FA Premier League
ARSENAL 3 (Odegaard 18, 31, Jesus 34)
CHELSEA 1  (Madueke 65)

ARSENAL may have seen Manchester City’s financial muscle prove to be a Premier League challenge too far, but the Gunners have delivered a season full of memorable moments – which now include home and away wins against big-spending Chelsea.

This simple victory at the Emirates tonight (Tuesday0 may go down as one of the easiest of the season as London’s sixth club – this is where Chelsea have slipped to in the table – struggled to land a punch on Mikel Arteta’s team in a first half in which the game was speedily settled with three goals.

Martin Odegaard got things started when he angled a first time shot in off the crossbar after 18 months. The goalscoring captain had been played in by Granit Xhaka with a pass threaded through a disorganised Chelsea back line.

Xhaka was the provider again on the half hour mark, but again Odegaard, however smart his finish was, had been afforded far too much room by the sloppy visitors.

Chelsea could not get the basics right three minutes later when Gabriel Jesus put the game to bed by capitalising on indecision to fire past goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.

In truth, Arsenal should have added a fourth, a fifth or maybe gone higher had they been more ruthless. Bukaya Saka fired wide in the second half, while Arrizabalaga twice repelled shots from Odegaard.

Then came the Gunners’ own sleepiness, perhaps complacent at how easy the fixture had become. During this snooze, Noni Maudeke broke away to score a consolation goal. A late Chelsea rally may have edged the nerves given recent results for Arsenal and the surrender of two goal leads at Liverpool and West Ham United, but Frank Lampard’s team hardly fashioned a chance to frighten Aaron Ramsdale in the home goal again.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the former Arsenal player now at Chelsea, did not reappear for the second half, departing after less than ten touches of the ball.

This, remarkably, is Lampard’s sixth defeat in his six games since returning to Chelsea’s dugout following the dismissal of Graham Potter and then the one match stand-in Bruno.

The result moves Arsenal back into first place in the table with four more matches left to play – starting with a testing trip to Newcastle United on Sunday.

But City only trail by two points and have two games in hand. They could be four points up on Arsenal, away and clear, before the team in red and white kick a football in anger again.

Arteta said afterwards: “Everything was fluid, with a lot of movement, we played forward, we were really aggressive, scored some great goals and really connected with our supporters and created an atmosphere that we wanted.”

A possible injury to Gabriel in defence – he left the pitch hurt – was a big concern, the manager added. He is already without arguably the club’s best defender, William Saliba.

Lampard said: “We didn’t restrict space between the lines, we didn’t pressure the ball, we didn’t make contact with Arsenal players. Then on the ball, same. Passing short, passing to ourselves in bad positions, not playing longer, not making forwards runs, all the things that we talked about. Play like that, you get what you get..”

ARSENAL: Ramsdale, White, Zinchenko, Gabriel, Kiwior, Jorginho (Partey 86), Xhaka, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard, Jesus
Subs not used: Nketiah, Smih Rowe, Turner, Vieira
CHELSEA: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Chilwell, Thiago Silva, Fofana (Chalobah 86), Kante, Fernandez, Kovacic, Madueke (Ziyech 79), Sterling, Aubameyang
Subs not used: Badiashile, Joao Felix, Loftus-Cheek, Mendy