Arsenal needed only 90 minutes and one moment of Martin Ødegaard magic to do what they’ve now done in every match this season: find a way to win. A 2-1 comeback victory over Chelsea kept the reigning champions’ unbeaten start intact, but this was far from routine — Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea gave the champions a genuine scare before Arsenal’s control eventually told.
Chelsea couldn’t have dreamed of a better opening. Just 77 seconds in, Morgan Rogers — once linked with a move to Arsenal himself — turned home a loose ball inside the box after Jorrel Hato knocked down a deep Reece James free-kick, giving the visitors a stunning early lead at the Emirates.
Arsenal responded by laying siege to the Chelsea goal. Emiliano Martínez was forced into desperate defending, and the hosts thought they’d equalized in the 12th minute when Riccardo Calafiori tapped in from close range — only for VAR to rule the goal out for offside after a scramble involving Gabriel Magalhães and a smart save from Martínez.
The equalizer did arrive, though, in the 25th minute, and it came from a familiar face for Chelsea supporters. Kai Havertz drifted inside and finished with a composed reverse effort into the bottom corner, leveling the score and continuing his habit of scoring against his former club.
Chelsea nearly regained the lead before half-time — Rogers went close again and Pedro Neto rattled the woodwork after a driving run — but it was Arsenal who struck first after the break. In the 50th minute, Havertz cleverly dummied a pass intended for him, letting the ball run through to Ødegaard, who arrived in the box and finished clinically past Martínez to put Arsenal 2-1 up.
From there, the champions took control. Chelsea pushed for an equalizer, with Malo Gusto firing over and Bukayo Saka nearly extending Arsenal’s lead at the other end, before the game’s most dramatic moment arrived in the 89th minute: a goal-bound effort from Estêvão looked destined for the top corner until David Raya produced a stunning flying save to preserve the win.
The opening stretch of this match was genuinely historic. Chelsea became the first team in Premier League history to score inside the opening five minutes of three consecutive games at the start of a season, while Rogers’ goal was the earliest Arsenal have conceded in the competition since August 2023. The pace didn’t let up — nine shots on target were recorded inside the first 25 minutes alone, a tally beaten in a Premier League match only once since 2003-04.
Havertz’s goal carried its own significance. It was his third Premier League goal against Chelsea since leaving the club, a tally bettered by only two players in the competition’s history against the Blues. For Ødegaard, the winner continued a remarkable early-season scoring run — three goals in four appearances across all competitions, compared with just one in 36 games throughout the whole of last season. Credit also goes to Christos Tzolis, whose assist for the winner extended his lead as the top assist-provider anywhere in Europe’s top ten leagues since the start of last season.
Zooming out, the result mattered just as much for what it preserved as what it produced. Arsenal remain one of only two sides — alongside Manchester City — with a perfect record after three Premier League games this season, and have now won their opening three fixtures while conceding fewer than two goals for only the third time in the club’s history. For Chelsea, the defeat ended a strong start under Alonso and stretched an unwanted run: five consecutive away Premier League defeats to the same opponent, a streak the club has suffered only once before.
This was not the routine, set-piece-powered win Arsenal fans might be used to seeing against Chelsea — it was a game the champions had to come from behind to win, against a Chelsea side that pushed them all the way. But results like this are exactly what separates title winners from pretenders: finding a way to control the game after a nightmare start, getting key contributions from Havertz and Ødegaard, and relying on Raya to make the difference when it mattered most.
Three games in, Arsenal remain unbeaten, top of the pile alongside City, and looking every inch the side defending their crown. Attention now turns to Europe, with Arsenal opening their Champions League campaign away at Napoli.
Match Facts (via Opta Analyst):
Source: Opta Analyst / Stats Perform match centre, theanalyst.com
