Gunners fight to hold off controversial Chelsea comeback

Chelsea come from behind and yet fail to at Arsenal thanks to a late Hector Bellerin goal.

A first-half of many chances saw Alvaro Morata and Alexis Sanchez denied by the respective goalkeepers, Thibaut Courtois magnificently tipping an effort from the Chilean onto the post before it ran along the line and tickled the opposite stick.And after Alexandre Lacazette was unable to finish one big chance aided by a kind deflection early in the second period, Jack Wilshere burst through to slam home on 63 minutes.Chelsea were level in double quick time, however, as Eden Hazard caused problems enough for Bellerin to kick out at a bouncing ball, connecting with the Belgian enough for another somewhat soft penalty to be awarded by the referee, this time Anthony Taylor earning the Gunners' retribution.

 Despite being a flowing attacking game, it had begun to look as though the two goalkeepers would end it as the stars, both Thibaut Courtois and Petr Cech having made fine saves. Arsenal, who had been on top for longer in the first half, had also been denied by the woodwork but the north Londoners did make the breakthrough midway through the second half with a Jack Wilshere goal. It was a lead they held for only three minutes however.

Hazard’s equaliser, a penalty, was the 100th Premier League goal he had either scored or assisted. Then, as a second half in which Chelsea had given as good as we got drew to a close, Alonso looked to have repeated his heroics in our game away against Tottenham at the start of the season when he ran into the box to score late on, but in the 92nd minute, there was heartbreak when Hector Bellerin fired in from distance to salvage a point for the home side, although there was still time left for substitute David Zappacosta to smash a strike against the Arsenal crossbar.

 For the last of our four Premier League matches in 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period, there were returns to the starting line-up for Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Andreas Christensen, and if there were tired legs among the two sides, it certainly did not detract from the spectacle served up in north London. After five minutes of relatively gentle sparring between these two London rivals, N’Golo Kante conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position and the Blues were thankful the deflection on Alexis Sanchez’s strike kept it off-target. We responded with some pressure around the edge of the Gunners’ penalty area but then faced a counter-attack which thankfully was ended by an over-hit cross.

Another home side attack on 13 minute stretched the Blues defence for the first time but Ainsley Maitland-Niles, in for the injured Saed Kolasinac, centred the ball too close to Thibaut Courtois. The game suddenly sprang to life in a big way. Firstly Alvaro Morata had a one-on-one chance against Petr Cech after the home defence badly misjudged a Moses high ball forward, but as in the previous game against Stoke, the Spaniard could not finish it. This time he shot well wide. Injury time kept the drama flowing, Bellerin arriving late into the D to make amends and curl home with his right foot.

There was still time for Morata to miss another big chance, placing a tame one-on-one shot at the keeper before Zappacosta smashed the bar with his rebound to confirm an all-round well-earned 2-2 draw.