Arsenal 5-0 Chelsea: Five things we noticed

Our 5-0 win over Chelsea on Tuesday produced plenty of talking points. Here’s five things we noticed…

Fast starters

We took less than four minutes to open the scoring. We had started with intent from the first whistle, and were rewarded with a well worked opener from Leandro Trossard. It was our earliest goal against Chelsea since Thierry Henry netted in the second minute back in December 2004.

It was also the 11th time this season that we have scored in the opening 15 minutes of a Premier League match, that’s more than any other side.

It was incredible that no further goals came in the opening half. We mustered 13 shots before the break – the most we’ve had in a first half against Chelsea in a Premier League match since Opta records began in 2003/04. In truth, Chelsea had their chances too. Gabriel deflected a shot onto his own post while they also had several other promising opportunities – our back four looked uncharacteristically open.

We led into the break though, and extended our record of winning when ahead at half-time in the Premier League this season (now 15 games). That equals our best ever 100 per cent record of converting half-time leads to victories (also 15 out of 15 in 2013/14).

We went up another level after the interval, scoring four more in an 18-minute flurry to record our biggest ever win over Chelsea in all competitions.

100 goals

Our first goal tonight was the 100th we have scored in all competitions this season, in our 48th match.

Leandro Trossard smashed home at the near post from Declan Rice’s pass after just four minutes, it was the Belgian’s 15th goal of his most prolific campaign to date, and his fifth in his last eight league games.

He’s our second top scorer, behind Bukayo Saka on 18. Kai Havertz (12) and Martin Odegaard (11) have also reached double figures.

We’ve now surpassed last season’s total of 103 from 49 matches, which included 88 in the Premier League – which was a club record. So far this term we have scored 82 in the Premier League, with four games left. The others have come in the Champions League (19), League Cup (2) and Community Shield (1).

It’s the 23rd time in our history we’ve reached a century – the most we’ve ever amassed was 135 way back in 193031 - and there will be an in-depth look at the milestone achievement on Arsenal.com tomorrow.

Odegaard’s vision

Martin Odegaard was once again at his creative best, and nothing summed up our skipper’s vision better than a defence-splitting pass in the 52nd minute that took out four Chelsea players to set up Havertz. The German’s shot was saved, but the resulting corner led to our second goal.

The next time Odegaard and Havertz linked up, we scored again. This time our No. 8 picked out a wonderful arcing pass, from inside his own half, into the path of the onrushing Havertz. He strode on, kept his composure and thumped home for his 11th of the season, from Odegaard’s eighth assist. The skipper’s ninth assist resulted in Ben White’s second (our fifth of the night, for those losing count).

In total he created eight chances throughout the 90 minutes, the most of anyone on the pitch and his most in any Premier League game. He also led the way in terms of touches, completed passes and passes into the final third in what was another mesmerising display from surely one of the candidates for player of the season.

Partey returns

For the first time since the Community Shield at the start of the season, Mikel Arteta selected Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard as his starting midfield three.

For Partey it was just his fifth start in the league this season, and only the second time he’d started in midfield, having played three games at right back in August. He made it to 70 minutes before being replaced by Jorginho as part of a quadruple sub once our advantage reached five.

During that time he led the way in terms of interceptions (three) and won two tackles (joint most in the side). His passing accuracy in the final third was up at 89 per cent, as he took the opportunity to show off all facets of his game.

Rice operated in a more advanced position than the Ghanaian and set up the opening goal – his sixth assist of the season. He played the full 90 minutes, had an 87 per cent pass completion rate, and never stopped running – long after the game was safe. In the last minute of injury time he tracked all the way back to calmly chest a cross back to David Raya when Chelsea broke forward. It summed up his spirit and application – it was another commanding performance from a stunning debut season in Arsenal red.

On top

Most importantly of all, our 24th league win of the season took us three points clear at the top, with four matches left to play.

We have got 77 points, just one fewer than when we won the title in 1998, and our goal difference now stands at +56, which is 12 better than Manchester City’s and 13 better than Liverpool. It’s also the best goal difference we’ve ever amassed in the Premier League era.

Liverpool, three points behind us, have five games remaining, City, a further point back, have six. Our last four matches are all on weekends: Tottenham (A), Bournemouth (H), Manchester United (A) and Everton (H).

We also have the best attacking (82 goals) and defensive (26 conceded) records in the league, and this was our 16th clean sheet. David Raya has kept 14 of those, meaning he is closing in on the Golden Glove award. Only Jordan Pickford (on 10) can possibly catch him.