Arsenal 5-0 Chelsea
by Layth Yousif 

ARSENAL thrashed an underwhelming Chelsea side to consolidate top spot in the Premier League on a raucous evening in north London.

Mikel Arteta’s rampant Gunners routed the Blues to move three points clear of second-place Liverpool, and four points clear of Manchester City in third place, albeit having played a game, and two games more respectively.

An early strike from Leandro Trossard settled any opening nerves, before Ben White made it 2-0 after the break — prior to a brace from Kai Havertz making it a rout for Arsenal over their London rivals on a joyous evening in N5. White then grabbed a second to make it 5-0 on 70 minutes as Arsenal savoured being top dogs in the capital once more.

Trossard and Havertz’s strikes also ensured both players reached 10 league goals for the season, to make it three Gunners players after Bukayo Saka on double figures — no mean feat, as the home side also broke through 100 strikes for the season in all competitions to register their biggest-ever victory against Chelsea across all competitions stretching back to 1907.

Arteta said afterwards: “A big performance, collectively and individually. I thought we were really good against a really good team that was in great form, and they were going to ask us a lot of questions, and we responded really well.”

After only 240 seconds, Trossard fired home after a driving run by Declan Rice as the Gunners took an early lead in Islington.

Shortly afterwards Nicolas Jackson shocking challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu prompted angry questions on how Jackson avoided a straight red — let alone yellow — card for his potential leg-breaker on the Japanese international.

Thankfully Tomiyasu eventually dusted himself down — and shortly afterwards attempted to angle a header past Petrovic in the Chelsea goal but his header flew over from Martin Odegaard’s cross.

In a reminder of the Blues threat — not unsurprisingly considering Mauricio Pochettino’s squad cost more than £1bn to assemble — Axel Disasi nearly got on the end of Benoit Badiashile’s flick in a crowded box, but the Chelsea right-back narrowly missed touching the ball into the next on 18 minutes.

Two minutes later Rice, who must surely now be a contender for player of the year, fired narrowly over after a spell of dominance by Arsenal.

On 26 minutes a brace of brilliant saves from Petrovic kept Chelsea in the game. The 24-year-old keeper reacting well to keep out Havertz’s strike low down to his left. Moments later, Trossard inadvertently deflected the ball, but Petrovic blocked to keep the score 1-0.

Just before the half-hour mark, Noni Madueke’s low cross reached Marc Cucurella at the far post, but White blocked the shot. The ball then dropped to Enzo Fernandes, who drilled a low shot inches wide of the upright.

As Arsenal hunted a second which would have killed off the game, Petrovic blocked from Rice moments after the break, prior to Odegaard shooting over shortly afterwards. The Chelsea keeper then saved smartly from Havertz, as the home side pressed for a crucial second goal.

The pressure had to tell eventually, and on 52 minutes White fired past Petrovic to make it 2-0 as the stadium erupted — as much in relief as joy.

Five minutes later Havertz made it 3-0 with a superb finish into the roof of the net, as the Gunners emphatically took control.

Havertz then grabbed his second on 65 minutes for 4-0, before White made it 5-0 with 20 minutes remaining with a cross-cum-shot. It was with refreshing honesty the player admitted afterwards: “I think I was pretty shocked to be fair when it went in … I got a bit of luck. It’s just one of those, isn’t it? I tried to get it back across goal and it went in the net.”

As the clock ticked down, all that was left was for the jubilant home support to savour the fact that after 20 long years in London football, a power shift in capital football has finally and emphatically returned the title of top dogs to north London.

Judging by this rampant display from such a young, hungry Arsenal team — destined to challenge for top honours for the rest of this decade it seems — this brave new world will be a long era in favour of red and white.

As Chelsea’s increasingly beleaguered boss, Pochettino admitted afterwards: “When we are bad, we are really bad.”