Arif Aiman produced another eye-catching performance against European opposition as Johor Darul Ta’zim held Chelsea to a 3-3 draw at Sultan Ibrahim Stadium.
Captaining JDT, the Malaysian international opened the scoring after 14 minutes. Marcos Guilherme broke forward and supplied Arif, who finished with his right foot from the right side of the six-yard box.
The goal was far from his only contribution. Five minutes later, Arif created an opportunity for Shahab Zahedi following another fast break. Shortly before half-time he set up Nacho Méndez for a shot that forced a save from Chelsea goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe.
Arif remained dangerous after the break. He tried his luck from outside the box in the 67th minute and, deep into stoppage time, came within inches of ending the night with two goals. Bérgson found him inside the six-yard box, but substitute goalkeeper Gaga Slonina saved his close-range effort.
JDT briefly led 3-2 late in the game before a Cristian Glauder own goal made it 3-3.
A familiar story against European opposition
This is not the first time Arif has found the net against a well-known European club in a friendly.
In November 2022, he scored JDT’s goal in a 4-1 friendly defeat to Borussia Dortmund. A few months later, in February 2023, he scored the only goal as JDT beat Lokomotiv Moscow 1-0 in Dubai.
Chelsea provides the latest addition to that list.
There is, of course, an important caveat. This was a pre-season friendly rather than a competitive match, and Chelsea fielded a heavily rotated side. Even so, their starting XI included established and highly rated players such as Tosin Adarabioyo, Aaron Anselmino, Geovany Quenda, Jamie Gittens, Estêvão, Nicolas Jackson and Liam Delap.
For Arif, the noteworthy part was therefore not simply having “scored against Chelsea”. His performance contained several of the qualities that have made him one of Southeast Asia’s standout attacking players: speed on the counter, movement into dangerous areas, creativity for teammates and the ability to repeatedly threaten the opposition goal.
One friendly cannot establish how a player would perform at Premier League or European level. But producing a goal, creating chances and nearly scoring again against Chelsea is still another interesting entry on Arif Aiman’s increasingly unusual résumé.
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