With the away goals rule, any scoring draw through 120 minutes meant Chelsea advanced, so once Hazard waltzed through our central defense for a clear crack at goal with only Ospina to beat, it meant we needed two at least. The good news was their goal came so early. The better news was getting even so quickly afterwards. Nacho worked into a free header position and put it hard on goal. It would undoubtedly have been saved had it not taken a deflection, and in this case, it took two deflections off Chelsea defenders' heads to wrong foot Caballero. (The Chelsea keeper turned out to be the busier on the night; he made some fine saves later on.) My feeling was that we were outplayed most of the first half and were fortunate to be level.
The second half was another story. Wenger is often criticized (by me, anyway) for a lack of tactical acumen, particularly during the game. But he must have made some adjustments, because things got harder for the Blues on offense and we kept the ball for long periods. After Lacazette was sent into the channel he tried to cut it back for Iwobi, but that pass was blocked into open space in front of goal, where the far-advanced Xhaka expertly poked it home past a desperate Caballero. The rest of the half featured some very entertaining stuff, both teams threatening repeatedly, but the defenses were up to the challenge--barely--and it ended 2-1 to the good guys. I think it was deserved overall; we really did handle them in that second half.
Monreal was magnificent on offense and on defense. For stretches, Ozil managed to control the game virtually from the sideline; how does he do that? Jack was the midfield bite that kept Chelsea off balance, and he did keep taking the game to them. Lacazette did really really well. He came back on defense, won the ball when he had to, kept it when he had to. Solid. Xhaka was as usual too easy to get by on defense but he seemed not to give the ball away quite so much this game. Elneny was practically our third CB, and provided some sure passing where and when it was needed. Iwobi owned Moses when they were one on one, which I'm sure they will discuss in idle minutes when they train together for Nigeria. Mustafi was fine, and Kos was very good. Bellerin had a tough assignment with Marcus Alonso and not much help from Ozil, and he did well. Ospina never looked commanding but made the saves he had to. I was worried on every Chelsea corner, but after Willian had to be subbed out their corners were pretty poor, which is fortunate because they got a lot of them. Kolasinac and Ramsey came in late as fresh legs to shore up the defense, and it helped.
This was without Alexis, the cup-tied Mkhitaryan, or the still-in-Dortmund Aubameyang. And Wenger wasn't tempted to play Walcott because he's gone. Not to worry--we got almost as many offside calls as we would have had he been there. Neither team today looked as sharp as they did last weekend, but you have to consider the opposition then, and the competitiveness of this game three days later. Michael Oliver played his part by calling an excellent game.
I like our chances against City next month in the final. Yes, yes, they are the better team, and not by a little. But Wembley is like home to Arsenal and their record there is very good. I'll take an own goal and a penalty, please!
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