the hosts saw out a relatively low-key London derby.