Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
by Layth Yousif 
at Ashburton Grove

MIKEL MERINO'S 20th minute winner was the difference between the two sides in an instantly forgettable London derby. 

Mikel Arteta's Arsenal closed the gap to table toppers Liverpool to 12 points – but more importantly consolidated second spot, remaining firmly on course for qualification for the riches of next season’s Champions League - while attempting to avoid looking towards their quarter-final glamour tie with Real Madrid early next month. 

The home side started brightly with Leonardo Trossard firing wide early on. The Belgium attacker then tested the mercurial Roberto Sanchez in the Chelsea goal shortly afterwards, which the Spanish keeper just about gathered, prompting the home support to put the former Brighton shotstopper under pressure by jeering loudly thereafter. The noise paid immediate dividends, with the 27-year-old’s next goal kick flying wildly out of play.

In befitting with Sanchez’s unfortunate slapstick nature, there immediately followed a comedy of errors, with the ball flying around the box in a fashion more akin to pinball, as Jurrien Timber squared for Wesley Fofana to intercept, prior to Sanchez knocking the ball away, only for Declan Rice to fire over.

As if to underline Arteta’s side’s dominance England international Rice fizzed the ball wide of Sanchez’s far post, with barely 15 minutes elapsed.

Arsenal’s utter dominance eventually told, as Merino, with a run to the near post, flicked the ball into the net over the hapless Sanchez, from Martin Odegaard’s corner on 20 minutes, to put the home side 1-0 ahead.

The set piece being Arsenal's first goal from a corner since January 15 during victory in the north London derby - with a total of 51 corners since then without success before Merino popped up to end the Gunners drought in fine fashion against the Blues.

The strike was vindication for Arteta in continuing with Merino as striker, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Martinelli returning to their Premier League starting line-up. While the big news was that there was no Cole Palmer for fourth placed Chelsea. While Arsenal’s Chelsea loanee Raheem Sterling was not involved.

Seven minutes before half time, David Raya avoided what could be labelled a ‘Sanchez’ moment, with the Arsenal keeper lucky when mishandling Marc Cucurella’s shot, which trickled the wrong side of the post for Chelsea by a matter of inches.

On the hour mark Sanchez redeemed himself somewhat, when making an instinctive reaction save from Merino’s smart side-footed effort that saw the beleaguered Chelsea keeper palm the ball off the line, following Martinelli’s cross, as the Gunners held on for victory in the last game before the international break.