They are childhood friends from San Sebastian, who played football on Playa de la Concha, and received eclectic football educations that were influenced by the minds of men like Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola and Rafa Benitez.
They were both fine, cultured midfielders, thinkers who were born to be distinguished coaches. They met as coaches for the first time on Sunday, dressed identically in the style of the fashionable manager, short-sleeved shirts, dark slacks and pumps with dashes of white.
But they are not in Basque Country any more. English football has them now. And on Sunday afternoon, they were swallowed up by its passions and its glories. The managers of Arsenal and Chelsea masterminded an absolute barn-burner of a game, a contest full of sound and fury and, sometimes, footballing beauty that was a credit to both of them.
At the end of the breathlessness, Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners and even at this early stage of the season, it felt significant. Chelsea had come here as pretenders to Arsenal’s throne after a swashbuckling start to their campaign but even though they did themselves credit, they could not quite keep pace with the champions.
Xabi Alonso’s side still produced some stunning attacking football and broke with lightning speed and skill. This result suggested that they will improve dramatically on their 10th-place finish last season but that they still have to take another step forward to be a match for Arteta’s side.
This Chelsea has many attributes but it cannot quite match Arsenal’s completeness. Arsenal are an eight or nine out of 10 everywhere on the field. And their substitutes are on the same level. Chelsea have weaknesses in defence and midfield that were their undoing at the Emirates and will be again. They are, at least, on an upward trajectory again.
Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso embrace before their sides played out a pulsating 90 minutes
Martin Odegaard keeps his cool to fire Arsenal’s winner early in the second half
But Arsenal look formidable. That is three wins from their first three league games now and even though they were pressed close at Villa Park last Monday and again by Chelsea, they have never looked like losing. And they have always looked like the better team. They just have too much for the rest. That is the way it looks now anyway.
It had taken Chelsea less than two minutes to take the lead. Reece James floated a free-kick into the Arsenal box and it bobbed around from head to head as the home side tried to clear it. Eventually, it fell to Morgan Rogers. Chelsea’s new £117m signing let the ball drop and then hit a controlled right-foot volley beyond the dive of David Raya. It was a precise shot but Raya would have been disappointed not to save it.
Two minutes later, Arsenal should have been level from a free-kick of their own. It was a clever routine. Martin Odegaard hit a low, skimmer of a ball to the near post where Riccardo Calafiori peeled away from his marker and got to it first. Any contact would have meant a goal but Calafiori missed it and Emiliano Martinez, a former Arsenal keeper, saved with his legs.
In the melee that followed, as the ball became stuck in a tangle of legs and prone bodies, Martinez was kicked in the head by Gabriel as they lay on the floor. Chelsea wanted a red card. Referee Chris Kavanagh demurred. Next, another melee. This time, Calafiori forced it over the line but VAR showed Ezri Konsa, making his home debut, had strayed offside.
It was a breathless opening. Martinez saved at close range from Bukayo Saka, Joao Pedro was booked for kneeing the ball away, Kai Havertz had a shot blocked by Wesley Fofana. Declan Rice went to take the resulting corner, to be greeted by ranks of Chelsea fans holding aloft inflatable replicas of the Champions League trophy, to remind Arsenal they have never won it.
The pace did not abate. Raya saved a piledriver from Joao Pedro, Havertz wasted a Chelsea breakaway with a failed flick meant for Odegaard, Joao Pedro flung himself at a slide-rule pass from Cole Palmer that eluded him by inches. And then, at the end of it all, Arsenal equalised.
Morgan Rogers clashes with his England team-mate Declan Rice during a fractious moment
The build-up was innocuous. The ball was fed to Havertz close to the right touchline. He darted inside and ran across the face of the box. He unleashed a left-foot shot that squeezed through the legs of Maxence Lacroix. Martinez got down to it and got his left hand to it but he could only push it into the corner of the net. He, too, would have been disappointed not to save it.
The half finished as it had begun. Pedro Neto raced away down the right as Arsenal’s defence desperately tried to keep pace with him. Neto cut inside on to his left foot and drilled in a shot from the edge of the area that beat the dive of Raya but cannoned off his right-hand post.
Arsenal took the lead five minutes after the break. Christos Tzolis played a low ball in from the right to Havertz. Havertz executed a sublime dummy that left Wesley Fofana rooted to the spot. The ball ran on to Odegaard, who took a touch and then lashed the ball high beyond Martinez.
Arsenal pushed for a third. Martinez saved well from a Saka curler, James headed off the line after Havertz had flicked on a near post corner and when a corner from Saka bounced off the boot of Havertz a yard from the line, it looped up in a shallow arc and landed in the hands of Martinez as he lay on the turf.
Kai Havertz levelled for the Gunners by squeezing a shot through Chelsea’s defence
Rogers got Chelsea off to the perfect start with a goal in the second minute
Now it was Chelsea’s turn to press for an equaliser. James let fly from 25 yards out and it was a measure of this redoubtable Arsenal defence that Gabriel stood resolutely in the way of it a ball hurtling towards him like a bullet and headed it away.
Raya produced a brilliant save to tip over a curling effort from substitute Estevao that was destined for the top corner and Arsenal resorted to other means to keeping Chelsea at bay, too.
Six minutes from the end, Rogers burst forward to try to get on to a pass and was brought down by a cynical trip from behind by Declan Rice. Rogers reacted angrily and there was a brief fracas before the men were pulled apart.
‘You should have signed for a big club,’ the Arsenal fans chanted at Rogers, who had been courted by Arsenal before he chose to sign for their London rivals.
Chelsea are looking like a big club again at last but they may not quite be ready to challenge Arsenal’s supremacy in the league this season.
