Chelsea put six past Arsenal to ruin Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge

Jose Mourinho's side open up seven-point gap over their London rivals with a rout at Stamford Bridge.

Arsene Wenger's 1,000th match for Arsenal went Chelsea's way as Andre Schurrle celebrates the Blues' second goal with teammates Cesar Azpilicueta, Samuel Eto'o, Oscar, Cesar Azpilicueta at Stamford Bridge on March 22, 2014 in London. Richard Heathcote / Getty ImagesShow less

CHELSEA 6 ARSENAL 0

Chelsea - Eto'o 5', Schurrle 7', Hazard 17' (pen), Oscar 42', 66', Salah 71'

Red cards - Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal)

Man of the match - Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)

LONDON // Some party. What should have been a day of celebration for Arsene Wenger became a match to be endured, any chance of winning gone in probably the most chaotic opening 20 minutes of any of his 1,000 games as Arsenal manager.

That the referee Andre Marriner managed to send off the wrong Arsenal player for handling on the line will draw some of the attention, but the fact is that even that incident came after the game was lost.

By far the greatest case of mistaken identity was in identifying Arsenal as title challengers.

This was a day of records: Jose Mourinho's biggest Premier League win and Arsenal's heaviest ever defeat at Chelsea, but for Arsenal, the pattern was all too familiar: another capitulation in a big game.

For the third time in successive away games against direct rivals for the title, Arsenal folded.

What made it worse was that to a large extent the damage was self-inflicted.

In the three away games against Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea, Arsenal have lost by an aggregate 17-4.

However efficient they have been in despatching the lesser lights, that is simply not form conducive with winning titles.

“Specialist in failure,” the Chelsea fans chanted gleefully at Wenger who has now not beaten Mourinho in 11 attempts.

“We were very good,” said Mourinho.

“We pressed very high, we started doing that: we know they want to build from the back but we pressed high immediately and received the ball, attacking the space very, very fast.”

Even he cannot have imagined quite how unsettled Arsenal would be, so much so you wonder whether the occasion as much as Chelsea’s tactics that got to them.

Arsenal have become a side that folds against the very best.

“This defeat is my fault,” said Wenger. “I take full responsibility for it. I don’t think there’s too much need to talk about the mistakes we made.

“We got a good hiding today.

“It’s how we respond now on Tuesday night [against Swansea] and the best way is not to explain too much the mistakes.

“Yes, of course it’s one of the worst days [in my career]. It’s over after 20 minutes and it’s a long game after that. You don’t prepare all week to experience that kind of experience.”

The first goal came after five minutes, Nemanja Matic dispossessing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and feeding Andre Schurrle, who nudged the ball to his right for Samuel Eto’o.

The Cameroonian stepped inside and curled a brilliant finish inside the far post.

Two minutes later it was Mikel Arteta who lost the ball to Matic, who surged forwards and play in Schurrle, whose shot went through Laurent Koscielny’s legs and in to the bottom corner.

By then panic had set in.

A neat interchange between Fernando Torres, on for the injured Eto’o, and Eden Hazard led to the Belgian shooting from close range.

His effort was heading wide, but a diving Oxlade-Chamberlain tipped the ball further off target.

Marriner gave the penalty, rightly, but mystifying sent off Kieran Gibbs even though TV replays subsequently showed Oxlade-Chamberlain clearly admitting “it was me”.

Hazard converted, and it was 4-0 by half-time as Oscar turned in Torres’s low cross from the right.

Bad got worse.

Tomas Rosicky’s misplaced pass gifted possession to Oscar, who scored with a low shot that bobbled through Wojciech Szczesny.

Then a simple dink over the top from Matic set Mohamed Salah free to score his first goal for Chelsea.

It was all too easy.

Arsenal’s resistance reduced to a level somewhere beneath a whimper.

Mourinho continued to insist his side’s chances of the title are “very small” and, while it is true that Manchester City will claim the championship if they win each of their remaining 10 games this season, the only game Chelsea have still to play against a side in the top half of the table is the one away to Liverpool.

Even in victory, Mourinho couldn’t resist a dig at the refereeing he believe cost his side in the defeat at Aston Villa last week.

“Somebody stopped our momentum,” he said.

“We are trying to build a new one.”

A 6-0 win is a pretty good way to start.

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