Ken Early: Arsenal’s advantage over Chelsea is that they are a football team, not a trading portfolio

Morgan Rogers scoring for Chelsea in the second minute at the Emirates was exactly the kind of start Arsenal supporters did not want to see. It was even more irritating because Rogers had seemed destined to become Mikel Arteta’s main summer signing.

Arsenal delayed while pursuing Vinícius Júnior and Julián Alvarez, deals that never materialised. Chelsea then stepped in and took Rogers from under their noses. He may not yet be a forward in the class of Vinícius or Alvarez, but the 6ft 2in attacker has the profile of a classic Arteta player: powerful, capable of scoring and creating, and still willing to follow his coach’s instructions.

Chelsea could use Rogers as an outlet for Emiliano Martínez’s long clearances. That offered a glimpse of what Arsenal might have gained. Vinícius, already an established superstar, would have presented a more difficult management challenge after his reported clashes with Xabi Alonso’s tactics at Real Madrid.

Arsenal’s failure to add attackers beyond Christos Tzolis had already unsettled supporters. Rogers then appeared to rub salt into the wound by opening the scoring. But Arsenal responded immediately. They overwhelmed Chelsea for the next 20 minutes, hit the target six times and had a Riccardo Calafiori goal ruled out for offside before Kai Havertz equalised from the edge of the box.

The goal raised questions about Martínez, who had arrived after Chelsea lost patience with Robert Sánchez following his poor performance against Fulham. Martínez is respected as a big personality, but his reflexes did not look equal to his reputation in this match. Gabriel’s challenge, which saw him kick Martínez in the head during a goalmouth scramble, could have brought a straight red card. The officials’ leniency was the only fortunate element of Arsenal’s victory.

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the energy in this place, the anxiety