Independent:
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0 Quickfire Samuel Eto’o sparks off rout of Arsenal
Chelsea start with all guns blazing to stun 10-man rivals on Wenger’s big day,
Miguel Delaney at Stamford Bridge
Jose Mourinho summed it up as clinically and as brutally as his attackers had finished in that period: “We came to kill, and in 10 minutes we destroy.”
Arsène Wenger had another description, but one that was just as stark: “A nightmare.”
If so, it is a recurring one, and that should be the real issue for the Arsenal manager beyond the embarrassing scale of the scoreline. He felt there was not “much need to talk about the mistakes” but there’s clearly a very pressing requirement to address them.
In all three away matches against their title rivals – Manchester City, Liverpool and now Chelsea – Wenger’s side have conceded 17 goals. Most damningly, eight of those have come in the 20-minute spells at the start of those games. Arsenal again never got started and consequently saw their structure completely collapse. Mourinho’s team ruthlessly and relentlessly went for that mistake, as well as a host of others.
Once Olivier Giroud typically squandered the single chance that Arsenal had to change the course of the game, Chelsea never let up. There were 38 seconds between that save by Petr Cech and the moment when Samuel Eto’o curled the ball around Wojciech Szczesny and into the net for the first goal, and that set the tone for the blistering next few minutes.
Within moments, André Schürrle had thrashed the ball past Szczesny after another thrusting break. Arsenal found themselves caught up in another whirlwind and it was sending them into another whirlpool.
Given the similarity between this opening and the 5-1 defeat at Anfield in February, it might have been fair to expect that Wenger had at least mentally prepared his side for such an event; that they would at least have been capable of giving themselves a better chance of recovery. That was not the case.
Arsenal were so frazzled by the force of Chelsea’s opening that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was panicked into a preposterous full-length dive to touch away Eden Hazard’s 15th-minute shot with his hand.
That was the effect of the home side’s start. The eventual defeat, however, did not stem from the red card. Although Marriner’s incredible decision to send off Kieran Gibbs for the handball rather than Oxlade-Chamberlain will take up much of the discussion, it should not obscure the truth: Chelsea had virtually secured victory by then, and rendered Arsenal irrelevant. Nemanja Matic, most notably, simply trampled over Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla.
Yet, if that opening period displayed the appalling worst of Arsenal, this was also the absolute best of Chelsea. All of their primary qualities were seen, but they also rectified one major flaw of their own at the beginning of games.
In their previous four matches, Chelsea had failed to score a first-half goal, and it too often left them with too much to do. That was the case at Aston Villa last week, when they were eventually caught out on their way to a chaotic 1-0 defeat.
It was simply not an issue here. By the time that Oscar had fired the ball into the roof of the net from substitute Fernando Torres’s 41st-minute cross to make it 4-0, Chelsea had scored more in this first half than in all their previous six Premier League opening periods.
Mourinho praised the impetus his team had shown from the off. “We were very, very good. We press high and we know they want the ball at the back, to be comfortable. We press them very high immediately.”
The score got very high very quickly.
“After that, easy,” Mourinho said. “Penalty, red card, easy.”
That was clearly the case, and the platform provided by those opening 10 minutes. In a procession of a second half, Chelsea picked their moments. Oscar capitalised on a misplaced Tomas Rosicky pass to make it 5-0, Mohamed Salah slotted in another on 71.
By then, the impressive figures being talked about were not Wenger’s list of games. “We got a result with some numbers that, for our fans, are special numbers,” Mourinho said.
On the eve of the game, which now seems so long ago, Wenger had acknowledged this was the biggest fixture of his side’s season for reasons even beyond his 1,000th fixture. It was big alright: Arsenal’s heaviest ever defeat against Chelsea, Mourinho’s biggest win as manager at Stamford Bridge.
It was a day of those kinds of extremes, never more so than in that opening 10 minutes.
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Luiz (Mikel, 72), Matic; Schürrle, Oscar (Salah, 67), Hazard; Eto’o (Torres, 10)
Arsenal: Szczesny; Sagna, Koscielny (Jenkinson, h-t), Mertesacker, Gibbs; Oxlade-Chamberlain (Flamini, h-t), Arteta, Cazorla; Rosicky, Giroud, Podolski (Vermaelen, 24).
Referee: A Marriner
Man of the match: Nemanja Matic
Match rating: 7/10
==============
Observer :
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0
Chelsea hit Arsenal for six to humiliate Arsène Wenger in his 1,000th game
Daniel Taylor
Arsène Wenger's 1,000th game will always be remembered for The Mysterious Case of the Wrong Red Card, but Arsenal should probably be grateful the sideshow was so intrusively farcical, and the refereeing so birdbrained, it might spare them even greater scrutiny. Ignore, for one moment, Andre Marriner's contribution to a wild and eccentric afternoon. The real story was of Arsenal capitulating, once again, in one of the fixtures that identify champions.
Add this to the 6-3 ordeal at Manchester City and the 5-1 at Liverpool and there is a clear pattern to explain why Wenger will not be collecting the Premier League trophy to go alongside that gold cannon he has just received for his long-service. The aggregate score is 17-4 and Wenger's mood could probably be summed up by his decision, for the first time in his 17 and a half years in charge, not to face the post-match press conference.
His team had played with no comprehension of what it takes to hold Chelsea and they suffered badly for it. They were 2-0 down inside the opening seven minutes. Two more arrived before half-time and, by the end, it was not just José Mourinho's biggest ever win in control of Chelsea but the heaviest defeat Arsenal have suffered in 107 years of this fixture. Wenger has not beaten Mourinho in 11 attempts and the indignities piled up. At one point, Chelsea's jubilant supporters could be heard chanting for him to sign a new contract: "We want you to stay". Later, an even more callous cry went up: "Specialist in failure".
Chelsea can hardly have believed the gifts that were presented to them, neatly wrapped in red and white ribbons. Mourinho's team played with common sense and title-winning know-how. They were ruthless in attack, controlled in midfield and untroubled in defence. Everything that was missing from their opponents.
Arsenal's carelessness was both damaging and extreme. They were a rabble and, at this level, a team cannot expect to get away with these kind of collective failures.
The tone was set in the fifth minute when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain lost the ball in midfield and Chelsea swept upfield to score through Samuel Eto'o. Three minutes later it was Santi Cazorla's turn to give the ball to Nemanja Matic and, again, the home team's swift, penetrative counterattacking resulted in a goal, this time through Andre Schürrle.
Lest it be forgotten, it is not just Marriner who should reflect on Kieran Gibbs's bizarre and unwarranted dismissal with intense embarrassment. Marriner messed up badly and it will be a long time before he lives it down but, from Arsenal's perspective, there was no need in the first place for Oxlade‑Chamberlain to stick out an arm and turn away Eden Hazard's shot. The ball was going at least a foot wide, without any need for a midfielder to double up as an emergency goalkeeper. It typified the decision-making of Wenger's players.
That passage will leave Wenger's party-cum-nightmare with a certain infamy and there really is little excuse for Marriner bearing in mind Oxlade-Chamberlain clearly could be seen owning up that it was him. By then, Marriner had shown a red card to Gibbs. The referee's reaction – ignoring what Oxlade-Chamberlain was telling him, Gibbs's protests and the general shock of everyone around him – was haughty and self-defeating. The Premier League is sure to act, correcting the decision, and it is surely time for fourth officials to have access to a television monitor.
As soon as Hazard tucked in the penalty, it was obvious there was no way back for Arsenal. Even so, they should surely have done a better job at sparing themselves more embarrassment. Fernando Torres, a substitute after Eto'o's hamstring injury, surged down the right and crossed for Oscar to make it 4-0 and, after that, it was almost a surprise Chelsea restricted themselves to only two more.
As Wenger sent out a club spokesman to say he had already boarded the coach, Mourinho could be found reflecting on the first "10 amazing minutes", expressing faux outrage that 2-0 after seven minutes could not become "20-0 after 70 minutes".
No matter. This was also the day Mourinho was prepared to admit his team had gone from having "no chance" of the title to "just a little". Yet the awkward truth for Wenger is that no other opponent will be this obliging.
For the fifth goal, Tomas Rosicky played a wayward pass from the right-back position and Oscar simply took the ball and stuck a right-foot shot past the unimpressive dive of Wojciech Szczesny. Within four minutes, Matic's through ball had split open the entire Arsenal defence for Mohamed Salah to run clear. Salah had been on the pitch four minutes and confidently slipped a low shot past Arsenal's goalkeeper.
Matic had also been prominently involved in the first two goals. For the first, Eto'o checked back on his left foot and curled his shot into the far corner. Schürrle angled in a precise shot for the second and, after that, the day went from bad to worse for Wenger, Arsenal and a referee who probably feels as embarrassed as anyone.
==================
Telegraph:
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0
Jason Burt
Arsène Wenger’s 1,000th game and it was over after seven minutes. But it will reverberate for hours, days, weeks – maybe even far longer. Arsenal were, in Jose Mourinho’s clear-eyed assessment, “killed”. And he was the smiling assassin.
Each defeat may leave a scar on the Arsenal manager’s heart – as he put it so lyrically on the eve this match – but this chaotic capitulation will have lacerated. It was beyond humiliation, some painful zone of suffering.
After the six goals conceded against Manchester City, the five to Liverpool, came the six to Chelsea. That is 17 goals in just three matches away to the three teams immediately above them – half of all Arsenal have conceded in the league – and it betrayed a fragility at the heart of Wenger’s team.
The 12:45pm kick-offs, as all three matches have been, are horrendous ordeals for them and this was as bad, if not worse, than the Liverpool defeat.
Now, after days celebrating Wenger’s visionary achievements, there will be days of soul-searching. In the dug-out he looked as defeated as his team.
Crushed. Bereft. Frozen. He could not bring himself to attend the post-match press conference, hanging on to an excuse that the team bus was leaving. Arsenal missed the bus.
For Mourinho this was simply, almost uncontainably delicious. How he enjoyed relaying that Wenger had labelled this encounter the biggest of the season for his team; how he will have been delighted at the way Arsenal naively, foolishly, predictably played into his hands. It was a trap they sauntered into. A full-court press that flattened them.
It was a game where the headlines will be dominated by a case of mistaken identity when referee Andre Marriner somehow decided to send off Kieran Gibbs when it was clearly Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who had dived full length to handle Eden Hazard’s shot.
But there was an argument over another case of mistaken identity: that Arsenal were somehow Premier League title contenders. They may now sit just seven points behind the league leaders, Chelsea, with a game in hand but the gulf feels far, far wider.
Mourinho did not even wait until the final whistle. With the ultimate humiliation he walked down the tunnel while the game continued. His work was done. It is a ploy he has used before and it is a conspicuous piece of chutzpah, typical showmanship. He had Wenger, again, where he wanted him and he was not going to hang around for the last rites of his match.
“Specialist in failure,” goaded the Chelsea supporters but Mourinho was not going to dwell on the label he had hit back at Wenger with. He did not need any words; actions had spoken loudly enough.
Mourinho’s boot was pressed on Arsenal’s throat. He celebrated his team’s sixth goal as enthusiastically as their first. He knew the value of the margin of victory and he was not thinking of goal difference. This was his biggest win as Chelsea manager; this was Arsenal’s biggest defeat to their London rivals. Ever.
It was Mourinho who had beaten Wenger in his 500th game in charge of Arsenal and how he had humiliated him in his 1,000th match. In 11 meetings, Wenger is yet to beat Mourinho. It is now verging on the cruel.
The controversy masked an appalling Arsenal performance. They were blown away and were culpable for every Chelsea goal. After Olivier Giroud had missed the first chance of the match, shooting weakly at Petr Cech, Chelsea broke. It came as Oxlade-Chamberlain played a loose pass with Oscar releasing Andre Schurrle. He ran on, the defence back-pedalled woefully and Samuel Eto’o held the line cleverly. The ball was slipped to him, he cut inside and confidently arced a shot beyond Wojiech Szczesny.
Then Santi Cazorla lost the ball. Chelsea poured forward again with Nemanja Matic – an immense power in midfield – found Schurrle. Laurent Koscielny again backed off and this time the German shot low and hard and Szczesny was beaten again. “In 10 minutes you can win the game,” Mourinho later said. It only took seven.
The capitulation continued. Eto’o limped off with a damaged hamstring, shaking his fist in triumph, and his replacement Fernando Torres charged into the penalty area to tee up Hazard whose shot evaded Szczesny only for Oxlade-Chamberlain to dive full length and push it away with his outstretched hand. The penalty was awarded – and converted by Hazard – but before then chaos ensued. Somehow Gibbs was sent off even though Oxlade-Chamberlain told Marriner it was him amid astonishing scenes.
The implosion carried on; the ball again lost. This time Mikel Arteta decided not to track Oscar who was allowed to run into the area and meet Torres’ low cross – after Koscielny once more inexplicably backed off – and slam the ball high into the roof of the net. When would it end?
Half-time came but, ridiculously, Arsenal organised themselves to play an even higher defensive line and Chelsea picked them off even though they had further help.
This time Tomas Rosicky – who at the final whistle provoked an angry response from some Arsenal fans by swapping shirts with his friend Cech – passed the ball to Oscar. The defence stayed loose and the Brazilian shot from the area’s edge. The ball bounced before Szczesny and he allowed it to squirm over him and into the net.
By now it was unfathomable, disorganised, dispiriting. Arsenal pushed up – but did not push on. There was no pressure on Matic as he clipped the ball over the defence for substitute Mohamed Salah to run from just inside his own half to easily beat Szczesny for his first goal since joining Chelsea.
It could have been more but Szczesny saved twice from David Luiz and the final whistle came. It could have been a record loss for Wenger. But it felt like it anyway. And felt much worse on what was supposed to be a day of celebration. It turned into a wake. “We got a result with some special numbers for the fans,” Mourinho later said. Wenger was hit and hit for six.
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Times:
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0
Rampant Chelsea expose Arsenal’s mistaken identity as title contenders
Oliver Kay Chief Football Correspondent
There was a serious case of mistaken identity at Stamford Bridge this lunchtime. Arsenal had been mistakenly identified as title contenders – a misconception that was brutally exposed by Chelsea, whose biggest win under José Mourinho equalled their rivals’ heaviest margin of defeat under Arsene Wenger.
Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge of Arsenal was a more chastening experience than he could possibly have imagined. His team were pathetic, 3-0 down inside 17 minutes and waving the white flag after Kieran Gibbs was wrongly sent off for a handball by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, his team-mate.
Goals from Samuel Eto’o, Andre Schurrle, Eden Hazard (a penalty), Oscar (with two) and Mohamed Salah, the substitute, left Wenger’s team humiliated, the margin of defeat equal to that in their 8-2 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford in 2011.
The result takes Chelsea seven points clear of Arsenal and, while Wenger’s team have played one game fewer, only one of these clubs looks equipped to challenge for the Barclays Premier League title now.
Chelsea’s performance, which as well as being ruthless was far more flamboyant than of late, illustrated the size of the challenge they have thrown down to Liverpool and Manchester City, now seemingly only their realistic challengers for the title. Indeed, it was an afternoon when Chelsea went a long way towards addressing their deficiency in the goal-difference column.
On another afternoon, the main focus would have been Andre Marriner’s decision to send off Gibbs in the seventeenth minute. Not only was it a case of mistaken identity, since the offence was committed by Oxlade-Chamberlain, but it was an error on the basis that the handball, while deliberate, did not deny a goalscoring opportunity because Hazard’s shot had been going wide. Arsenal were reduced to ten men, with a mystified Gibbs shown the red card, and Hazard converted the penalty to make it 3-0.
It was a ridiculous incident – Marriner admitted at half-time that he had made “a mistake” – but, in terms of the result and perhaps even the size of the scoreline, it was something of a red herring, given that there was no disputing the legitimacy of the penalty award. Chelsea’s lead already looked unassailable once Hazard made it 3-0 and, if anything, it felt at times as if Mourinho’s team could have twisted the knife even further.
So many of Arsenal’s problems stemmed from being far too open and far too casual against Chelsea’s pressing game in midfield. It started as early as the fourth minute, with Arsenal caught on the counter-attack.
Schurrle slipped the ball through to Eto’o, who took a touch before curling a left-foot shot beyond Wojciech Szczesny. Three minutes later it was 2-0 as Arsenal lost the ball in midfield again and Nemanja Matic released Schurrle to send a low shot past a startled Szczesny.
Just like at Anfield, where they were beaten 5-1 by Liverpool last month, Arsenal had been blown away by the intensity with which their opponents started the game.
Chelsea lost Eto’o to injury, replaced early on by Fernando Torres, but they continued in the same way, with Torres teeing up Hazard for the shot that was going narrowly wide before Oxlade-Chamberlain stuck out his hand to intervene. It should not have been a red card – least of all for Gibbs – but a penalty was unquestionably the right decision. Hazard made no mistake.
Wenger sent on Thomas Vermaelen at left back, taking off Lukas Podolski, and for a time his team seemed to stabilise, but just before half-time Oscar made it 4-0, with Torres given far too much space from which to cross from the right and the Brazilian left in far too much space in the middle.
In what looked like a desperate attempt at damage limitation, Wenger replaced Laurent Koscielny and Oxlade-Chamberlain with Carl Jenkinson and Mathieu Flamini. Chelsea had never previously won a Premier League game under Mourinho by more than four goals – or any match by more than five – but, if ever there was the opportunity to do so, it was here, against a bedraggled Arsenal team.
Sure enough, the fifth goal arrived midway through the second half, with Oscar’s shot somehow beating a desperately unconvincing Szczesny, and then came the icing on the cake – or the final kick in the teeth, as Wenger might see it – when Salah ran clear to score his first goal for Chelsea four minutes later.
“Specialist in failure,” came the mocking chant from the Chelsea fans, echoing Mourinho’s infamous description of Wenger. As a way to mark his 1,000th game in charge, it could not have been worse – his tactics unsuccessful, his team torn apart, their title ambitions taking a huge blow, and all of it in the court of Mourinho, where Chelsea are starting to look like potential champions once more.
==========================
Mail:
Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal: Gunners hit for SIX by rampant Blues on Wenger's 1,000th game as Gibbs is mistakenly sent off after Oxlade-Chamberlain's handball on the line
By Rob Draper
‘Jose Mourinho’ they chanted around Stamford Bridge and the sub text was clear. What they meant to say was: ‘Arsene Wenger, your time has gone.’
Then came the cruellest cut, as the Chelsea fans echoed their manager’s own brutal words: ‘Specialist in failure.’
Mourinho is of course the last guest you want to invite to a party. It was inevitable that he would upset the guests and spoils the celebrations. He did so, but in the best way imaginable: on the pitch, with his team’s performance.
For Mourinho has always bridled at the admiration that English football has shown Wenger, you suspect because he considers himself tactically superior.
On Saturday, as the occasion of the 1000thgame for Wenger turned out to be the Arsenal’s manager’s worst, he will feel as though he demonstrated that conclusively.
He has saved something especially for Wenger: this day of all days he would deliver his biggest ever win for Chelsea, a victory all the more spectacular for its foundation being laid with two goals in the first ten minutes
‘We came to kill – and in ten minutes we destroyed,’ said Mourinho. ‘It was ten amazing minutes and with ten minutes you can win the game. i’m so happy with the approach.. After that, easy.
'But if I analyse the game it’s about the ten minutes. I don’t know if it was the best performance but it was a very good performance.’
It was not just that Chelsea were good, though they were, with Nemanja Matic and Andre Schurrle outstanding; it was that Arsenal were so bad.
All the old fault lines were exposed and the searing doubts about the future returned.
Where Wenger once led the way as the thinking man’s coach, on Saturday he was out-thought and out-played.
Just as Brendan Rodger’s Liverpool had executed a simple game plan against his team by pressing them high up the pitch, forcing errors and then exposing them with pace, so Chelsea offered their own version of that strategy.
While Liverpool were 4-0 up in 20 minutes, Chelsea took 17 minutes to get to 3-0. Away from home against their principal title rivals, Arsenal have conceded 17 goals. Statistics, Wenger’s great strength, are beginning to stack up against him.
The goals were calamitous. For the first it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who gave the ball away; for the second, it was Santi Cazorla; for the fourth, Laurent Koscielny totally missed a clearance; for the fifth, Tomas Rosicky passed to Oscar.
art of the riot: Samuel Eto'o superbly curls home the opener after five minutes
Such awful errors cannot be individually attributed to the manager. But the tactical set up - to start with a lightweight midfield against such a physically powerful team - and the inability to close down a game can.
‘We pressed very, very high,’ said Mourinho. ‘We know they want the ball, they want to build from the back and they want to be comfortable with the ball. We pressed them very high immediately, recovered the ball and we were attacking the space very, very fast.’
The fact that Arsenal are so easy to read is clearly Wenger’s responsibility, which he did acknowledge. ‘This is my fault,' said Wenger ‘We got a good hiding. You don't prepare all week to experience that.’
There was only one moment in which Arsenal were truly in the game. It came in the fourth minute when Olivier Giroud was through on goal and his shot forced a smart save from Petr Cech. But within a minute, the tide had turned.
Oxlade-Chamberlain gave the ball to Schurrle, whose swift one-two with Eden Hazard allowed the German to run through Arsenal’s midfield, with no holding player was evident.
Samuel Eto’o still had much to do when he received the ball, but turned Koscielny and delivered a delightful curling shot into the far corner. It was almost his last contribution, limping off shortly after with a hamstring strain.
The second goal was embarrassingly similar, Cazorla the culprit losing out to Matic, who played in Schurrle. Again, the German was given all the space he needed to size up his shot to score. Seven minutes in, the game was up.
Worse was to come. Oscar - yes, Oscar - out-muscled Arsenal’s midfield on 17 minutes and found Hazard, who exchanged passes with Fernando Torres and then unleashed a shot that beat Wojciech Szczesny and tempted a desperate Oxlade-Chamberlain to stick out a hand and tip it round the post.
It might have gone wide but Oxlade Chamberlain it was who had deflected it but it was a fuming Kieran Gibbs who was dismissed, despite his team-mate confessing his guilt to referee Andre Marriner. Hazard converted the penalty.
By then it was just a case of by how much Chelsea wished to improve their goal difference. On 42 minutes, Koscielny completely missed clearance allowing Torres in to cross for Oscar to score at closer range.
There would be no respite in the second half. Rosciky passed across the penalty area to Oscar on 66 minutes for the Brazilian to score from the edge of the box. Still Arsenal kept their high defensive line, on 721 minutes Matic lifted the ball over it for Mohammed Salah to run and finish cooly, his first goal for the club.
By the end, Mourinho conceded that Chelsea might have ‘just a little’ chance of winning the title. Disingenuous as ever, it was at least a step towards to the truth. The race is down to three teams and Chelsea remain favourites.
Chelsea: Cech 7, Ivanovic 7, Terry 6, Cahill 6, Azpilicueta 8; Luiz 7, Matic 7, Schurrle 8, Oscar 8 (Salah, 67), Hazard 8, Eto'o 7 (Torres, 10)
Subs not used: Schwarzer, Lampard, Mikel, Ba, Kalas
Goals: Eto'o 5, Schurrle 7, Hazard pen 17, Oscar 42, Oscar 66, Salah 70
Arsenal: Szczesny 6, Sagna 5, Metesacker 5, Koscielny 5 (Flamini, 45), Gibbs 6; Arteta 4, Rosicky 5; Oxlade Chamberlain 4 (Jenkinson, 45), Cazorla 5, Podoloski 5 (Vermaelen, 23) ; Giroud 5
Subs not used: Fabianski, Sanogo, Kallstrom, Gnabry.
Booked: Rosicky
Sent off: Gibbs
Referee: Andre Marriner 4
Attendance: 41,614
*Player ratings by Adam Crafton at Stamford Bridge
========================
Mirror:
Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal: Andre Marriner commits howler as Blues ruin Arsene Wenger's 1000th game
By Dave Kidd
The referee contrived to send off the wrong man as Jose Mourinho's men won a dramatic London derby at Stamford Bridge
Engrave that scoreline on your cut-class decanter, Arsene.
Cast that in bronze and stick it on a plinth.
Happy 1,000th game, old chum, what an achievement, staying in charge of that rabble for so long.
And here’s your present – a hail of machine-gun fire.
This was personal for Jose Mourinho.
Ever since Arsene Wenger accused him of “fearing to fail” for talking down Chelsea’s title chances and the Stamford Bridge manager was slated for branding his rival a “specialist in failure”, this had been coming. Mourinho had fed his team on raw steak and they set about Arsenal like a pack of dogs.
“We set out to kill and, in 10 minutes, we destroyed,” said Mourinho.
He was in Marlon Brando mode. Wenger more like Marlon Harewood.
The shocked Arsenal boss admitted: “Today was a total nightmare.”
Arsenal could have parked the bus. Instead, they used it as a getaway vehicle.
Wenger failed to front up to the written Press, with a Gunners official claiming the team coach had left, less than an hour after the final whistle, while Mourinho was speaking. It was the best turn of speed the Gunners had shown all day.
This was ruthlessness as an art form from Chelsea. Wenger’s men were dismembered inside 17 minutes, 3-0 down, reduced to 10 men. Reduced to rubble.
Should Chelsea win this title, they will have done so largely by grinding out narrow wins.
Under Mourinho, they have often had a tendency to declare and pull down the shutters once a match is won.
Not against Arsenal, though.
Mourinho demanded that Wenger’s team were ground into the dust. He had not been gracious about the Frenchman’s landmark before the match.
Wenger’s bullet-ridden troops must now retreat from the title race and concentrate on the FA Cup. In three away games against their title rivals – Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool - Arsenal have conceded 17 goals.
That’s not so much a statistic as an avalanche.
Wenger has failed to overcome Mourinho in 11 meetings now, so no surprise that the Portuguese should spoil the party as the Frenchman brought up 1,000 games in charge of the Gunners.
Referee Andre Marriner left the Bridge almost as humiliated as Wenger, after a shocking case of mistaken identity, sending off Kieran Gibbs when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had handled at full-stretch. But that was nothing more than a sideshow in the grand scheme of things.
Samuel Eto’o needed only seven minutes on the pitch to inflict the first stiletto thrust – before the old man retired hurt.
The workaholic Andre Schurrle added a second before Eden Hazard won and converted the killer penalty. Oscar notched a brace, Mohamed Salah a first Chelsea goal.
But it was all about those opening minutes. Wenger named Mikel Arteta as a sole holding midfielder, Arsenal committed a series of schoolboy errors and Chelsea had no problem locating the jugular.
Petr Cech, though, was forced into a full-length from Olivier Giroud before Chelsea seized the lead. Schurrle played in Eto’o and the Cameroonian finished majestically, curling inside the far post.
Nemanja Matic mugged Santi Cazorla and fed Schurrle, who icily slotted home the second.
Then the mayhem – a Hazard shot beating Wojciech Szczesny, but tipped away by the hands of a diving Oxlade-Chamberlain.
To the astonishment of Gibbs and embarrassment of Marriner, it was the left-back who saw red – despite the Ox owning up.
Arsenal would have been three down and short-handed, either way, though, as Hazard stroked his spot-kick down the middle.
Schurrle was again involved in the fourth, feeding Fernando Torres, whose low centre was turned in by Oscar. After the break, a shocking pass from Rosicky allowed Oscar, to shoot home from edge of box – the Polish keeper this time adding a blunder of his own.
Then, Salah beat the offside trap to advance on to a Matic pass and shoot under Szczesny.
Mourinho didn’t even bother to wait around for the final whistle to shake hands with Wenger.
He lives by the assassin’s creed. Inflict the hit and leave, with your victim in a pool of cold claret.
=================
Express;
1000 Games and ten terrible minutes! The numbers don't add up for Arsene Wenger
CHELSEA boss Jose Mourinho hailed his stormtroopers who left bitter rivals Arsenal's title ambitions in tatters within 10 minutes.
By: John Richardson
He insisted that referee Andre Marriner's big mistake in sending off Kieran Gibbs, instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, played no part in Chelsea's humiliation of Arsene Wenger's side.
By then Chelsea were 2-0 up with Mourinho stating: "In 10 minutes we destroyed them. They were 10 amazing minutes."
The goals by Samuel Eto'o and Andre Schurrle left Wenger, supposedly celebrating his 1,000th game in charge of the Gunners, with his hands in his head.
Worse was to come five minutes later when the Gunners conceded a penalty, Oxlade-Chamberlain tipping an Eden Hazard shot around the post with his outstretched hand.
But it was fellow England international Gibbs who was red-carded in an obvious case of mistaken identity.
Marriner, unable to comment on his mishap, did confess to TV officials in the players' tunnel as he came back for the second half that he had got it all wrong, despite Oxlade- Chamberlain telling him at the time he had been the transgressor.
Gibbs will now have his red card rescinded with Oxlade-Chamberlain serving a one-match ban while Marriner can expect a temporary demotion.
But Mourinho added: "It's a mistake that managers can have sympathy with.
"If one of the officials had been sitting in front of a screen watching a replay then the referee would have sent off Chamberlain and not Gibbs.
"It's a mistake no one wants to make."
A distraught Wenger said: "I believe it was handball but the referee hasn't seen it. The ball went out and I think it was Chamberlain who touched the ball. I don't know who gave the indication to the referee that it was handled but he has certainly not seen it."
Wenger confessed he had enjoyed better anniversaries. "This defeat is my fault," he admitted.
"I take full responsibility for it. I don't think there's too much need to talk about the mistakes we made.
"We got a good hiding. It's how we respond on Tuesday night [against Swansea]. Yes, of course it's one of my worst days." There was no sympathy from his old adversary after being reminded it was Wenger's 1,000th game in charge of the Gunners.
"I wanted the three points. It was a very, very good performance and was a special one for our fans. The momentum was broken at Aston Villa last weekend and now we are trying to build a new momentum."
But the Chelsea boss was in truculent mood when he was asked about the forthcoming Champions League clash with Paris Saint- Germain.
"I see they play on the Friday night while we play on the Saturday. The French League help their clubs. Can we win it [the Champions League]? Only if they let us," he said.
On the chances of landing the Premier League title on his first season back at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho added: "Manchester City have everything in their hands.
Nobody else in the top four is playing in the Champions League but we are happy to be in this situation." Wenger once again is left to reflect on another title which has got away.
He confessed: "It leaves it in a very bad situation. But we want to respond.
"We have to win the next game. This is what we have to focus on now and give a strong response. When you don't turn up in a game of this stature nobody takes that easily."
Referee Marriner later apologised to Arsenal for his error which saw Gibbs mistakenly sent off. A Professional Game Match Officials Limited statement last night said: "Andre is an experienced referee and is obviously disappointed that an error of mistaken identity was made in this case.
"Incidents of mistaken identity are very rare and are often the result of a number of different technical factors.
"Whilst this was a difficult decision, Andre is disappointed that he failed to identify the correct player.
"He expressed his disappointment to Arsenal when he was made aware of the issue."
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Star:
Chelsea 6 - Arsenal 0: Jose Mourinho's men humiliate the Gunners in Wenger's 1000th game
SOME things in football don't change.
By Paul Hetherington
Jose Mourinho doesn't lose to Arsene Wenger - and the Arsenal boss has now had 11 attempts to rectify that.
The Chelsea manager doesn't lose at home in the Premier League - it's now 76 games without defeat.
And Arsenal implode when it really matters against title rivals.
Remember six conceded at Manchester City, five at Liverpool and now six again at Chelsea.
On a dramatic, controversial day at The Bridge, Chelsea moved seven points ahead of their London rivals.
All in all, not the way Wenger wanted to mark his 1,000th match in charge of the Gunners.
And this, by Wenger's own admission, was Arsenal's "match of the season."
He even saw one of his players wrongly sent off - Kieran Gibbs - when the red card should have gone to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Mourinho waited at the end of the tunnel at the start of the match to shake hands with Wenger - then saw his side go for the throat of the Arsenal manager's team.
It was agony for Arsenal - just like their nightmare start at Liverpool recently.
In the fifth minute Samuel Eto'o cut inside Oxlade-Chamberlain after receiving a pass from Andre Schurrle and produced a sublime left-foot finish into the far corner of the net.
“After a delay which infuriated Mourinho and the Chelsea bench, referee Andre Marriner eventually gave a penalty - then bizarrely sent off a furious Gibbs”
That was just a minute after Chelsea keeper Petr Cech had denied Olivier Giroud at the other end.
But just two minutes after Chelsea's opener they struck again.
Nemanja Matic robbed Santi Cazotla and set up Schurrle for an easy finish.
And it got even worse for Arsenal when an Eden Hazard shot was handled by the diving Oxlade-Chamberlain.
After a delay which infuriated Mourinho and the Chelsea bench, referee Andre Marriner eventually gave a penalty - then bizarrely sent off a furious Gibbs.
Hazard converted the penalty with Gibbs seemingly a victim of red-card mistaken identity.
As it all went wrong for Arsenal, Chelsea's mocking fans chorused: "Arsene Wenger, we want you to stay."
And three minutes from half-time Oscar made it 4-0 with a close-range finish into the roof of the net from substitute Fernando Torres' perfect low cross.
Oscar then made it five in the 66th minute with a right-foot shot from outside the box which Wojciech Szczesny made a hash of saving.
The Brazil playmaker was then replaced by Mohamed Salah,
who scored Chelsea's sixth with his left foot - his first goal for the club - from the excellent Matic's pass.
Torture for Arsenal as Chelsea recorded their biggest win of the season.
And Mourinho also saw Chelsea score six for the first time in the Premier League under his control.
Tomas Rosicky was the only Arsenal player who could feel reasonably satisfied with his individual performance and he was denied a last-minute goal by Petr Cech's save.
