Arsenal vs. Chelsea: Winners and Losers from London Derby
Arsenal and Chelsea played out a 0-0 draw on Sunday evening, with the Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium producing no goals but plenty of talking points.
Denied penalty calls were the main themes of the fixture, as Oscar, Cesc Fabregas and Santi Cazorla were all denied shouts of varying strength for a spot-kick, while clear chances from open play remained a rarity.
The 0-0 result favored Chelsea, who remain top of the Premier League table with a wide margin between them and second-placed Manchester City. Arsenal sit third in the table, as they missed an opportunity to overtake City for second.
Here are our winners and losers from the game.
Winners: Defences on Top
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In a 0-0 game it's easy to say the defences came out on top, but quite often the story can be a lack of clinical finishing, a dominant side against a goalkeeper having the game of his life or something similar—but this time really was a case of defences putting in a good shift.
Both Chelsea and Arsenal were organised, intent on staying compact and in shape and not letting the opposition create chances...which was exactly what happened.
There were a handful of penalty box incidents, plenty of high balls in each area which needed to be defended and a smattering of shooting chances, but by and large both teams defended extremely well, after an early flurry by Chelsea.
Loser: Cesc Fabregas
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A return to the Emirates Stadium for Cesc Fabregas came with the predictable boos and offensive chants from the terraces, but the now-Chelsea midfielder wouldn't have cared too much if he could have had an impact on the match.
Unfortunately for him, after some nice early passes he was quite often bypassed by the match, not really creating anything of note for his side and then being booked for a dive—which certainly shouldn't have been a card and quite possibly should have been a penalty.
The final minute of the game saw him subbed off—and a huge chorus of boos had to be eventually drowned out by those home supporters who did remember Cesc's impact for Arsenal, who finally gave him a clap.
Winner: Jose Mourinho
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Jose got what he came for—avoiding defeat.
The Chelsea manager reduced what could have been an entertaining and exciting top-of-the-table clash to a dull and dreary affair for the most part with his tactics, again, intent on stifling Arsenal first and foremost, before launching counter-attacks and sporadic spells of play in Arsenal's half.
He won't care at all as the clean sheet guaranteed his team would take at least a point and therefore stop anyone gaining ground on them, but few people beyond those in blue will have enjoyed the 90 minutes as a whole.
His late sub of Kurt Zouma for Cesc Fabregas at 0-0 typified his approach throughout.
Winner: Chelsea Cruising Toward Another Title
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The scenes at the final whistle, where Chelsea players celebrated the 0-0 draw with punches into the air of delight and hugs with each other, tells you all you need to know: they're on the verge of another title.
Ten points clear of their nearest challengers and with only five games to play, the blues are so close to winning their first league title in five years.
Leicester City are up next and it's hard to see anybody, let alone relegation strugglers, stopping the inevitable progress of Mourinho and his side toward picking up this particular piece of silverware.
