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Premier League leaders Arsenal held by 10-man Chelsea Mikel Merino heads Arsenal level after Trevoh Chalobah opener Moises Caicedo sent off in first half after VAR review of foul on Mikel Merino Gunners end weekend five points clear at top, Chelsea are third Press 'Get involved' to have your say Emlyn Begley Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say Does Merino need to be in the conversation for most under-the-radar quality signing? He has been fantastic since coming to Arsenal. Tom, Edinburgh Is Merino a surprise goal machine? He scores hat-tricks for Spain! Jamie, Frankfurt Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Declan Rice's headed clearance hits Marc Cucurella and goes out for a goal-kick. Worked out well for the lad. Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Alex Howell BBC Sport football reporter at Stamford Bridge It's great play form Saka to set up Merino. Cucurella cannot get close to him now he's on a yellow. Merino does it again for Arsenal up top. He's scored some big goals when playing there. Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard goes down holding his head as Pedro Neto takes the corner so the referee says to retake. Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Lovely run by Pedro Neto to carry the ball into the box where he's tackled by Piero Hincapie. Corner. Can Chelsea do it again? Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Pat Nevin Former Chelsea winger on BBC Radio 5 Live at Stamford Bridge First time Saka's gone past Cucurella. Cucurella can't dive in, he's on a yellow card, and it's a a beautiful ball - incredibly hard to do anything about. Arsenal had two against one at the back post and nothing Chelsea can do. 1-1 - we shall see if Chelsea's strength is enough. That's completely changed everything. Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Chelsea and Arsenal have scored more headers than any other Premier League teams this season - eight each (including both goals today). Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal Marc Cucurella rolling around now. Chelsea seem uncertain whether to play on, but they do. Mikel Merino Arsenal are level as surprise goal machine Mikel Merino powers in a close-range header from Bukayo Saka's clipped-in cross. Half an hour now to get a winner against 10 men. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Pat Nevin Former Chelsea winger on BBC Radio 5 Live at Stamford Bridge It's a bit of a disappointment but Declan Rice is so, so deep. He's spent most this second half at centre-back. Is he injured? Is something wrong? He's not getting forward, you're a goal down and a man up, go forward - that's what you're good at Declan Rice. Unless he's been told to be a little more negative but that should not be the case. Declan Rice has so much more to offer. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Arsenal have received five yellow cards - their most in a Premier League game since February 2024 vs Liverpool (six). Two of those booked players are off the pitch now. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Noni Madueke is booed on as he replaces Gabriel Martinelli. Martin Odegaard is on for Martin Zubimendi. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Noni Madueke said he didn't know what reception he'd receive today if he played. We're about to find out. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Alex Howell BBC Sport football reporter at Stamford Bridge Mikel Arteta is turning to his finishers. Noni Madueke and Martin Odegaard are getting ready to come on. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Declan Rice heads away the corner. Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say If Chelsea win - I hope they do - this could be the start of a fabulous couple of months over the festive season, where the Premier League title race really hots up. I feel the title could be won by any six teams this year. Andrew, Blyth Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Alejandro Garnacho wins a corner off Declan Rice. Chelsea fans are making an awful lot of noise as you'd expect. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Chelsea send on Liam Delap for Joao Pedro up front. Tactical I think. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Yet another Arsenal yellow card as Myles Lewis-Skelly bundles over Reece James to stop a Chelsea counter. Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal Chelsea are about to bring Liam Delap on. A targetman to relieve the inevitable pressure? At a glance Moises Caicedo sent off after 38 minutes, Chelsea's sixth red card of the season in all competitions, Trevoh Chalobah's header from corner opens scoring for 10-man Blues Mikel Merino equalises in second half as Arsenal go five points clear at top Cole Palmer returns from injury as 10-man Chelsea hold on PLAYER RATER Makeshift striker Mikel Merino scored a crucial equaliser against 10-man Chelsea as Arsenal moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League table. The game's big moment came in the 38th minute, when Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo was sent off following a video assistant referee review for a late tackle that connected with Merino's shin - his side's sixth red card of the season. But 10-man Chelsea took the lead shortly after half-time when Trevoh Chalobah's flicked header from a corner looped over David Raya and into the bottom corner. Arsenal levelled 11 minutes later when Spain international Merino headed in Bukayo Saka's in-swinging cross at the far post. There were seven yellow cards to add to Caicedo's red in a tense, feisty contest as Chelsea dominated much of the first half, with Estevao Willian having two good chances. Arsenal were without first-choice centre-backs Gabriel and William Saliba for only the second time since 2021 and their only real effort of the first half fell to Saka, who fired at Robert Sanchez at the near post. The dismissal was a turning point and it came when VAR John Brooks advised referee Anthony Taylor to upgrade Caicedo's yellow card to red after his studs caught Merino above the ankle - a decision confirmed following a pitchside review. Chelsea continued to attack, however, after introducing Alejandro Garnacho at half-time, with Reece James first setting up Joao Pedro's close-range header - well saved - before delivering the cross for Chalobah's deft headed goal. However, Saka got the better of Marc Cucurella - who fouled him four times and was booked - to cross for Merino to equalise at the far post. Despite being a man down, Chelsea created the best chances to win it through Pedro Neto, substitute Liam Delap and Wesley Fofana. Merino went closest to an Arsenal winner with an edge-of-the-box strike, while Saka's long-range effort was their only other real threat in the second half. The draw means Arsenal move five points clear of second-placed Manchester City while Chelsea are a further point back in third. The Gunners are now unbeaten in 17 games in in all competitions, stretching back to 30 August. Rate players out of 10 for this game. The rater will close 30 minutes after the final whistle. You must be signed in to a BBC account to play. After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users. Chelsea face back-to-back away league matches at Leeds on Wednesday and Bournemouth on Saturday. Arsenal host Brentford on Wednesday and have a trip to Aston Villa on Saturday in the Premier League. Have your say on Chelsea's performance What did you make of Arsenal’s display? Comments can not be loaded To load Comments you need to enable Java Script in your browser Last Updated 30th November 2025 at 18: 26 Please Note: All times UK. Tables are subject to change. The BBC is not responsible for any changes that may be made. Manager: Enzo Maresca Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 Manager: Mikel Arteta Formation: 4 - 3 - 3 Manager: Enzo Maresca Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 Manager: Mikel Arteta Formation: 4 - 3 - 3 Premier League All competitions All competitions All competitions Chelsea have won just one of their last 11 Premier League games against Arsenal (D3 L7) and are winless in seven (D2 L5) since a 2-0 win at the Emirates in August 2021. Having lost six of their seven Premier League away games against Chelsea between 2013 and 2018 (D1), Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last six visits to Stamford Bridge (W3 D3). This is just the fifth time Arsenal have faced Chelsea while top of the table in the Premier League, with the Gunners winning each of the previous four – 3-2 in January 2003 (h), 2-1 in February 2004 (a), 1-0 in December 2007 (h) and 5-0 in April 2024 (h). Just 43. 5% of Chelsea’s Premier League points this season have come in home games (10/23), with only Tottenham (28%) earning a lower share of their points at home. Chelsea have opened the scoring in each of their last seven Premier League games. It’s their longest run of scoring first since April 2024 (also 7), a run that was ended by a 5-0 loss against Arsenal. Since the start of 2022-23, Arsenal have lost just three of their 40 London derby matches in the Premier League (W28 D9), with just one of those defeats coming away from home (1-2 vs Fulham in December 2023).   Mikel Arteta’s first defeat as Arsenal manager came against Chelsea in his second game in charge in December 2019. Despite this, the Spaniard has the third highest Premier League win rate against the Blues (58. 3% - 7/12) of any manager to take charge of 10+ games against them, behind Pep Guardiola (61. 1%) and Kenny Dalglish (76. 9%). With two goals and five assists, Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard has been involved in more Premier League goals against Chelsea than any other opponent (7). He and teammate Gabriel Magalhães have also never lost in eight games against them (W6 D2), with only Patrick Vieira facing the Blues more often without defeat in the competition (10). Chelsea’s Pedro Neto has been involved in five goals in his last five Premier League games (3 goals, 2 assists), and is looking to score in three in a row for the first time. The Portuguese has also been involved in three goals in his last four starts against Arsenal (2 goals, 1 assist), netting the Blues’ equaliser in this exact fixture last season. Only against Liverpool (6) has Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard scored more Premier League goals than he has against Chelsea (4). His next goal will be his 50th in the Premier League, and he will be the fifth Belgian to reach this milestone after Romelu Lukaku (121), Christian Benteke (86), Eden Hazard (85) and Kevin De Bruyne (72). Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.