Arsenal Beat Chelsea at Their Own Game

Over the years Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal have suffered at the hands of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, but it was a different scenario on Sunday. The manner in which the victory was attained is what has elicited a rather ironic comment from the blues manager. More on that later.

Before the match itself, a lot was said regarding the fact that the match was more than a glorified friendly, with players still working their way to full fitness before the season starts in earnest. But the manner in which Mourinho shuffled and tweaked his tactics to get an equaliser in the match, showed the match meant more to him than it was portrayed.

The first tweak arrived at half time, when Loic Remy love affair with going off side was brought to an early end when he was replaced by Radamel Falcao who it must be admitted has a lot of work to do to turn his reputation around in English football after he struggled with Manchester United last season. Mourinho's last tweak saw John Terry withdrawn, with Victor Moses introduced late on in his stead, as he pushed to level the match. Oscar, Kurt Zouma all entered the fray; Cesc Fabregas was moved from his position further up the pitch earlier on to play in a deeper role. Yet Chelsea struggled to create clear cut chances, and when the few chances they created arrived Eden Hazard blazed over, while Ramires contrived to miss a point blank header from six yards in the first half.

In a fixture involving Arsenal and Chelsea, it is unusual for Chelsea to have more possession. Chelsea had 57% possession in the match, but only had two shots on target, and they were largely restricted to few chances. That Arsenal scored their only goal early on certainly aided their cause. The goal aided their plans to protect what they had while hitting Chelsea on the counter-attack, and they could and should have scored more than one goal after the chances they had late on.

If this defensive quality to protect a lead for 70 minutes was deployed by Jose Mourinho, it would have been accepted as the norm, and true to form that was what Chelsea used to get the better of most of their rivals last season even at Stamford Bridge, with the tie against Manchester United a key example.

That Arsenal opted to abandon their caviar approach by going pragmatic was a case of beating Jose Mourinho's Chelsea at an approach he has perfected over the years. And this particular obdurate display by the Gunners obviously came as shock to Jose Mourinho. He remarked after the match.

"Arsenal defended with 10 players, they put everybody in front of their own line and they had good organisation, congratulations to them. They had a couple of chances in counter attacks but we had ours in organised football. They played their game tactically and found themselves one goal in front without any reason"

It was quite ironic for the Portuguese manager to accuse his opponent of deploying ten men behind the ball, seeing that he had used it to good effect in the past, and when it has worked he has been hailed as a tactical genius, but when same tactics is used to get one over him, it becomes a case of a team parking the bus in front of their penalty area.

While nothing much can be read into the match in respect of how the season would unfold for both teams, the intensity of the match and the tackles that flew in, reflected what the match meant to the players especially for an Arsenal side that had failed to beat Chelsea under Jose Mourinho in 13 previous attempts.

Per Mertesacker was also quick to point out that the team was still really in pre-season despite the win over Chelsea.

However, from a psychological point of view, the victory can be term a huge one for the gunners as the last hurdle that remained in their struggles against the big teams was beating Mourinho's Chelsea. After wins over Manchester City and Manchester United last season in the league and FA Cup, the players have gradually broken a mental barrier that would be a platform to build on as the season unfolds in earnest.

That these victories were achieved through a pragmatic approach only goes to show a new pattern that has emerged in the way Arsene Wenger is prepared to go when it comes to certain matches.

The Community Shield on Sunday is just a modicum sub plot to the season, and come May 2016, it would have paled into insignificance as the season would be decided on other factors, Arsenal might have gotten the first scalp, but they have to build on this victory and avoid the pitfalls of last season when the win over Manchester City in last season's Community Shield proved a false dawn as they won just two of their opening nine matches after that.

A good and consistent start in the early weeks would show what Arsenal can offer this season, and as for Chelsea, they welcome Fiorentina to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday as they continue their build up to the new season.