the times | Monday August 3 2020 1GM 57
Sport
Arsenal (3-4-3): E Martínez 8 — R Holding 7,
D Luiz 8 (Sokratis 88), K Tierney 8 (S Kolasinac
90+13) — H Bellerín 8, D Ceballos 8, G Xhaka 8,
A Maitland-Niles 7 — N Pépé 7, A Lacazette 7
(E Nketiah 82), P-E Aubameyang 9.
Booked Ceballos.
Chelsea (3-4-3) W Caballero 6 — C Azpilicueta 5
(A Christensen 35, 5), K Zouma 6, A Rüdiger 6
(C Hudson-Odoi 78) — R James 6, Jorginho 6,
M Kovacic 7, M Alonso 6 — M Mount 6 (R Barkley
78), O Giroud 7 (T Abraham 78), C Pulisic 7
(Pedro 49, 6). Booked Azpilicueta, Mount,
Rüdiger, Barkley, Kovacic. Sent off Kovacic.
Referee A Taylor.ADAM DAVY/POOL; MARC ASPLAND/NMC/POOL; ANDY HOOPER/NMC/POOLFrank Lampard has promised to
overhaul Chelsea’s leaky defence after
he admitted that mistakes have cost his
team this season.
Chelsea conceded 54 goals in the
league — as many as 15th-placed
Brighton & Hove Albion — and
dropped 18 points from winning
positions. They again squandered a
lead in losing the FA Cup final 2-1
against Arsenal on Saturday.
Lampard, 42, has made five defend-
ers available for sale and will accelerate
plans to try to sign Ben Chilwell, 23, the
England and Leicester City left back.
He also wants a new goalkeeper and at
least one centre back. “The numbers
don’t lie,” Lampard said. “Some of the
clear individual errors can’t be there if
you want to keep moving forward.”
The Chelsea head coach highlighted
how Manchester City and Liverpool
had experienced similar defensive
issues, with Liverpool solving their
woes by making Alisson and Virgil van
Dijk the world’s most expensive goal-
keeper — at the time — and defender
respectively. “Those teams have been
through similar periods of conceding
too much,” Lampard said. “It is a work
in progress for me.”
Lampard feels he surpassed expecta-
tions in his first season because Chelsea
qualified for the Champions League, by
finishing fourth, despite being subject
to a transfer ban last summer. He has
already signed Timo Werner, 24, and
Hakim Ziyech, 27, both attacking
players, for a combined £81 million. He
hopes to conclude a deal for Kai
Havertz, the 21-year-old Bayer Leverk-
usen attacking midfielder, but efforts to
sign Declan Rice, 21, have met
resistance from West Ham United.
Another target is José Giménez, 25, the
Atletico Madrid defender.Up to ten players could leave Stam-
ford Bridge this summer. Kepa
Arrizabalaga is expected to go out on
loan as it is unlikely that any club would
stump up enough for the goalkeeper
who cost Chelsea £71 million from
Athletic Bilbao in 2018. They will listen
to offers for the defenders Kurt Zouma,
Andreas Christensen, Emerson
Palmieri and Marcos Alonso.
They are also willing to sell N’Golo
Kanté, who has had injury problems
this season, while Tiémoué Bakayoko
and Ross Barkley are available. Michy
Batshuayi has one year left on his deal
and the Belgium striker could be of
interest to Leeds United.
Lampard said he did not know if
Willian would accept a two-year deal or
leave as a free agent.
Chelsea will scan hamstring injuries
suffered by César Azpilicueta and
Christian Pulisic at Wembley. They will
miss the second leg of the Champions
League round-of-16 tie against Bayern
Munich on Saturday — in which Chel-
sea will seek to overturn a 3-0 deficit.Gary JacobArsenal will try to capitalise on their FA
Cup triumph by accelerating efforts to
make signings and tie down Pierre-
Emerick Aubameyang and Emiliano
Martínez to new deals.
Mikel Arteta, the head coach, wants
to switch to a 4-3-3 system next season
and is keen on Bayern Munich’s
Philippe Coutinho, 28, Atletico Ma-
drid’s Thomas Partey, 27, and Chelsea’s
Willian, 31, to add experience to help
the younger players. Arteta will make
a stronger case to be backed with
additional funds after he won his
first piece of silverware and quali-
fied for the Europa
League group stage.
He is convinced that
Aubameyang, who
scored both goals in
Arsenal’s 2-1 win over
Chelsea at Wembley,
has been persuaded
that the team are on
the up and will sign a
new contract. The
striker, 31, is in the final
year of his deal and isAubameyang set to stay as
Arsenal eye experienced trio
thought to want a contract worth more
than £250,000 a week.
Aubameyang has scored 70 goals in
all competitions, more than any other
Premier League player, since his arrival
at Arsenal in January 2018. He had felt
let down that the club had not carried
through on promises of signings and
shelved contract talks earlier this
season. But the situation changed after
the arrival of Arteta. “He makes scoring
look simple,” the head coach said of his
star man. “Auba deserves to be named
and compared with the big names.”
Martínez, 27, has been one of
Arsenal’s standout players
since the restart and the
goalkeeper does not want
to return to being a back-
up when Bernd
Leno is fit.
Arsenal, who
are expecting Dani
Ceballos to rejoin
on loan from Real
Madrid, plan to
generate money
through player
sales and reducing
their wage bill. They
have also put a
£40 million price tag
on Mattéo Guen-
douzi.Aubameyang and
Arteta celebrate
with the trophyLampard steps up
Chilwell bid with
defensive clear-out
Gary Jacob Most watched this season
8.2m FA Cup final Arsenal v Chelsea
(BBC)- 3 m FA Cup semi-final Manchester
United v Chelsea (BBC) - 2 m FA Cup Liverpool v Everton (BBC)
6.8m FA Cup Chelsea v Liverpool
(BBC)
6.4m FA Cup Norwich v
Manchester United (BBC)
6.1m FA Cup Shrewsbury v Liverpool
(BBC)
6m FA Cup Arsenal v Leeds (BBC)
5.7m Premier League Southampton v
Manchester City (BBC)
5.5m Premier League Everton v
Liverpool (Sky)
All figures for peak viewers
the drinks break
corner flag, threatening to take up per-
manent residency there, eventually
giving away a goal kick before kicking
the ball away as the seconds ticked by.
Swiss timing, Xhaka style.
Certain dynamics undeniably played
into Arteta’s hands: the imperative for
his players to qualify for Europe while
Lampard’s were already basking in
plaudits for reaching the Champions
League; fitness issues with N’Golo
Kanté and Willian; and second-half
hamstring injuries to Azpilicueta and
Pulisic, and then Pedro popping his
shoulder. Taylor’s decision to dismiss
Mateo Kovacic for a legitimate chal-
lenge on Xhaka intensified the debate
about refereeing standards and also
raised the question, well made by a
caller to BBC Radio 5 Live’s 606 , over
whether VAR rules should be tweaked
to allow technology to look at a yellow
card that triggers a red.
Ultimately, Chelsea grievances need
setting against the reality that Arteta’s
in-game management was sharper
than that of Lampard, who faces exten-
sive work on his defence in particular.
Lampard has enjoyed a good first
season as Chelsea head coach, leading
them into the Champions League, and
it did not require this reverse for him to
know that he needs a new goalkeeper, a
commanding centre back and a young
left back. An individual of Lampard’s
ambition, and hatred of losing, will
respond.
It also hardly required the 139th FA
Cup final to confirm to close observers
of Arteta’s career and character that
Arsenal have appointed a head coach of
genuine substance, a leader and winner
who balances the modern approach of
intense analysis with emotional intelli-
gence. It needed only to hear the quiet
testimonials of those with whom he
worked at Manchester City, admiring
individuals such as Raheem Sterling, to
appreciate that Arsenal were putting
their faith in somebody who could
coach and motivate players.
You need only look at his demands
for tactical and emotional discipline
which brought the exclusion of Mesut
Özil on the first count and Mattéo
Guendouzi on both. Arteta’s quality
was clear in his belief in Dani Ceballos,
in his rebuilding of Xhaka’s confidence,
and in his tactical flexibility. Arteta will
have to learn to tone down the beseech-
ing for decisions, especially unedifying
in his requests for cards to be shown,
but a star rises in the managerial
firmament.
He has gripped a team and club drift-
ing during the tail end of the ArsèneWenger era and during the confusing
spell of Unai Emery. Arteta’s wild
celebration, sprinting on to the pitch
when Taylor blew for the last time at
103min 4sec, showed how much it
meant.
He was the last one off the field,
clutching the trophy, returning to the
dressing room banging the lid on the
cup and leading his players in a dance.
In becoming the first Arsenal mana-
ger to win a major trophy in his first
season since George Graham in 1986-
87, Arteta reminded the board why they
need to invest financially in his winning
judgment, particularly in keeping
Aubameyang and Ceballos, selling the
self-regarding Guendouzi, and taking a
huge hit in offloading Özil. Saturday
showed why Arteta is worth it.Frank Lampard was really unlucky with
injuries: N’Golo Kanté couldn’t play, and
he lost two players during the game. So
that has to be taken into account when
looking at the Chelsea performance.
But they invited trouble with the team
they picked. The two wing backs —
Reece James and Marcos Alonso — are
both really poor defensively, and so is
Jorginho, who started in central
midfield. So straight away the
foundation of your line-up has three
glaring weaknesses for the opposition
to exploit. Arsenal did that with James
by getting Maitland-Niles to drag him
infield, leaving Azpilicueta out of his
depth in a race with Aubameyang.
Jorginho is a neat and tidy player on
the ball but he offers so little protection
— you can see why Chelsea concede so
many goals.Both teams played three centre halves
and wing backs — but Arsenal’s back
five worked much better. Ainsley
Maitland-Niles was left-wing back but
regularly tucked inside: this map of the
players’ average positions shows him
infield of the left-sided centre back
Kieran Tierney. This gave Tierney space
to play long down the left channel for
Aubameyang, who had isolated César
Azpilicueta as someone he could get
the better of — that’s what happened
for the foul that led to Arsenal’s penalty.
Arsenal players' average
positions v Chelsea
MartínezLuizTierneyMaitland-NilesAubameyangHoldingBellerínPépé
LacazetteCeballosXhakaDirection of playBack
fivea superb game, top, but Lampard’s decision to start Jorginho, above, backfired