Chelsea 2-4 Arsenal player ratings: Defense deserves criticism

Chelsea welcomed a struggling Arsenal side at Stamford Bridge for the London Derby and literally helped the north London side in its bid for Champions League qualification. The home side lost in an embarrassing fashion, conceding four goals yet again. An Arsenal side low on confidence, who had lost three games in a row, took the lead in the 13′ as Andreas Christensen’s unbelievable error put Eddie Nketiah one-on-one with Edouard Mendy. However, only four minutes later, Timo Werner brought the Blues back level via a deflected shot.

The Chelsea defense was all over the place on the night, it conceded again just minutes later as Emile Smith Rowe slotted his shot into the bottom right corner of Mendy’s net. Again, the Blues struck back after five minutes as Cesar Azpilicueta, of all the players, made a sublime run in the box to meet with Mason Mount‘s cross to slot past Aaron Ramsdale to make it 2-2. In the second half, Christensen was replaced by Thiago Silva to bring some much-needed stability to the defense, which unfortunately never came.

Another instance of laughable defending from Chelsea gave Nketiah his second goal and helped Arsenal restore its lead, this one it’d never give up. From then onwards, the Blues had all of the possession but there was absolute no creativity from the home side as they couldn’t even create a convincing chance to get on level terms. In added time, the Gunners broke on the counter and Azpilicueta “fouled” Bukayo Saka in the box to give Arsenal a penalty, which was converted by the youngster to seal the game for the Gunners.

Here’s how each Chelsea player fared in an appalling performance at Stamford Bridge:

Edouard Mendy (Goalkeeper): 2/10

This has been the worst month for Mendy in a Chelsea shirt. After an appalling error against Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, this was another abysmal performance from the Senegalese international. For the first goal, Mendy did all he could by making himself big, but the lack of effort from him to not even dive on the second was disgraceful. Whenever Mendy had the ball at his feet, it felt like a mistake or a miss pass was meant to happen. His lack of ball-playing ability can be a big liability for the team, as seen this month.

Reece James (Right centerback): 5/10

Reece James started as a right centerback on Wednesday after manager Thomas Tuchel spent recent weeks praising the English youngster’s efforts at the position. However, James was not at all effective against the Gunners in that role. He got caught a few times off the ball and he had to chase Arsenal attackers to recover from errors. Other than that, a very quiet game from James.

Andreas Christensen (Centerback): 3/10

Andreas Christensen was unwilling to sign a new contract with Chelsea, but his midweek performance will make the fans think that he should not even be given a new contract offer to begin with. The Danish international never looked comfortable on the ball and his sloppy back pass put Nketiah through to score the opening goal. Even after that, Christensen was astonishingly bad on the ball, taking way too much time and giving possession away in dangerous situations. He was rightly substituted during the halftime for Silva. He’ll be on his way to Barcelona soon.

Malang Sarr (Left centerback): 4/10

The Arsenal match provided the chance for Malang Sarr to grab a rare start. When called upon this season, the French defender has been great. However, Wednesday was not his day. It felt as if he lacked match sharpness. Sarr was getting caught out of his position and he was responsible for the third Arsenal goal as the ball ricocheted off his legs after Silva tried to intercept the pass to Nketiah. Just like the defense, Sarr was all over the place in this forgettable outing.