First of all, today’s teams at Stamford Bridge…

Chelsea: Cech, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic, Cole, Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Hazard, Mata, Torres
Subs: Turnbull, Ferreira, Marin, Terry, Ba, Bertrand, Ake

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Coquelin, Diaby, Walcott, Wilshere, Cazorla, Giroud
Subs: Mannone, Koscielny, Andre Santos, Ramsey, Arshavin, Jenkinson, Frimpong

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Less weight on his shoulders now?

Twitter credit: TweetChelseaFC

No David Luiz or Demba Ba for Chelsea today – the Brazilian is injured. John Terry remains on the bench, while Oscar, Hazard and Mata all start for the third time in four games.

Laurent Koscielny has served his suspension for being sent off against Manchester City, but is only on the bench. Per Mertesacker keeps his place.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski are both ill and miss out, so Andriy Arshavin is on the bench.

Good positive play from Torres in Chelsea’s first attack, as he is tripped by Mertesacker’s trailing leg. Lampard tries to open Arsenal up from the free-kick but the Gunners clear.

Great chance for Giroud!

An absolute let-off for Chelsea as Theo Walcott threads the ball through to the Frenchman. He lets the ball go across his body but lashes his left-footed shot wide.

…and then…

Goal! It’s Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal

Arsene Wenger is fuming, as Francis Coquelin was clearly fouled by Ramires in the build-up to the opener. Martin Atkinson let play go on, with a raking cross-field pass from Cesar Azpilicueta finding Juan Mata - the Spaniard’s first touch is sublime before he lashes it past Szczesny.

Delightful play from Eden Hazard to get into the Arsenal box, but he perhaps should have crossed for Torres instead of shooting from a wide angle. Szczesny saves.

That really was very poor from the referee – Ramires clearly fouled Coquelin in the build-up to the goal.

Penalty and yellow card for Szczesny!

A clear foul by the goalkeeper on Ramires and he is SO lucky to still be on the pitch. Frank Lampard does the honours. Easy. It is all Chelsea, and Arsenal have been awful.

More great play from Chelsea as the Blues flow forward, but Hazard’s shot is weak and straight at Szczesny.

(How I wish Arsenal would mount an attack – Cech is so much easier to spell than… yer man…)

If you want to see a video clip of Mata’s opener, click right here, please and thanks.

Mata crosses for Cole and the full-back’s header back across goal almost finds Torres, but Vermaelen gets in the way.

Arsenal seem to be suffering from having a midfield pairing of Diaby and Coquelin. Both players may as well be at home, looking fondly out at the falling snow. They are nowhere.

A bit better from Arsenal, as Ashley Cole lets Walcott in. The winger crosses for Giroud (to shoot straight at Cech) but Arsenal’s number 14 had just strayed offside anyway.

Small signs of improvement from the visitors.

Dreadful by Ramires!

The Brazilian does well to outpace Kieran Gibbs but then shoots wildly over the bar when he could have crossed for Torres. The Chelsea players are not showing an awful lot of trust in their centre-forward.

What do you think of this, Arsenal fans?

**The Tottenham v Manchester United match will be subject to a 2.50pm pitch inspection**

Oh dear oh dear oh dear…

A Chelsea free-kick comes into the Arsenal box, Gary Cahill heads it back into the path of Fernando Torres, Fernando Torres sends the ball whencefrom the great Felix Baumgartner came.

Awful.

It’s half-time, and Chelsea have utterly dismantled, destroyed Arsenal. It’s been awkward to watch, quite frankly. Goals from Juan Mata and Frank Lampard penalty.

We’ll be back after our sauna.

Chelsea and the Arsenal bodysnatchers are back out on the pitch.

So close for Arsenal!

A free-kick comes in and Branislav Ivanovic heads straight down to the feet of Mertesacker. Unfortunately for the German, his shot is straight at Cech.

Walcott beats the Chelsea offside trap, but his shot is blocked by Cech.

Much better from the visitors in this half, we may yet have a game here.

It’s high time I wrote Santi Cazorla’s name for the first time today. Not that he’s done anything noteworthy.

Giroud gets a pretty sore knee in the back, while Arsene Wenger stays wrapped up in his mobile sleeping bag.

**At the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic has just won his fifth set battle with Stanislas Wawrinka 12-10. That’s gonna hurt in the morning.**

Theo Walcott has scored!

Moments after Olivier Giroud’s misses a great chance to test Petr Cech from a header, Cazorla slots Walcott through and the half-striker tucks it away with aplomb. Or ‘a plum,’ as Paul Merson would call it.

Walcott injures himself in the celebration, but seems to be ok.

Elsewhere, Coquelin is forced off, with Aaron Ramsey replacing the young Frenchman.

Cole trips Walcott who, admirably, doesn’t dive. Free-kick in a dangerous area, and Mata is booked for kicking the ball away.

Cazorla (a Spanish Peter Kay? Anyone?) takes the free-kick but the wall does its job.

**Tottenham v Manchester United goes ahead**

Vintage Torres to Modern, Shambolic Torres in the blink of an eye there – the Chelsea striker steals the ball from Mertesacker, then outpaces Vermaelen with the minimum of effort, but his final touch is far too heavy and Szczesny gathers easily.

Ryan Bertrand replaces Oscar for Chelsea’s first substitution.

Andriy or Andrey or Andrei Arshavin replaces Abou Diaby.

Chelsea have their first shot on target in roughly 732 years, but Torres’ effort is weak. It’s all become a little bit scrappy, and hard to reconcile the fact that the home side have the lead with Arsenal’s much improved second half performance.

Ba is coming on for Chelsea, and this really was inevitable…

Wow! A quick Chelsea counter-attack and Demba Ba finds himself one-on-one with Szczesny. The Arsenal ‘keeper has a complete brainstorm and the striker has an open goal, but from somewhere Thomas Vermaelen arrives to clear the ball. Best chance of the second half.

Cole takes out Sagna JUST outside the box, and gets a booking for his trouble. Great chance coming up for Arsenal. Vermaelen steps up and tries to blast one low to the far post, but it goes harmlessly wide.

Marko Marin replaces Eden Hazard for Chelsea. Great first half from the Belgian, he’s disappeared since the break.

Spurs team: Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Caulker, Naughton, Parker, Dembele, Bale, Lennon, Dempsey, Defoe.

Manchester United team: De Gea, Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, Jones, Cleverley, Kagawa, Van Persie, Welbeck.

We’re going to have five minutes of added time, as Niall Quinn hands the man of the match award to Ramires.

Note to Niall, by the way: Learn how to pronounce Coquelin. For the love of biscuits, please!

I’m not sure Arshavin realises he’s playing a game of football, or what it involves. Giroud wriggles free and tries to pull the ball back to the Russian, but the veteran loiters on the edge of the box like a lost pensioner.

Then…

Walcott has a great chance to snatch a point but Cahill produces one of the interceptions of the season. Phenomenal from the Chelsea defender.

Then…

Giroud heads on to the roof of the net. Difficult chance, much more so than the one he missed in the first few minutes when it was 0-0.

This is going to be three great points from Chelsea, and we have full-time! In the end, Frank Lampard’s penalty proved decisive. Juan Mata had opened the scoring, while Theo Walcott – brilliant in the second half – pulled one back in the week he signed a new long-term deal.

A fine game, and White Hart Lane next. We love Sundays.