Arsene Wenger endured a woeful 1,000th game in charge of Arsenal as
Premier League leaders Chelsea romped to a 6-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
The
Frenchman has never tasted victory over Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and
that record continued on Saturday as Arsenal were taken apart in
embarrassing fashion.
Samuel Eto'o and Andre Schurrle capitalised on poor defending to put the hosts two goals ahead inside seven minutes.
Things
soon got worse for Arsenal as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled on the
line after 15 minutes to concede a penalty that Eden Hazard converted,
with Kieran Gibbs bizarrely sent off by referee Andre Marriner following
an apparent case of mistaken identity.
Oscar then added further
goals either side of half-time and substitute Mohamed Salah also got in
on the act to round off a day that must rank among the worst of Wenger's
lengthy tenure.
Arsenal now sit seven points behind Chelsea
having played a game more, and their dismal performance continued a
worrying trend this season in away matches against title rivals.
Wenger's
side had already suffered 6-3 and 5-1 defeats at the hands of
Manchester City and Liverpool respectively and now appear likely to
complete a ninth successive season without silverware.
Schurrle
and Eto'o were each recalled, together with David Luiz, to a Chelsea
side missing Ramires and Willian through suspension.
An unchanged
Arsenal threatened after four minutes when Olivier Giroud forced Petr
Cech into a sharp low save following a neat throughball from Tomas
Rosicky.
Yet Chelsea then moved ahead almost immediately as a
swift counter-attack ended with Schurrle switching the ball right to
Eto'o, who cut inside Oxlade-Chamberlain before curling a delightful
shot past Wojciech Szczesny.
Arsenal soon found themselves
horribly exposed once again. Nemanja Matic dispossessed Santi Cazorla
before finding Schurrle and the German forward capitalised on defenders
backing off by firing into the bottom-left corner.
Remarkably,
the visitors' first-half display had yet to reach its nadir and Hazard
added a third Chelsea goal from the penalty spot after his shot had been
handled by Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Referee Marriner chose to dismiss Gibbs for the offence, despite Oxlade-Chamberlain appearing to confess his guilt.
The
game was effectively over as a contest following the sending-off and
Chelsea pulled further clear after 42 minutes when Fernando Torres, an
early replacement for the injured Eto'o, crossed from the right for
Oscar to convert.
Neither Oxlade-Chamberlain nor Laurent
Koscielny emerged for the second half, which began with Szczesny denying
Luiz after more good work from the lively Torres.
Cazorla
dragged a shot narrowly wide on the hour mark, before another Arsenal
error led to Chelsea scoring again in the 66th minute.
A sloppy
pass from Rosicky found Oscar and the Brazilian beat Szczesny with a low
strike that the goalkeeper may feel he should have saved.
Mourinho's
men were not finished there and Salah, who had only just come on for
Oscar, made it 6-0 five minutes later, beating the offside trap to break
clear and score his first goal since arriving from Basel.
That
ensured Chelsea scored six in a Premier League game for the first time
under Mourinho, emphatically spoiling Wenger's landmark day.
No comments:
Post a Comment