Former Chelsea captain John Terry has given his verdict on the Blues’ draw with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge and praised the Gunners’ performance in the Premier League.
John Terry believes there was no discussion about Moises Caicedo’s red card against Arsenal, but Chelsea were the only team that showed any ambition to win the game. Despite having a one-man advantage for the majority of the match, the Gunners could only obtain a draw at Stamford Bridge.
Caicedo was given his marching orders for a nasty challenge against Mikel Merino. The Ecuadorian international was initially shown a yellow card, before VAR intervened and handed him a more severe punishment.
However, it was Chelsea who took the lead. Trevor Chalobah found the back of the Blues’ net as Enzo Maresca’s side continued their good form.
Arsenal took control in west London and struggled to create clear chances. But Merino’s header from Bukayo Saka’s cross earned his side a share of the spoils.
And Terry believes Chelsea finished the game with more credit. The former Blues captain does not believe Arsenal had shown a desire to win the game before Caicedo’s red card.
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Mikel Arteta has been criticized in the past for not preparing his team to win big games. This view has been largely forgotten this season as Arsenal dominate the table, but Terry believes this is a similar accusation to the league leaders.
“The game just ended (in a draw), but I’m really happy with the performance of the players,” Terry said in a video posted to his TikTok account. “I thought we were the much better team, even though we spent most of the game with 10 men.
“But in the first half I thought it was just one team that was coming forward and being aggressive and wanting to win the game. This is a London derby and that’s what you want to see from our players, running into tackles and being a little bit aggressive.”
“Unfortunately, the referee gave us three yellow cards in the first 15 minutes and stopped the game.
“There is no debate about Caicedo. I think it was a red card and unfortunately he will be a big mistake for us. But overall I thought there was one team trying to win the game and that was us.”
“I thought we were very good going forward. We were direct and really quick on the counter. We defended well too. Being down to 10 men can be tiring for the players, especially after the game against Barcelona (Tuesday) and the away trip to Burnley last weekend.”
“A great performance from the players. We were delighted with Charova’s goal. We talked about how important set-pieces are in the build-up to a match, and thankfully we were the team who were able to take advantage of them.”
“Overall I’m happy, rested and keep moving forward. Arsenal have to be happy today because they’ve been changing their squad every week so far. That’s why they’re at the top of the league.”
“But so far they haven’t gotten any further away from us in this title race. I think today we proved that we can compete with the best teams in the league and give everyone a run for their money.”
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