Andy Townsend has suggested that Chelsea were lucky not to have one of their key players sent off last night against Arsenal.
The Gunners enjoyed one of their best wins of the season after thrashing their London rivals Chelsea 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium, with Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz and Ben White on the scoresheet for Mikel Arteta’s side.
With the north London side now three points clear at the top of the table at the time of writing, last night’s win could not have come at a better time against a more perfect opponent, with the mood around Arsenal now at an all-time high.
And things could have gone even better for Arsenal had one Chelsea player seen red.
Nicolas Jackson lucky to escape red card after challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu
Speaking on commentary for the match, Townsend noted that Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson was lucky not to have been sent off in the opening half after the Senegal international went in rashly on Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu.
With VAR again under the spotlight this week, the decision to not turn to the technology raised eyebrows on Tuesday as Jackson escaped what many thought was a red card, with Tomiyasu lucky to come away from the tackle unscathed.
And Townsend also agrees that Jackson might have been lucky to come away without a dismissal, with the pundit admitting that the tackle was a rash one on Tomiyasu and one that looked painful when slowed down.
Townsend said: “That’s a sore one, it’s a bad challenge. When you see it in slow-motion it looks even worse, that’s how you can get red cards if the officials want to look at something, but thankfully for Jackson that’s not the case.”
Arsenal could have set records if Chelsea went down to 10-men
Arsenal didn’t need Jackson to come off for the Gunners to secure a historic 5-0 win against Chelsea, with the north London side going up another gear in the second-half and outplaying their Premier League rivals off the park.
Yet things could have been much different for Arsenal had Jackson been sent off, with the extra man advantage potentially giving Arteta’s side the edge needed to set some truly astonishing records against Chelsea.
However, it was to be 11 vs 11 for the entire contest, and Arsenal showed who truly is the biggest and best team in London with one of the most convincing performances of the entire season.