5 Reasons Why Arsenal Got So Humiliated Against Chelsea

4. The Curious Case of Mistaken Identity

When you give the wrong player a red card, it's as good as kicking the whole team while they're down, especially so for the player who was supposed to be sent off. After Andre Marriner's embarrassing mistake, yes, Arsenal are still playing with 10 men, but only 9 were considered mentally in the game. Like what commentator Peter Drury said, "Chamberlain is mentally disturbed". His performance after the incident was for everyone to see. It was poor. He lost his focus and his concentration levels just plummeted sensationally, before Wenger put him out of his misery during the half time interval, bringing on Flamini in place of the English midfielder. During the agonising defeat against Liverpool not a long time ago, the Ox was on fire, taking on defenders and speeding down the flanks at dazzling speeds. In this match, he started the match rather brightly, taking on defenders as usual, although his contributions were severely restricted by his teammates' poor positioning. With his mind out of the game, the fastest Arsenal player on the pitch was not a reliable option to send the ball to anymore. Not only that, Arsenal also had to deal with the loss of another speedy player, Kieran Gibbs. His departure meant that counter attacks via the flanks were not an option anymore, and with the flanks closed, the Gunners's attack fizzled out naturally. Factoring out these players, there's only nine players to face Chelsea's bullish squad. Nine players with very low morale, who ironically managed to defend better prior to Gibbs being sent off. It was always going to be a disaster. Some folks might argue that either way, Arsenal will be reduced to 10 men. Jose Mourinho chipped in, claiming that "the mistake did not have a significant impact on the outcome of the game". But perhaps, the harsher reality that most people fail to see, is that the mistake killed off the game for Arsenal. The whole team simply switched off for the rest of the half.