Arsenal opened a three-point gap at the top the Premier League following a commanding 5-0 victory over rivals Chelsea on Tuesday evening.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Thomas Partey returned for the Gunners in place of Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel Jesus, with Cole Palmer out for the Blues and Mykhailo Mudryk in as Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi and Adam Gilchrist completed the rest of the changes.
Arsenal hit the opener on four minutes as a short forward-run from Leandro Trossard allowed him the time and space to pick up a pass from Declan Rice to fire in the bottom-corner.
The lead were very nearly cut minutes later through a tap-in by Disasi after a flick on from Badiashile following Mudryk’s corner, but he steered well wide from close-range.
It became a pretty end-to-end contest around the half-hour mark, with moments either side but a combination of factors in the latter third prevented them rattling the net.
Chelsea battled to find any rhythm five minutes in the second half and conceded again when Ben White latched onto a loose ball from a deflected shot by Rice and curled in.
Ex-Chelsea man Kai Havertz haunted his former employers five minutes apart as he capitalised on Martin Odegaard’s through ball to go clear and lift over the advancing Dorde Petrovic.
Havertz didn’t stop wreaking havoc but got on the front-foot once again and bagged a brace after firing into the bottom corner from a loose pass.
Chelsea were all at sea and were breached once more as Odegaard feed onto a build-up to get in space and deliver a flick-on for White to come in from the blind-side and volleyed in first-time.
With the tie firmly under control, the Gunners made a trio of alterations in Jorginho, Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli – seeing Havertz, Partey and Trossard removed.
The Gunners were happy to run down the clock, with the job long but done and wrapped the victory to go three points clear at the top of the table.
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