England triumvirate Kelly Smith, Karen Carney and Alex Scott were all on target as Arsenal maintained the upper hand on London rivals Chelsea.

Vic Akers' side beat the Blues 4-0 in their League Cup Semi-Final before Christmas and would have repeated that scoreline in the Premier League but for a late consolation from Duna Susi. Nonetheless, it was another satisfying win against the team Lianne Sanderson and Anita Asante left Arsenal for last summer.

Arsenal Ladies

1
Byrne
2
Scott Goal!
3
Grant
4
White
5
Fahey
6
Carney Goal!
7
Ludlow
8
Chapman 75
9
Little
10
Davison 70
11
Smith 65 Goal!

Substitutes

12
Ross 75
13
Yankey 70
14
Lander 65

Chelsea Ladies

1
Siobhan Chamberlain
2
Siobhan Chamberlain
3
Davies
4
Perry 75
5
Asante
6
Stoney
7
Lamb 82
8
Chaplin
9
Buet
10
Dunia Susi
11
Dunia Susi Goal!
12
Aluko
13
Sanderson

Substitutes

14
Rafferty 75
15
Jane 82

Chelsea took the game to Arsenal in a lively opening and twice went close to breaking the deadlock. But the Gunners were soon on top and brought the best out of Siobhan Chamberlain as the Chelsea keeper denied Kim Little and Carney.

Arsenal's momentum grew and they took the lead after 27 minutes. Smith darted into the box off the right flank and weaved her way past two defenders before coolly slotting the ball past Chamberlain.

Three minutes later the lead was doubled when Carney exploited space in the Chelsea defence to put Arsenal firmly in the driving seat.

In the second half the Gunners pressed home their advantage and a mistake led to their third goal. Scott crossed from the right, Chamberlain failed to hold the ball and it dropped into the net.

Chelsea showed resolve to come back into the game through Susi as the forward took a long ball past keeper Emma Byrne before showing great composure to score from a tight angle.

But Scott made the result certain for Arsenal with six minutes remaining, latching onto a fine cross from Rachel Yankey to slot home.

Arsenal now turn their attention back to the FA Women's Cup this weekend with a away trip to Middlesbrough on Sunday.

Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 19 Jan 2009