Chelsea were condemned to defeat for the second time in a row in the Premier League, responding poorly from their home defeat at the hands of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool last week.
They travelled to the Emirates Stadium without a win in two games and Antonio Conte keen to get back to winning ways and keen to keep pace with Premier League pace-setters Manchester City, who he had earlier seen win 3-1 at Swansea.
However, things went horribly wrong for the Blues, and they went 1-0 down just eleven minutes into the contest. Gary Cahill was caught in possession by Alexis Sanchez, who used his pace to pick up the lose call before calmly chipping the ball over Courtois and into the back of the Chelsea net.
It was 2-0 to the Gunners just a few minutes later when Eden Hazard failed to track Hector Bellerin, who found himself in-behind the defence. He produced a low cross to Theo Walcott, who finished the move off well.
Chelsea did come into the game a little more after going two goals down, but they were caught on the break by Arsenal shortly before the break. Alexis Sanchez delivered the ball over to Mesut Ozil, whose slightly scuffed shot found its way into the back of the net.
Gary Cahill produced one of his worst performances of the season in the 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, and fans have taken to Twitter to express their anger at his and the rest of the back four’s performances at the Emirates.
Cahill having a awful season so many errors no bandwagon blaming Luiz please we all new a world class centre back was needed #cfc #chelsea
— Dave Spicer (@smsdjcs) 24 September 2016
kante-matic combination is as terrible as luiz-cahill combination
— Adedayo (@Okladee) 24 September 2016
Cahill was dropped in our title winning season by January, How has the club stood by him? This isn’t new that he’s been terrible
— EL PATRON (@StringerFooty) 24 September 2016
Antonio Conte thought he could change Gary Cahill into Andrea Barzagli. But Gary Cahill turned Antonio Conte into AVB ?
— Gau (@ConteBeBothered) 24 September 2016
Cahill and david luiz is a terrible combination especially with a catastrophic ivanovic i hope conte learns from this @ChelseaFC
— BOYSTONER (@boystoner_music) 24 September 2016
Time to bench Ivanovich for good. Kante was awful along with Cahill and Matic.
— Arpit Roy (@Roy_C4L) 24 September 2016
I do feel sorry for Conte looked like he wanted to cry in second half if Cahill was a race horse he’d be shot
— Luke cfc Thompsett (@LukeThompsett) 24 September 2016
Cahill was of course caught on the ball and at fault for the first goal, and his display looked shaky throughout. Despite winning 67% of his aerial duels, Cahill managed only two clearances in the whole ninety minutes.
The most shocking thing of all, especially for a centre-back, was that he didn’t win a single tackle. 0% of his tackles were won, nor did the Englishman make one interception.
It was an afternoon to forget for Gary Cahill, and he will be hoping that he is not dropped by Antonio Conte in the near future.