You could have been forgiven for thinking it was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in red at Wembley on Sunday. Arsenal stifled and shut out their opponents in a manner of which the Chelsea manager would have been proud.Petr Cech was calm, confident and assured in goal, dealing with everything thrown at him with consummate ease, but in truth he was barely troubled by his former teammates. Arsenal’s defence were organised throughout, and a Diego Costa-less Chelsea could not break through. Arsenal might have been typically meek against the other top sides in years gone by – respective 6-0, 6-3 and 8-2 defeats to Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United stick in the memory – but this was a solid defensive performance that has become a feature of this Arsenal team.
The emergence of Francis Coquelin as Arsenal’s defensive midfielder has been a game-changer: they have won 74 per cent of their games with him starting in the last 12 months compared to just 50 per cent without him. He is not, however, the sole reason for their new-found success. They have also established a resolve they did not have before. They kept a clean sheet in victory at the Etihad in January and they drew 0-0 with Chelsea in April. In all competitions, they have only conceded more than once in two games in 2015: the north London derby defeat at White Hart Lane and the 3-2 FA Cup win over Brighton.A Premier League table for 2015 has Arsenal on top. They have scored with frequency (37 goals in 19 games) but their success is built on their incredible defensive record. A record of 13 goals shipped this year is a full five fewer than any other side. And at Wembley on Sunday they again showed how far they have come. They became the first team to stop Chelsea from scoring at the new Wembley in 14 games there. They restricted their opponents to just two shots on target; the first an Oscar free-kick in the 69th minute, the second a tame, looped Kurt Zouma header five minutes later. Arsenal's high line worked wonders with captain Per Mertesacker keeping the defence in perfect unison throughout. On six occasions a player was caught offside in Sunday's clash. All six were Chelsea players as Loic Remy (who was responsible for four of those) tried - but failed - to get in behind.
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