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After goals
from Victor Moses and Sead Kolasinac led to the game ending 1-1 after normal
time, Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata missed from 12 yards in the resulting
shootout to give Arsenal a win they probably deserved.
Arsenal
began strongly after the short trip across North London with Danny Welbeck
seeing a header comfortably saved by Courtois after meeting a floated pass from
Granit Xhaka.
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The ball was
worked to Alexandre Lacazette just inside the penalty area and although his curling
effort beat Courtois, it struck the post and went clear.
There was a
break in play after Per Mertesacker sustained a nasty cut above his eye after being
accidentally elbowed by Gary Cahill after losing the ball in the Sun, but it
benefited Chelsea who then enjoyed their best period of the opening 45 minutes.
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A minute
before the break, Alex Iwobi curled the ball straight at Courtois but both
teams deserved to go into the changing rooms on level terms after a competitive
half.
Straight
after the restart, however, Chelsea took the lead through Moses, who converted
from close range after reacting quickest to Cahill's header back into the
penalty area.
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Both teams
began to make substitutions and that hindered the flow of the game, but Arsenal
almost found an equaliser out of nowhere with 15 minutes remaining when the
fingertips of Courtois tipped a 30-yard strike from Xhaka wide of the post.
However,
after Pedro was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Elneny, Arsenal found
their leveller from the resulting free kick as Kolasinac headed into the bottom
corner from Xhaka's pass.
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Using the
new 'ABBA' method, Arsenal scored each of their four attempts, with Courtois drilling
a spot kick over the crossbar and Morata striking the outside of the post to gift
Arsene Wenger's side the win.
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