Chelsea cruised to victory in Sunday's London derby to condemn Arsenal to yet another defeat in their second league game running. The Blues picked up a 2-0 win inside the Emirates with striker Romelu Lukaku getting on the scoresheet to land a Premier League milestone and fire his boyhood club to the top of the league table following his second coming.
The difference in quality in the afternoon's encounter was quite glaring as the host kicked off proceedings without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Ben White and Thomas Partey in their start line-up. In the end, Mikel Arteta's youthful set-up could not match the experience of Chelsea who broke the deadlock through Romelu Lukaku after a moment of negligence in defense on the part of the host.
Big win today
— R.Lukaku Bolingoli9 (@RomeluLukaku9) August 22, 2021
Childhood dream became reality
Finally i can say it to
LONDON IS blue
C'mon @chelseafc pic.twitter.com/60EUDpQuK6
20 minutes after the Belgian's 15th minute opener, Reece James added to his assist for the opening goal by extending Chelsea's advantage to two. There was not much action in the second half although both sides came close to getting the ball at the back of the net in some instances.
In the end, Arsenal recorded their second defeat in two games since the season started, making it the first time a club in the English top-flight had failed to pick up a win or score a goal in their first two games of the season. On the contrary, the win was Chelsea's first after failing to beat the Gunners at Emirates in their last three Premier League outings.
In terms of individual milestones, Romelu Lukaku took his tally in the Premier League 114, overtaking Arsenal legend Ian Wright to become the competition's 20th highest scoring player. The 28-year-old Belgian forward also became the eighth non-Englishman to score more than 50 goals in both home and away in the competition.
