10 years ago one of the most memorable games in Premier League history took place
A special afternoon for Arsène Wenger ended in a nightmare against José Mourinho. There was a rout, an expulsion that would never happen with VAR and a certain Egyptian striker made his debut in England
March 22, 2014: a special day for Arsène Wenger. The coach of Arsenal , where he had been for 18 years, reaches his thousandth game in charge of the Gunners . The opponent was rivals Chelsea , coached by José Mourinho. To say that the two coaches don’t love each other is an understatement. Just a month before this duel, the Portuguese said about the Frenchman: «He is an expert in failure. I am not.”
Regarding the game, in the first 15 minutes of it, nothing could have gone worse for Arsenal. Samuel Eto’o (5′) and André Schurrle (7′) scored, and then Kieran Gibbs was sent off for a handball by… Oxlade-Chamberlain. The match referee confused the two players and sent off the wrong one.
Chamberlain told judge Andre Mariner that he was the one who committed the penalty. He was not convinced and maintained his decision. In any case, Hazard didn’t waste the opportunity to make it 3-0.
A brace from Oscar confirmed the victory, before Mohamed Salah scored the last goal of the match and his first in England and for Chelsea, after the club paid 16 million euros for the player to Basel. in the previous January.
Salah would not be happy in London, leaving for Roma through the small door in 2016. Hardly anyone would say that, 10 years after that first goal, the Egyptian would have become a Liverpool star , with 154 goals scored in the Premier League .
After his 1000th game at Arsenal ended, Wenger was quite disappointed at the press conference: «It was a nightmare and I take full responsibility. We are all disappointed.”
Mourinho, on the other hand, was just like himself. He left the bench before the game ended to, according to him, tell his wife the result of the match: «My wife is waiting for me to call her and she always has doubts. If I can give you the result two minutes earlier, I will.”
Arsenal would finish the championship in 4th place, one place behind Chelsea, who would take the title from Liverpool with three rounds to go, thanks, in part, to Steven Gerrard’s famous slip. The champion would be Manchester City .
