EPL Game of the Weekend – Chelsea 3-2 Arsenal

Chelsea

The most exciting match from the second week of the 2018-19 Premier League season saw Chelsea defeat Arsenal 3-2 at Stamford Bridge, with Maurizio Sarri’s side surrendering a two-goal lead before striking late on through Marcos Alonso to pick up their second win in as many games.

Both teams put away chances in the first half, with Pedro and Alvaro Morata scoring for the hosts before quickfire goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi for the Gunners to level things up just before half-time, but it was the 2016-17 champions who earned the early-season bragging rights in this London derby.

Chelsea’s positives and negatives
From an attacking point of view, this match would have pleased EPL Fantasy players who have selected Chelsea’s forwards in their teams, with starters Pedro and Morata each collecting four points and substitute Eden Hazard picking up two points after coming off the bench to set up Alonso’s goal.

Defensively, it was a mixed bag for the boys in blue. While match-winner Alonso was a high-scorer with five points, taking his tally for the season to 10 points (more than any other Chelsea player), centre-backs Antonio Rudiger and David Luiz were both hit with -1 points and new goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga received -2 points.

In midfield, N’Golo Kante and Jorginho failed to build on their impressive points tallies from the opening-weekend win over Huddersfield, while Ross Barkley and substitute Mateo Kovacic were also unable to register any positive points.

Arsenal’s positives and negatives
One of the biggest concerns for EPL Fantasy players right now has to be Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has failed to pick up any points or score any goals in Arsenal’s opening two Premier League games, yet he remains one of the most-frequently selected players (29%) of the season so far.

It was a different story against Chelsea for Aubameyang’s fellow attackers, with Mkhitaryan and Iwobi claiming six points and four points respectively, but nobody else for Unai Emery’s side was able to end the match with a positive points tally.

At the back for the Gunners, all four of their defenders – Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Nacho Monreal – suffered minus points this weekend, while Petr Cech now has a season tally of -6 points after receiving -4 points against his former club.

Only West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski and Huddersfield trio Terence Kongolo, Christopher Schindler and Ben Hamer have worse points totals than Cech after two games of the new campaign.

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