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Nobody said it had to be pretty. And for large portions of Arsenal’s 3-2 win at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg on Wednesday, it certainly was not. But for Mikel Arteta and his players, there was a beauty in the physicality, the remorseless levels of aggression.
Arsenal won because of what they did without the ball. Yes, there were nice moments from them in possession, most obviously Martín Zubimendi’s goal for 3-1. His gliding run from right to left inside the penalty area, especially the fake-to-shoot move that removed the Chelsea defender, Wesley Fofana, from the equation, the composure amid the maelstrom before the execution, was jaw-dropping.
Yet the biggest takeaway was that maelstrom, the sense that Arsenal had expected a scrap and refused to countenance anything other than winning it. There was a chest-out power from them, evident in the duels but more than that, in the battle to close the spaces, to mass men around any opposition player who got on the ball.
When Chelsea, bravely, tried to play out from the back, each pass felt fraught in the face of the pressure; they had to be perfect to avoid dangerous turnovers. In fairness, they showed plenty of skill and personality in this regard. But still, getting out was precarious, draining.
It was also easy to fixate on the moment when Estêvão Willian blasted clear of a posse of red shirts in central midfield on 37 minutes. When the Chelsea winger went right, trying to make something happen, he saw no teammates in support, only more red, Arsenal players swarming around him. Eventually he lost the ball for a goal-kick.
The overall impression was of an intimidation factor, which Arteta has long wanted to bring. And that is before we get to the set pieces, particularly the inswinging corners, which Arsenal have turned into an exercise in chaos; an example of their desire to unsettle with brute force. They scored the opening goal at Stamford Bridge when the Chelsea goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez, was boxed in on a Declan Rice corner, Ben White heading home.
When Arsenal had their last Premier League title-winning team, one of the Invincibles, Gilberto Silva, commented that rival players got the losing feeling before a ball was kicked. “When we got into that Highbury tunnel, we knew we were going to win,” he said.
It is a feeling that Arteta remembers from his days as a visiting Everton player, most notably when he was on the wrong end of a 7-0 mauling in May 2005. “I have been in the tunnel playing with a different shirt,” he said in 2024. “Looking at the Invincibles, I had that feeling … tonight is going to be really tough. Hopefully we can create that.”
William Saliba is one of the symbols of Arsenal’s strength and the defender believes his team are intimidating their opponents on a physical level. “Yes, I think so,” he said. “We are a good team and we are all connected. We need to keep going like this. Always when we play against Chelsea, it is a big fight and we want to win every duel. I think we dominated them.” Saliba was asked whether he saw the beauty in the approach. “Yes,” he replied. “It’s good. We want to be like this. We want to be strong everywhere – in defence and attack.”
The frustration for Arsenal was that they did not put the tie to bed. After Zubimendi’s moment of magic, they had two clear chances for 4-1 before being pegged back by Alejandro Garnacho’s goal, the substitute’s second of the game. Both of them were soft concessions from an Arsenal point of view. The overriding feeling, though, was that this was a statement of intent. Suffocating defence is the hallmark of trophy winners.
