Chelsea thrashed Arsenal 6-0 at Stamford Bridge this afternoon and in truth it could have been by double figures.
The north Londoners were already 2-0 down before left-back Kieran Gibbs was sent packing to the stands by referee Andre Marriner.
.
However the young England player can count himself unlucky as it was his teammate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who tipped away a Eden Hazard shot on the line and not him
Hazard took the spot kick which made it 3-0.
Then the west Londoner ran root, adding a fourth before half time and two more in the second.
They remain top of the Premier League but it was the manner of their dismantling of title rivals Arsenal that suggest the blip of a the league defeat over Aston Villa is over.
This game was all about it being arsenal boss Arsene Wenger's 1,000th game in charge of Arsenal.
In the past 500 of them he has failed to win a trophy, and the league looks decidedly beyond them again.
The game started at a very high tempo with both side determined to gain the upper hand in terms of possession as soon as possible,
Wojciech Szeczeny and Peter Cech were called into action early. Cech's stop from Oliver Giround, the pick of the two.
But it was the Blues who made a sensational start through the boot of striker Samuel Eto'o.
With just five minutes on the clock, a sharp counter-attack saw the home side cut through the
Arsenal midfield. Andre Schurrle raced towards the edge of the penalty area, before laying off the perfect pass to Eto'o.
The Cameroon hit man, onside thanks to Per Mertesacker, took one touch, onto his left foot and curled a beautiful left-footer wide of the disparing dive Szczesny and into the bottom left hand corner of his net.
Two minutes later and the Chelsea fans were in dreamland as Santi Cazola was tackled in midfield.
Nemanja Matic ran through before giving the ball to the supporting Schurrle. The German cut loose from the edge of the Arsenal area with a daisy-cutter that zipped across the path of Szczesny and into the same spot behind the goal, to double the home side's lead.
Eto'o must have pulled a muscle with his goal, as he was quickly replaced by Fernando Torres.
Incredibly, Arsenal then suffered the indignity of having a man sent off, on 15minutes - wrong man. After another counter, Hazard shot a curler on goal from just inside the Arsenal penalty area., it went past Szczesny, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, behind his goalkeeper, inexplicably tipped the ball around the post.
The next minute was the most bizarre to be witnessed at the Bridge in a long time. Referee Andre Marriner looked confused as if to suggest he did not see the hand ball, the lineman did not put his flag across his chest to show he saw it as a penalty. However Marriner rightly, eventually, pointed to the penalty spot. But he sent off left-back Kieran Gibbs by mistake. Gibbs protested his innocence and even Chamberlain appeared to tell Marriner it was he who handled it.
All to no avail. Off walked Gibbs, and up stepped Hazard to plonk the ball past Szczesny to put Chelsea 3-0 up.
Thomas Vermaelen was brought on to shore up the defence, with Lukas Podolski making way.
Szczesny produced a save on the half hour, tipping away a David Luiz long-range effort as the Blues looked to run riot over their north London rivals.
Three minutes before the break and it was number four. Fernando Torres easily beat the offside trap on the right. He raced into the penalty area and cut the ball square across the six-yard box. In-running Oscar was on hand to smash the ball high into the top of Szczesny's net.
Giroud tried his best to claw back a goal second before the whistle, but his left-foot drive, set up by Cazorla went into Cech's right side-netting.
Arsenal made two half-time changes, Mathieu Flamini for Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson for Koscielny. But that did not stop the Blues onslaught - three minutes after the restart and Torres cut through the Arsenal rear guard like butter, only a last-ditch interception from Meresacker prevented Torres's shot going on target. However Luiz followed up with a blaster which Szczesny did well to stop.
To add to the indiscipline of arsenal's general play, Rosicky was handed a yellow card by Marriner for scything down Matic on 51 minutes.
But Arsenal are nothing but consistent in how they want to play with the ball and on 60 minutes they had a good chance to score? The intensity had gone out of Chelsea's play by now and Arsenal created a fine sweeping move which resulted in Cazorla, just inside the penalty area, on the left, zipping a low drive across Cech. Thankfully for the Blues, the ball inched wide of Cech's left post.
Oscar, set up by the hard-working Torres, clipped the ball over Szczesny but it also went over the crossbar.
Oscar was luckier next time round. Picking up the ball on the edge of the Arsenal area, he drove the ball towards, Szczesny on 65 minutes. The Poland goalkeeper, dived to his left, but let the ball bounce in front of him and it went through his hands and into the back of his net to make it 5-0.
That was the last action for the Brazil midfielder as he was instantly replaced by Mohamed Salah.
With his first touch of the ball on 70 minutes, the Egypt striker raced clear from a Matic through ball and, one-one -one with Szczesny, he cooly slotted the ball home to notch up his first goal for the Blues since he joined in January from FC Basel.
That was that, action wise and now the Blues travel to South London next weekend to face Crystal Palace.
Teams: Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Oscar, Schurrle, Hazard, Matic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Eto'o
Subs, Schwarzer, Lampard, Torres, Mikel, Salah, Ba, Kalas
Arsenal, Szczesny, Sagna, Meresacker, Koscielny, Arteta, Podolski, Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Gibbs
Subs, Fabianski, Vermaelen, Flamini, Sanogo, Jenkinson, Kallstrom, Gnabry
Referee, Andre Marriner
Ends