After Major Soccer League soccer club, Charlotte stunned Chelsea by defeating them 5-3 via penalties, the Premier League club ended their disappointing pre-season tour of the United States with an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at the hands of Arsenal earlier today, July 24, 2022.
Arsenal and Chelsea met at the Camping World Stadium in Florida for what was expected to be an explosive Florida Cup final between the two London arch-rivals. Based on the fact that Chelsea finished third in the Premier League campaign last season while Arsenal finished 5th, coach Thomas Tuchel of the Blue side of London and his boys were expected to dominate the Gunners.
To the dismay of many of the Chelsea fans that stormed the Camping World Stadium to watch the game, Arsenal completely dominated the game from start to finish.
Coach Mikel Arteta and his boys proved to their domestic rivals that they didn’t see the preseason game as a friendly match as they took the lead in the 15th minute courtesy of a goal from the club’s new signing Gabriel Jesus.
Note that since Jesus joined Arsenal from Manchester City for a transfer fee worth €52.20million, the 25-year-old Brazilian forward has been unstoppable in preseason games. Jesus has scored three goals since he joined the Emirates Stadium-based club.
🥁 Introducing the Man of the Match…
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 24, 2022
🏆 @GabrielJesus9 pic.twitter.com/ymMNZahXM2
In the Florida Cup game against Chelsea, Jesus was not the only one that helped Arsenal to stun the Blues, Martin Odegaard played a massive part as he helped the Gunners to double their lead in the 36th minute.
Orlan𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 ☑️
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 24, 2022
Signing off with Martin Odegaard 👊 pic.twitter.com/8N3uYajWjy
Even though Chelsea’s new signing Raheem Sterling played for the entire 45 minutes, the Blues’ attack could not do much in front of goal until the first half ended. He was replaced by Chelsea’s captain Cesar Azpilicueta in the 46th minute.
After a horrible first half for Chelsea, the club’s fans at the stadium thought coach Thomas Tuchel would come up with a plan to turn things around in the second half but that was not to be. Hence, Arsenal continued with their onslaught on their arch-rivals.
In the 66th minute, Bukayo Saka proved that he is a big game player by adding to the woes of Chelsea and making the game more difficult for Tuchel to turn around.
The addition of Chelsea’s new defender from Napoli, £34m Kalidou Koulibaly, in the 73rd minute could not stop Arsenal from making it a 4-0 victory as Sambi Lokonga wrapped things up with an injury-time goal.
Watch highlights of Arsenal vs Chelsea Florida Cup final below:
What coach Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea said after the embarrassing defeat at the hands of Arsenal
After Arsenal slammed Chelsea with a 4-0 thrashing, coach Thomas Tuchel was left with no choice but to urge the club’s new co-owner Todd Boehly to permit the club to sign more players in this summer transfer window.
Note that ahead of this summer, Chelsea lost key players like Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to FC Barcelona on a free transfer. Also, the club’s record signing Romelu Lukaku returned to his former club on a season-long loan spell.
There are reports that Chelsea’s captain Cesar Azpilicueta and the club’s wingback Marcos Alonso are interested in leaving the club this summer. Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech are also not happy due to their lack of regular game time.
Hence, coach Tuchel believed that even though Chelsea signed Raheem Sterling and Koulibaly this summer, the club won’t be competitive in the 2022-2023 season if the club fail to sign more quality players this summer.
“My analysis of the season does not change because of this game. Unfortunately, it proved my point”, Tuchel said after the 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Arsenal.
“The last week proves my point. I would prefer not to be right.
“I did everything to prove myself wrong but at the moment I feel that I was right. I look at the last season and parts of the game where we struggled, parts of the season where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned and players left us and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is.
“So we had an urgent appeal for quality players, a huge amount of quality players. We got two quality players but we are not competitive like this. Unfortunately, you could see it today.”
What next for Arsenal and Chelsea?
Chelsea are expected to leave the United States at any moment from the time of publishing this report for Spain to take on Udinese in their last preseason campaign on July 29, 2022.
After that, the Blues will return to London to prepare for their first Premier League game of the season which is against Everton at Goodison Park on August 6, 2022.
While Arsenal will host Sevilla in the Emirates Cup final on July 30, 2022. After the game, they will commence preparation for their opening league game of the 2022-2023 season which is away against Crystal Palace on August 5, 2022.
