Ian Wright says two Chelsea players ‘disappeared’ during Arsenal thrashing

Ian Wright analysing Chelsea’s embarrassing defeat to Arsenal (Picture: Premier League)

Ian Wright says two Chelsea players ‘disappeared’ during the embarrassing defeat to Arsenal and reckons the entire team ‘clocked off’ early into the second half.

Chelsea suffered their heaviest ever defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday night, with Mikel Arteta’s side running out 5-0 winners to move three points clear at the top of the Premier League.

The Blues fell behind to Leandro Trossard’s early goal and then conceded four times in the second half, Ben White and former Chelsea star Kai Havertz both scoring twice.

Wright believes Chelsea practically ‘clocked off’ after going 2-0 down and says Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke ‘disappeared’ during the Emirates Stadium mauling.

Jackson and Madueke were the two players fighting Cole Palmer for a penalty during Chelsea’s 6-0 win over Everton last week and Wright says it was telling that neither of them ‘showed up’ against Arsenal.

‘We saw that big incident over the penalty, players fighting for the ball,’ he said on Premier League Productions. ‘Those two players [Jackson and Madueke] are not exactly pulling up trees with their performances.

‘They have the confidence and the cheek to do that to the best player in the team [Palmer], but when you really need them they’re not turning up. It seems to me that their minds are not on what they need to do.

Nicolas Jackson during Chelsea’s mauling at the Emirates (Picture: Getty)

‘If you’re thinking about taking a penalty off your best player when you’re 4-0 up but you come to Arsenal and you almost disappear and miss chances, there’s something wrong, there’s something massively wrong in that dressing room.’

The Gunners legend added: ‘They were fighting over the penalty which tells me they want it easy. It’s not easy, especially when you come to a place like Arsenal and you haven’t got your best player.

‘You need to show up. But they missed chances and then they clocked off at 2-0, they clocked off.’

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Chelsea visited Arsenal on an eight-game unbeaten run in the Premier League and with an outside chance of qualifying for Europe next season.

But they were blown away by the Premier League leaders and Pochettino admitted he saw his team ‘give up’ in the second half.

‘It’s not difficult to explain,’ Pochettino said. ‘Everyone saw we didn’t compete from the beginning of the game.

‘After we conceded the team was so soft. I’m so disappointed with the start because we’re supposed to have full energy and compete better.

‘We were not aggressive and we did not concentrate on situations where it is easy to find the solution. That is why I’m so disappointed.

‘When we conceded the third goal the team gave up. It was tough on them. We competed really well against Manchester City, it was a fantastic game. But then we did not compete three days later. Maybe we were not fresh.

‘It’s not fair to talk about the players we are missing. From the start of the season we have been missing so many players every single week. The team showed a lack of capacity to resist – that is what is the problem.’

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