José Mourinho's Chelsea side hosted their London rivals Arsenal, in the Premier League's early afternoon kick-off on Saturday.
In a heavily-anticipated encounter between two of the most successful managers in England's top flight, they finally shook hands - although their rivalry has only grown more fierce over the past few months.
The match was end-to-end, unpredictable and exciting; but also controversial, dramatic and full of talking points galore. Gabriel Paulista's controversial dismissal at the end of the first-half after an incident with Diego Costa escalated rather quickly, with the hosts taking full advantage of their one-man advantage to hit Arséne Wenger's men despite a solid defensive display up until then.
Second-half goals from Kurt Zouma and an unfortunate own goal from Calum Chambers - although Eden Hazard will be eager to take credit for the strike itself, sealed all three points for the Blues, in a game they dominated after the controversy leading up to half-time.
Team news
Going into Saturday's clash, a surprise was in store for the hosts. Chelsea captain John Terry was surprisingly left on the substitutes' bench, with Zouma and Gary Cahill the centre-back pairing. Fábregas started in a defensive-midfield role once more, despite it being common knowledge that he struggles to defend properly in that position.
Another surprise inclusion considering his poor form of late, was Branislav Ivanovic. The experienced Serbian full-back, who has received quite a lot of criticism over his underwhelming displays in recent weeks, started in his natural right-back slot.
As for the Gunners, they were still without Per Mertesacker at the back - meaning that Gabriel and Koscielny continued to start together once more. Aaron Ramsey reclaimed his place in the starting XI, with young Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dropping to the bench after a forgettable night in Zagreb on Wednesday.
Petr Cech returned to the fray after being rested in midweek, whilst David Ospina also sat on the substitutes' bench with the experienced Czech 'keeper returning to Stamford Bridge for the first time since his £11m summer move to their London rivals. Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerín also started, as did Theo Walcott - in place of a rather frustrating Olivier Giroud.
End-to-end affair, especially in the early exchanges
It was always going to be an intriguing encounter, all things considered. Not least the history between the two managers, but the quality of their respective squads meant the game as a spectacle would be a good one. Walcott tested the Chelsea backline early on, as he looked to get in-behind with his probing runs forward.
Cech was forced into making two successive saves to deny Pedro Rodríguez and Hazard, both with efforts from range. The match itself burst into life as both sides drove forward on the counter-attack, first Arsenal - before Zouma made an excellent sliding tackle to dispossess Walcott of the ball as he galloped past the centre-circle.
Mesut Özil looked to orchestrate things in midfield, but his excellent pass to Ramsey was sniffed out as the Welshman dithered on the ball - and was nearly punished for it, but for another important stop by Cech.
Then, the drama ensued
Arsenal had done themselves justice by getting to the half-time interval with the scores still level, which was testament to their robust method of defending Chelsea's wave of attacks towards goal. However, as the clock approached the 45th minute, drama ensued.
Diego Costa, known for his red-hot temper, was involved in an incident with Laurent Koscielny inside the box. Having made a clean tackle to deny Costa from a goal-scoring opportunity, the Spaniard reacted angrily and was seen grabbing onto the Frenchman's face - in an attempt to wrestle him to ground.
Koscielny then showed exemplary behaviour by not being provoked, instead raising his arms as to show the referee Mike Dean, what had just happened. Players crowded around, Gabriel tried to split them as Costa squared up to the centre-back, and things got extremely heated - as Costa then turned his attentions to the Brazilian, who was trying to diffuse the situation.
It seemed as if, after all of that drama, the incident was dealt with. On the contrary, it was only just getting started. The referee adjudged Gabriel to have reacted badly after Costa was arguing with him, and although the Spaniard had his hands all over the Arsenal man, it was in-fact the visitors who were down to ten-men, rather controversially too.
Arsenal needed to respond
As the second-half began, Wenger responded by making a substitution to deal with the void left by Gabriel's dismissal. Calum Chambers replaced Francis Coquelin, meaning that the visitors had consequently lost their bite in midfield - and it would be a tough challenge for Chambers to contend with.
Chelsea meanwhile, knew they needed a goal to settle their nerves - as well as that of their supporters - who were understandably weary of the threats Arsenal posed on the counter-attack.
It came shortly after the second-half began, from a set-piece. Arsenal, who are notoriously poor at dealing with free-kicks, evidently proved they haven't improved in that area of defending, with Cesc Fábregas' teasing ball finding Kurt Zouma at the back post, with a free header at goal.
Arsenal were behind, and in need of a goal from somewhere, but Chelsea continued to apply pressure toward Cech's goal. Hazard's venomous strike was parried away by his former team-mate, before Sánchez had a golden opportunity to level the scoring after pouncing on a defensive mistake inside the Chelsea box.
A mix-up between Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma allowed the Chilean a pocket of space to strike goalwards, but the 26-year-old was unable to latch onto the ball properly and connect with any power to test Asmir Begovic in the Chelsea goal - as Mourinho's men had a lucky escape.
Plenty of alterations were made by both sides, as Arsenal went in search of an equaliser whilst Chelsea were hoping to kill the game off. Santi Cazorla was given his marching orders for a sliding tackle on his compatriot, Fábregas - who certainly didn't do Cazorla any favours by rolling around on the turf after the challenge. Although replays showed there was contact, having only made a tackle before that in the game, it was a harsh punishment for the midfielder, but his protests were waved away as he trudged down the tunnel.
Now down to nine men, any momentum that Arsenal felt they had, was dramatically zapped away from them. The Blues kept hold of possession and made their opponents work to chase after the ball, before Hazard's deflected effort flashed into the bottom corner of the net - off Chambers, wrong-footing Cech in the process.
A tough defeat to take, all things considered. The players will feel injustice has been served against them, but Chelsea will not argue one bit - although you'd expect Costa to face retrospective action after his aggressive actions were not punished fairly enough.
Next up for Arsenal, you ask? Another London derby, against Tottenham in the Capital One Cup next week.