Chelsea V Arsenal - Player Ratings

19 September 2015 14:09

Jose Mourinho's Chelsea once again got the better of Arsene Wenger's Arsenal in an ill-tempered London derby. Goals from Zouma and Hazard secured a 2-0 victory for the Blues with the Gunners reduced to 9 men. Here, we rate both teams starting XI and subs. Give us your player ratings in the comments section below.

CHELSEA

ASMIR BEGOVIC: Hardly tested by the Gunners, but when called upon looks like a more-than-capable deputy for the injured Thibaut Courtois. Chelsea do not miss Petr Cech - 6 (out of 10).

BRANISLAV IVANOVIC: The captain for the day was much steadier than in recent weeks. He coped well with the trickery of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil - 6.

CESAR AZPILICUETA: A reliable presence in Chelsea's less than reliable defence this term. Arsenal received little reward down the hosts' left - 7.

KURT ZOUMA: An assured performance from the powerful Frenchman, who was again preferred to John Terry. Scored his first Premier League goal - 7.

GARY CAHILL: Composed and unruffled against Theo Walcott. His partnership with Zouma is one which could last. Bad news for Terry - 7.

NEMANJA MATIC: Steady and unspectacular. Not the force he was last season, but showed signs of returning to dominance - 6.

CESC FABREGAS: Provided the assist for Zouma's goal, against his former club. The playmaker still offers too little defensively - 6.

PEDRO: Often an outlet and a livewire. Stung the hands of Cech on a number of occasions - 7.

DIEGO COSTA: A menace. The Brazil-born Spain striker riled Arsenal and Gabriel responded, naively. Costa intimidated but had few shooting chances - 6.

OSCAR: An all-action performance from the Brazilian. But for a booking and a niggling knee problem, the forward would likely have continued - 8.

EDEN HAZARD: So much is expected of the Belgian after last season but he still appears to lack confidence, despite scoring a late goal. There were flashes here - 6.

Substitutes

RAMIRES (on for Oscar, 68 minutes): His introduction allowed Fabregas to push forward and added Chelsea steel - 6.

LOIC REMY (Costa, 82): Had little opportunity to make an impact - 6.

JOHN OBI MIKEL (Fabregas, 90): Brought on in the dying moments - 6.

ARSENAL

PETR CECH: The former Chelsea keeper lined up against his old club in the Premier League for the first time and made a brave first-half save to deny Pedro. Could do little about Zouma's goal - 7 (out of 10).

HECTOR BELLERIN: The Spanish full-back was fresh having been rested for Champions League midweek match and used his pace down the right to offer an attacking outlet - 6.

NACHO MONREAL: Produced some positive attacking runs, but was sometimes caught out of position as Chelsea looked to counter - 6.

GABRIEL: The Brazil centre-back saw red after losing his cool following a run-in with Chelsea forward Costa, flicking a backheel at the Spain striker which left Arsenal a man down for the second half - 5.

LAURENT KOSCIELNY: The France international had a running battle with Costa all afternoon, and got a couple of arms in the face for his troubles - 6.

FRANCIS COQUELIN: Arsenal's new midfield enforcer put himself about early on, but was taken off in the second half to bring on some defensive cover - 6.

AARON RAMSEY: Largely a below-par performance from the Wales midfielder, who lacked his usual cutting edge around the penalty area - 6.

SANTI CAZORLA: Diminutive Spaniard captained the team was often at the centre of all of Arsenal's positive play. However, a second yellow card for a late challenge ended his afternoon early - 6.

THEO WALCOTT: The England forward played on the shoulder of the Chelsea defenders, utilising his pace, but was often caught offside and had no real opportunities to test the keeper - 6.

ALEXIS SANCHEZ: The Chile forward had some joy against Ivanovic down the left, but failed to really make a telling impact around the Chelsea penalty area - 6.

MESUT OZIL: The German playmaker drifted in and out of the match, but still produced a couple of decent passes to open up the Chelsea backline - 6.

Substitutes

CALUM CHAMBERS (for Coquelin, 46): The England Under-21 international was thrown on for the second half and stood up to the challenge well enough, collecting a yellow card for a late tackle on Hazard - 6.

ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN (for Ozil, 75): Tried to inject a bit of life into the Arsenal attack, but impact was limited after the Gunners went down to nine men and had to defend - 6.

OLIVIER GIROUD (for Sanchez, 75): The France forward offered a different dimension to the Arsenal frontline, but lacked any real service in the closing stages - 6.

Source: PA-WIRE