There has been building speculation throughout this season as to whether either one of these London sides can wrestle the title away from the Manchester giants this season and today was a statement of intent. Both teams had racked up six goals midweek against lower tier opponents in the League Cup, and were unbeaten this season.  

John Terry started the game - as he hasn’t officially begun his four match ban for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, and he can still appeal against the charge.  Chelsea also lined up the exciting trio of Edin Hazard, Mata, and Oscar behind Torres. John Obi Mikel and Ramires took up holding roles in the middle of the park. Arsenal started their new signing Santi Cazorla, a player who has already had a huge impact in the Premier League this season. Cazorla joined Lukas Podolski in supporting Gervinho upfront. There was no room for Theo Walcott or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who both started on the bench.

Abou Diaby had the first chance of the game when he forced a save out of Petr Cech early on. However it was his last significant role of the game as he was forced off with an injury after only 17 minutes. He was replaced by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

A couple of minutes later Thomas Vermaelen fouled Hazard as he charged at the Arsenal defence. Mata’s costless kick swung in perfectly towards the back post and was met wonderfully by Torres. The Spaniard volleyed the ball perfectly from six yards, past the hapless Laurent Koscielny, and into the back of the net. A few minutes later Torres had a penalty shout when Koscielny clipped the back of his heels inside the box but referee Martin Atkinson waved play on.

Just before halftime the home side found their equaliser. Gervinho linked up excellently with Oxlade-Chamberlain to get round the Blue’s defence and it was the big Ivorian who powered his shot past Cech and brought the scores level.

Not deterred by the equaliser, Chelsea pressed hard in the second-half kick-off and it was again from a costless-kick that a goal came. Vermaelen was again at fault as he fouled Fernando Torres and it was once again Mata who stepped up to take it. The Arsenal defence were a shambles as they tried to deal with Mata’s curling costless kick and the ball somehow managed to pass through the box and into the goal. A lot of the blame has to be aimed at keeper Vito Mannone, who let slip a very soft goal.

After Chelsea’s second goal the game opened up enormously and it was end to end stuff, with Arsenal getting the better chances. Cech made two brilliant fingertip saves, first from a Podolski header, and then from substitute Olivier Giroud deflected shot.

Giroud also could have equalised for Arsenal in the 91st minute after he beat the Chelsea defence and Cech. However he went for power and his shot went wide of the gaping net. The miss means Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season, leaving them in 5th place, while Chelsea remain at the top of the table with 16 points from six games. 

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