Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-0 to go top of the EPL table

In an exciting London derby, Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium. With this win, Chelsea retained the top spot on the Premier League table and kept a 5-point lead on second place Manchester United.

Arsenal's second consecutive defeat, following the loss to Sunderland, saw them go 11 points behinds Chelsea although the Gunners do have a game in hand. Arsene Wenger's young team, who was unfortunate to have lost many key players through injury including their highest goal scorer this season Robin Van Persie and Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner, as usual showed great promise and looked threatening at the start of the game. They couldn't, however, penetrate the Chelsea strong backline and in the early minutes of the game, Bacary Sagna's challenge on Nicholas Anelka could have resulted in a penalty in Chelsea's favour.

As the game progressed, Arsenal, who is far from the strongest team defensively and who has struggled to keep clean sheets all season, was punished by former player Ashley Cole for their weak defense and for the boos from the Emirates crowd by curling a great pass to Ivorian striker Didier Drogba who guided it into the top corner in the 41 minute.

Three minutes later, Ashley Cole sent another great ball into the box which was turned in to his an own net by Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen. In the 86th minute Chelsea struck again through a stunning Drogba free-kick from 25 yards. Arsenal came close to scoring through Andrei Arshavin in the 49th minute when the Russian striker slammed a shot home in the 49th minute.

The referee, Andre Marriner, disallowed the goal because of a high challenge made by Eduardo in the box on Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.The last time Arsenal was beaten at home was by Chelsea in May and despite five free-scoring wins at the Emirates Stadium this season, the Blues once again proved to be too strong for the team from north London. Even Arsenal's introduction of Theo Walcott to inject pace into the game did not help the Gunners get a desirous result as Chelsea backline remained impenetrable, leaving the Arsenal fans heartbroken and the players frustrated.