Arsenal made the short journey across London to battle out the toughest of derbies at a ground we have not won at since 2003- 04 when Vieira and Edu sank the blues. In addition, only Liverpool earlier this campaign has won here since that win, and Chelsea have claimed a record long unbeaten run at home in all competition.

It would be fair to say to defeats on the trot meant Arsenal’s form prior to the match has been poor. In fact the last goal scored by an Arsenal player, in the opponent’s goal was against united when we beat them 2-1 and the run had reached 222 minutes of premiership football. Aston Villa came to the emirates and left with all three point, and Arsenal travelled to the City of Manchester Stadium and left there empty handed. Most importantly, the performances of late have been poor and a trip to Stanford Bridge is always going to be a tough call, and with our form being so dismal, optimism from the fans was low.

The match started with Chelsea pilling on the pressure. The defence had been strengthened by the return of Sagna, who had been a big miss for us. Chelsea however didn’t put together any meaningful attacks and our goal didn’t get threatened too much. After the 10 minutes of Chelsea domination, we managed to go through the gears and started gaining momentum. The passing became crisper and both teams played with the intent to win the match and play good football in doing so.

In the 14th minute of the match Arsenal probably created the clearest opportunity of the game when Adebayor made space for himself on the right and managed to put in a ball with real quality for Fabregas. Fabregas’s effort was saved well by Cech however the ball was so nearly presented to Gallas on the edge on the six yard box. The French international nearly connected with the ball, and had it been slightly more in his path Arsenal would have taken an early lead.
Disaster struck for Arsenal when Djourou netted an own goal. In all fairness the Swiss defender had to make contact with the cross otherwise Chelsea would have been presented with a tap in. The main cause for concern was the how Chelsea gained possession in the first place. Almunia gathered the ball for a Chelsea corner and instead of calming the tempo in our half and allowing are players to get back into position; he instead threw the ball aimlessly, trying to create a quick Arsenal counter. The ball was presented to straight to a Chelsea player.

Character is something Arsenal does not lack, and being 1-0 down at Stanford Bridge with current form stacked against you, it would take a mentally strong team to keep their heads up and continue playing with purpose and maturity. This is exactly what we did, and come of the hour, come of the man. Robin van Persie smashed home to give Arsenal fresh hope that the score could be turned around. Yes he was offside, however luck is something we have not been dealt much recently, and this finally went our way. Memories in football are short, the Dutchman has been on the other side of an offside ruling against Chelsea in 2005-06 when he had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out. What comes around goes around is a phrase much used in football, and that is exactly what happened today in our favour on this occasion.

The second goal came quickly and no other than van Persie scored again to claim a brace against a side he has not previously scored against. A free kick by Fabregas who was making his 150th premiership appearance, found Adebayor who headed the ball down van Persie and he clinically finished from a slight angle, shooting the ball through the legs of the Chelsea centre back and past a diving Cech.

From the goal Arsenal looked like a team up for the fight and gave the home side very little to cheer about even though they began to dominate possession but Almunia did not have to make any real saves and the general display from Chelsea after they lost the game was poor and lacked any creativity and didn’t look as if they had the key to unlocked the Arsenal defence.
Van Persie was close to claiming a historic hat-trick at Stanford Bridge; Kanu being the last player to do so in a classic match when he completed a 3-2 comeback. The Dutchman had a free kick that didn’t miss by to big a margin.

Denilson was unlucky not to score too which affectively would have killed the match completely. The Brazilian received a good ball from Bendtner who made an impressive contribution from the bench replacing Adebayor. Denilson probably should have shot first time instead of taking a touch which narrowed the angle considerably. In the end Cech made a good save and the threat came to an end.

In all Arsenal had to dig deep to get any kind of result today, nether mind a victory. Going a goal down made the task even harder, so to manage to get three vital points todays must be used as a spring board to kick start our season. Is the title out of our grasps or are we now back in contention? In fairness time can only really tell but if results go our way and we can start getting points on the board, Arsenal may just have a bigger part to play in this seasons title race than many would have thought prior to kick off today.