Finally, Arsenal have beaten Chelsea at home and it wasn’t a close affair by any means.

It was all Arsenal in the opening minutes as Chelsea made it clear that their game plan was – surprise, surprise – to sit back, absorb the pressure and hit us on the counter. This was summed up in the fourth minute by the Gunners tentatively passing around Chelsea’s area before Santi Cazorla had a shot; it was saved by Thibaut Courtois and instantly the Blues hit us on the counter and managed to get a freekick thanks to a last-ditch tackle by Laurent Koscielny.

Arsenal looked like the more nervous team at first with a couple of passes going astray. As the home team, who haven’t beaten Chelsea at home for six years (five years in general), you can imagine the players were feeling the pressure. Little did we know, it was all about to change…

Gary Cahill managed to stop Theo Walcott from getting a shot in after he surged into the box in the ninth minute. Alexis was there for the follow up but had no luck.

However, just minutes later, the same Chelsea defender cost his team as he misjudged a back pass, allowing our Chilean forward to nick the ball and go one-on-one against Courtois, who he chipped the ball over. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

The Arsenal fans in the stands barely had time to calm down before Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin and Theo Walcott combined for Theo to tap in our second goal.

It wasn’t until the 21st minute that Chelsea went close with a cross/shot from Willian. It was close and we shouldn’t have allowed it to happen but thankfully he went wide. Annoyingly, this seemed to wake up the visitors and they continued to work their way back into the game, with Willian being repeatedly given acres of space in the box. Luckily, we had Kos there to generally do his thing and block any threats.

Alex Iwobi was unreal and managed to win us a freekick just before the 30-minute mark after some stunning build-up play between him and Theo.

Unfortunately, Francis Coquelin went down after a challenge from former Arsenal man, Cesc Fabregas, and had to be subbed off for Granit Xhaka shortly after. Hopefully he’s not too badly injured as he’s improved hugely over the past couple of games.

Despite being 2-0 ahead, Arsenal continued to chase down every ball and press throughout the first half. After a couple of failed counters, we managed to score a third after Alexis and Mesut Ozil broke forward. The German may have got fortunate as smacked the ball into the ground to hard it bounced up over Courtois but he won’t care. Arsenal 3-0.

Arsenal started the second half in similar fashion with Theo Walcott breaking in tonnes of space. Sadly, his cross couldn’t quite connect with Alexis who was waiting in the area.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/779737562453778432

We continued to tear Chelsea’s defence apart, getting behind them and passing between them at speed.

Although the Blues got forward once or twice, they didn’t really ever trouble our defence or Petr Cech.

In the 74th minute, Chelsea had a chance to go one-on-one with these former ‘keeper but Hector Bellerin used his blistering pace to not only get back but put in a perfectly timed challenge as well.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/779743949317636097

Cech finally made his first save against Batshuayi in the 84th minute.

Arsenal were by far the better team throughout and it was fantastic to see. Not just going forward but at the back as well. It’s the best performance from our side for a long, long time and for it to come against a proper rival is incredible.

Hopefully, this win will give us the confidence to push on and really stage a title challenge this season.