October 21, 2023
We came back from two goals behind to maintain our unbeaten start to the season as strikes from Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard earned a point at Stamford Bridge.
The hosts found themselves in firm control when Cole Palmer converted a penalty 14 minutes into proceedings, and then just after the restart Mykhailo Mudryk caught us napping with a cheeky effort to double his team's lead.
But a spark of inspiration for ourselves came in the form of a 30-yard first-time effort from Rice with 13 minutes remaining, and then Trossard converted a wicked Bukayo Saka delivery on 83 minutes to complete the comeback.
The hosts started in the ascendancy and would have the better of the game in the opening 45 minutes, but they were handed an opportunity to make their early pressure pay when they were awarded a VAR-assisted penalty on 14 minutes.
Raheem Sterling's cross aimed for Mudryk saw the Ukrainian miss his header and the ball struck the arm of William Saliba challenging him in the air. After a lengthy period of play, Chris Kavanagh was sent to the pitchside monitor and opted to point to the spot, allowing Palmer to send David Raya the wrong way from 12 yards and net against us for the second time this season, following his strike for Manchester City in the Community Shield.
We continued to struggle to impose ourselves on the game and Palmer came close to adding to that tally on the half-hour mark when he linked up with Mudryk and flashed a shot through Saliba's legs and saw it fizz just wide of the far upright.
Two minutes into the second half, our chances of remaining unbeaten at the end of the 90 minutes began to vanish even further after a little bit of magic from our opponents. Little looked on when Connor Gallagher found Mudryk on the left flank, but the winger crept towards the box, looked up and clipped a cross-cum-shot over Raya and into the net.
That prompted a response from Arteta's team, and Bukayo Saka nearly found the net in fortunate circumstances when he slipped taking a corner and Robert Sanchez had to tip a swerving delivery over his bar, and from the resulting flag kick Gabriel headed wide.
But just after that, we were lucky not to fall further behind when Palmer pounced on a Raya mistake to round the keeper but the Spaniard did well to get his hands to his shot to only concede a corner.
We were desperate for a little spark or piece of luck to get back into the game, and on 77 minutes it arrived. Sanchez tried to play his way out from the back but his pass was too weak, and Rice raced past his marker to intercept and curl a first-time effort into the unguarded net to register his second goal in our colours.
That was an excellent strike, and just six minutes later, we managed to score another, albeit in a different fashion. Saka received possession on the right and whipped a delicious cross towards the back post for Trossard, who got a touch on it to send it past Sanchez and send the travelling support wild.
They were nearly celebrating a
By Arsenal
