Arsenal vs. Chelsea, friendly: Half-time report

A slightly sloppy, but overall quite fun first half from Chelsea at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, with goals from Willian and Batshuayi, strong play from the likes of Moses and Kanté, and plenty of drive and effort and fitness on display.

The only real negative is David Ospina punching out yet another Chelsea player. This time it wasn’t Oscar who was concussed by Arsenal’s goalkeeper but rather tiny Pedro, who made way for Jeremie Boga after that incident.

It really should be 3-0 after Chelsea’s opener was miles onside but was ruled out anyway. A wonderful passage of playing leading to a corner, from which another wonderful passing move found Batshuayi all alone in front of goal. But either he or Fàbregas on the pass before was ruled offside, wrongly.

But Chelsea got the proper rewards for an enterprising first half show, with goals from Willian (his fourth of the pre-season already) and Batshuayi within a minute of each other setting the half-time score.