Ruthless Chelsea thrash 10-man Arsenal
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0
Oscar scored twice as 10-man Arsenal were demolished in a one-sided and somewhat bizarre derby at Stamford Bridge.
There were also goals for Samuel Eto’o, Andre Schurrle, Eden Hazard and Mohamed Salah as Premier League leaders Chelsea ran riot against Arsene Wenger’s side, who had Kieran Gibbs sent off in an apparent case of mistaken identity.
Eto’o scored after five minutes and Schurrle doubled the Blues’ lead two minutes later, before Hazard netted with a penalty after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had dived to push away a goal-bound shot with his hand.
Bizarrely, referee Andre Marriner showed the red card to a stunned Gibbs, seemingly having got the two Gunners players mixed up.
Despite Gibbs’ incandescence and Oxlade-Chamberlain insisting to Marriner that he had committed the offence, the decision stood, and once Hazard had converted from the spot the match was as good as over.
Oscar’s second of the game and January signing Salah’s first goal for Chelsea rubbed salt in the wounds of Wenger in his 1,000th game as Arsenal boss.
Wenger was even taunted with chants of “specialist in failure” from the home fans – a reference to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s recent comments about the Frenchman.
Arsenal were well beaten and even with a full team were being totally overrun in midfield.
Nevertheless, they had a golden chance to take an early lead when Tomas Rosicky’s pass put through Olivier Giroud, whose shot was tipped away by keeper Petr Cech.
It proved to be an important save, because moments later Chelsea went ahead when Schurrle surged towards the box and found Eto’o, who sent a curling left-footed shot beyond keeper Wojciech Szczesky and into the corner of the net.
Schurrle found the same corner from a similar position near the right-hand edge of the penalty area.
Nemanja Matic robbed Santi Cazorla in midfield and fed the German, who fired through the legs of Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.
Eto’o limped off after 10 minutes but his replacement, Torres, was instrumental in the third and fourth goals.
Torres linked up with Hazard, whose shot led to the penalty, and he also set up Oscar four minutes before the interval, finding space on the right and crossing for his team-mate to tidily finish from five yards out.
Oscar made it 5-0 midway through the second half, pouncing on Rosicky’s misplaced pass and scoring with a fairly tame 20-yarder Szczesny should have comfortably saved but succeeded only in palming into the net.
It was the Brazilian’s final touch before he was replaced by Salah, who beat the offside tap to collect Matic’s ball over the top and shoot past a beleaguered Szczesny.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Luiz (Mikel 72), Matic; Schurrle, Oscar (Salah 66), Hazard. Eto’o (Torres 10).
Subs not used: Schwarzer, Lampard, Ba, Kalas.
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