Chelsea 6 - 0 Arsenal - What a load of boll-ox

The scene was set for Arsène Wenger to take a glorious victory on his 1000th game in charge at Arsenal. He took his side, still in the title race, to Stamford Bridge to face José Mourinho's Chelsea; he has never recorded a win over the Portuguese and following Mourinho's disrespectful "specialist in failure" comment, now more than ever, he had a point to prove. A few days before the game Arséne was given a golden cannon to commemorate his staggering milestone but yesterday his players served him up a golden pile of shite.

Rather than breaking Chelsea's record of going years under Mourinho without a home defeat or getting his first win over his rival, Arsène watched his side fall to their equal worst defeat under his reign (along with that 8-2 loss at Old Trafford). The fact that it was Chelsea's biggest win under Mourinho was a damning indictment of just how bad Arsenal were.

"It was a nightmare and I take full responsibility for it." - Arséne Wenger

While the buck ultimately stops with the manager, I think the blame should be shared pretty equally between him and the players. I'll pre-empt my blame-flinging by saying that chewing over what went wrong isn't entirely productive and that the most important thing post-game is for the players and manager to put things right on Tuesday... but they were so dreadful that frankly they deserve an absolute slating. It's so easy with hindsight to say the manager should have played so and so instead of whoever but I was very surprised not to see Matthieu Flamini in the starting line-up.  I have seen Oxlade-Chamberlain impress in central midfield, notably against AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Crystal Palace but it is a far riskier selection than the experienced and more reliable, Flamini; a player who offers so much more defensively and is so much steadier in possession. Matthieu was not started in our hammering at Anfield either and I just feel that this was a lesson Arsène has failed to learn.

Whilst the manager is willing to take full responsibility and he no doubt got it wrong yesterday, the players should be equally willing to take the blame. The level of capitulation, the lack of focus and guts were shameful. The list of individual errors by the Arsenal players if written in size 12 font would stretch to the moon and back 4 times over. Early on, a ridiculously careless and uncharacteristic pass from Laurent Koscielny nearly resulted in a Samuel Eto'o goal. Olivier Giroud then had a chance to put Arsenal in the lead after a well-weighted Rosicky through ball but he failed to beat Cech. Moments later Eto'o scored a brilliant finish on his left foot highlighting the difference in their finishing ability. The chance came from a pathetic individual error from Oxlade-Chamberlain and sadly, he was just getting started.  The second goal saw Santi caught in possession and within seven minutes the game was over. It was painfully similar to our start at Anfield; we set up the same way, committed a litany of ridiculous errors and were punished by a more dynamic, clinical and organised team.

Whilst it was unacceptable to lose the game inside 7 minutes, what was even more disappointing was the way the team capitulated from then on. The third goal came from a penalty conceded by Oxlade-Chamberlain; with the ball travelling wide of the post for a goal kick, Alex deliberately handled the ball. It was the single stupidest moment by any Arsenal player in Wenger's 1000 games in charge. After initially not awarding the penalty, the referee consulted with his official and gave it, sending off the wrong player, Kieran Gibbs, despite protestations from Arsenal players and a clear admission of guilt from Oxlade-Chamberlain. It was embarrassing all round. Whilst some made an argument that a red card should not have been awarded as the ball was travelling wide, Oxlade-Chamberlain did try to stop a goal with his hand so I feel a red card was the right decision (were it given to the correct player.) Hazard scored the penalty and Oxlade-Chamberlain had an absolute shocker until being hauled off at half-time. As an aside, the referee and his assistants also seemed shaken by their mistake and managed to get several very simple decisions completely wrong.

Chelsea's fifth goal was also extremely embarrassing as it constituted of two more extremely poor individual errors; first Tomas Rosicky's sloppy pass on the edge of our box gifted possession to Chelsea and then Szczesny failed to make a simple save from a tame long-range effort from Oscar. I was cross with our keeper after the Spurs game where a very poor error nearly handed Tottenham an equaliser. While you don't want your goalkeeper to dwell on his errors too much, his attitude and on-pitch selfie suggest he's got some serious growing up to do and I would suggest he is far from the world-class goalkeeper he thinks he is.

In conclusion, we were shambolic; Arsène set his team up wrong against a manager who almost always seems to get it right; the players were dire and we don't seem to be learning from our mistakes in the big games (particularly away from home.) The title looked unlikely but it is now definitely beyond our capabilities. Whilst injuries to key players have of course hindered us, that is no excuse for such a low level of performance. The manager has developed some wonderful teams and players in his time at the club and this is partly down to how much faith he places in his players - he sticks by them through rough patches of form and rarely castigates them but on his 1000th game in charge those players that he has so much faith in, let him down badly when they should have been breaking their backs to win that game.

Man of the Match: n/a.