Arsenal humiliate Chelsea on momentous night for Premier League title bid

Arsenal 5-0 Chelsea (Trossard 4’, White 52’, Havertz 57’, 65′, 70′)

EMIRATES STADIUM – Conor Gallagher, paging the Prime Minister. Turns out Rishi Sunak isn’t the only one installed at No 10 hoping for a clampdown on sick days – Chelsea certainly can’t afford for Cole Palmer to take too many more. Arsenal are roaring into the business end of the title race, a 5-0 thumping of Mauricio Pochettino’s side the latest reminder that they are not careening into their usual disarray in the final act. Manchester City will have to take them all the way.

It took all of four minutes for Declan Rice to storm through the midfield and tee up Leandro Trossard for the finish through Djordje Petrovic’s legs, the right of Chelsea’s defence weakened so decisively by Malo Gusto’s absence.

Mikel Arteta had no reason to be remonstrating with the officials still. Indeed the frown did not finally loosen until Ben White had slotted in Arsenal’s second after Rice’s shot had rebounded awkwardly off Thomas Partey.

By the time Kai Havertz chipped in a third, both Marc Cucurella and Noni Madueke were on the floor. If that felt like a metaphor, it was only cruelly reinforced by his second, slicing right through the middle of Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi.

Who knows at what point a young Chelsea fan, cardboard sign aloft, handwrote its damning message? “I don’t want your shirt – I want you to fight for ours.” Maybe when White tried to pick out a teammate across goal and accidentally found the top corner for Arsenal’s fifth.

In reply, there was nothing but an inflatable European Cup with which one away supporter kept taunting Rice at corners. The Blues have also won the league five times since Arsenal’s last triumph in 2004, but none of those sides resembled the £1bn rabble Pochettino is having to field.

“Cole Palmer Football Club”, this is not, Pochettino insisted. But what else is there, when Disasi misses in front of an open goal and Nicolas Jackson’s befuddling attempt at a “Hand of God” is kept out by David Raya? You suspect it might not have had the same pizzazz as the original regardless.

It could have been more, Rice turning Enzo Fernandez beautifully before firing over. Arsenal’s £100m midfielder has well and truly joined the “Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne” category of players Chelsea are kicking themselves for letting go. You would not necessarily bung Havertz in that category ordinarily but here was a painful reminder of how Chelsea have actively made their squad weaker, almost as if they’re doing it on purpose. They have never conceded so many goals (57) in a single Premier League campaign.

The only consolation is that their season effectively ended on Saturday, epitomised by a lifeless FA Cup semi-final defeat to City. They are spared the torment at Arsenal, where the stakes are becoming unbearable, the angst now agonising. They have passed the 100-goal mark for the season but that is the only certainty.

Even with a buffer, City’s games in hand and the history books suggest that after the Aston Villa defeat, Arteta’s men cannot afford to put another foot wrong between now and mid-May. It all starts with a north London derby at Tottenham on Sunday, where a repeat would put them in dreamland territory. “Who put the ball in the Chelsea net?” You know the rest.