Chelsea continued a recent slump under Graham Potter, falling well short of their best in an unambitious and disorganised showing against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
If Potter's 4-1 loss to former side Brighton was embarrassing, then being humbled at his new home ground by a side that finished below the Blues last season was worse. Chelsea register one - extremely tame and weak - shot on target and rarely looked like hitting anything approaching full stride or fluidity.
Meanwhile the slick Gunners cut Chelsea apart and dominated proceedings from start to finish and gave a stark contrast to the place Potter's team are in. Mikel Arteta has been given three years to gel his side and the Emirates' faithful are finally seeing rewards.
READ MORE Every word Graham Potter said on Chelsea vs Arsenal, Mount decision, fan patience, Saka and more
Potter is Chelsea's third manager since Arteta arrived from Manchester City, no boss since Jose Mourinho's first stint in the mid-2000s has reached the 150 game landmark that Arteta got to yesterday.
As Chelsea lost ground on the top four and Arsenal went back to the top of the league, here's how the national media reacted to the game.
The Express
Sam Smith writes: "Chelsea boss Graham Potter suffered consecutive [league] defeats for the first time since his September appointment, seeing his side defeated by Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. The Blues were poor in the 1-0 reverse, just as they were in their 4-1 humiliation by Potter’s former club Brighton last weekend. Express Sport looks at what the manager needs in a bid to steer results back on track.
"There were strong expectations of Raheem Sterling when he completed his £50million summer move from Manchester City. But the England forward has endured a slow start to life at Stamford Bridge.
"Sterling has scored just three times in the Premier League this season, and struggled to get into the game against Arsenal. The Gunners largely kept the 27-year-old quiet.
"That Potter has yet to settle on a position for Sterling has not helped the former Liverpool man’s cause. He has found himself at wing-back and in all three positions across the forward line. Appearing to play on the right against Arsenal, Sterling was given a tough time by Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel."
The Guardian
Jonathan Liew writes: "Thiago Silva paused with the ball on the halfway line. Alongside him, his teammates were pointing and shouting at him to do something with it. Up in the stands, the various strands of encouraging advice being proffered by Chelsea fans had essentially congealed into a single unintelligible noise – something like “faacckkinggettrrrrid”, if we were going to try and transcribe it. And so it was that in the final minute of injury time, with Chelsea rousing themselves in search of a late equaliser, their chosen tactic was to pump a high ball up to the 5ft 7in Raheem Sterling.
"As it happened, Sterling was offside, and soon after that Michael Oliver brought proceedings to a merciful close. And strictly speaking Chelsea lost this game not in the fumblings of stoppage time but in the inept and inchoate hour and a half that preceded it. Still, as an emblem of their deficiencies and inefficiencies here, it was as good as any. The good news is that Chelsea look like a team with plenty of ideas. The problem is that nobody seems to be sharing their ideas with anyone else.
"The result is akin to one of those Christmas parlour games where one person starts a drawing, folds the paper over and then passes it to someone else, who adds a bit and passes it on, and at the end everyone laughs and has a sherry. A spirited attack would develop, various wet men would run in various directions, and once the move unfolded everyone would look up to discover that Chelsea had somehow ended up with four left-wingers, nobody in the centre, Raheem Sterling on his backside and the ball hurtling back towards their own goal at an alarming speed."
The Telegraph
Matt Law writes: "The defeat was Chelsea’s second under Potter and their second in succession in the Premier League. With Arsenal dreaming of a title challenge, the seventh-placed Blues must already be concerned about the battle they face to finish in the top four.
"The boos from Chelsea fans at the final whistle were understandable, but it should be taken into account that Potter was without goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Wesley Fofana and N’Golo Kante.
"A succession of Chelsea managers have failed to find any sort of consistency without Kante in their side and Potter is facing the same challenge."
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