Jamie Carragher branded ‘an absolute mess’ following their shambolic first half performance against Arsenal.
The Gunners, whose confidence had taken a pummeling following a run of four games without a win, made three changes to their starting XI and Mikel Arteta’s changes appeared to breathe new life into the team.
With making his first start, restored to the midfield engine room and Leandro Trossard starting into attack, Arsenal ripped into their opponents from the off.
Indeed, the only surprise was that it took 18 minutes for the home side to take the lead after Martin Odegaard hammered Granit Xhaka’s pull-back home via the underside of the crossbar.
Chelsea clearly hadn’t learned their lesson as the same duo combined to score near identical goal just past the half hour mark with Odegaard again steering home past an exposed Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Frank Lampard, who had already overseen five successive defeats, could hardly believe what he was witnessing and it got worse three minutes later when Gabriel Jesus lashed home from close range after more shambolic defending.
‘Absolutely superb from Arsenal and absolutely shocking from Chelsea,’ roared Jamie Carragher from his position in the Sky Sports commentary box.
‘This club is an absolute mess right at this moment.’
Those sentiments were echoed by his regular partner Gary Neville, who admitted he had got his pre-match prediction badly wrong.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘I actually fancied Chelsea pre-match with Arsenal having had a difficult couple of weeks! But they’ve played Arsenal back into confidence. Shambles!’
Former Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, meanwhile, accused Lampard’s players of falling asleep on three separate occasions during an astonishing opening 45 minutes.
He said: ‘I think Arsenal have been very good, on the front foot and hustling very well. They’ve forced errors and capitalised, creating some very good chances.
‘Chelsea fell asleep on three occasions, the defending was very poor.
‘Arsenal deserve to be 3-0 up, Chelsea have a lot of work to do. They’re a million miles off it.’
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