By Jon Essien
The London derby ended in Chelsea’s favour as goals from £97million signing, Romelu Lukaku and Reece James handed Arsenal their second straight defeat in the new Premier League season, The Heritage Times reports.
Having lost the season’s opener to promoted Brentford, Mikel Arteta’s men now occupy the bottom of the table, while Chelsea shares the summit with Liverpool after two wins from two games.
Manchester United had stumbled from the top after they were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Southampton at St Mary in an earlier fixture.
United were hoping to build on momentum after they destroyed Leeds United 5-1 on the opening weekend, but a sloppy display saw them share the spoils in the South coast.
The Red Devils have just today to see themselves within a touching distance of fourth place Spurs, pending on the outcome of Leicester’s visit to West Ham on Monday night.
The North Londoners shocked Manchester City last week, but the League champions renewed their hopes of retaining the title with a 5-0 thrashing of Burnley on Saturday.
Lukaku’s debut goal at the parked Emirates stadium kicked off a perfect start to his second Chelsea spell. The Belgium international made 15 appearances for the Blues without scoring a single goal in his first stint.
The 28-year-old constantly terrorized Arsenal’s defense through out the encounter as he looked eager to add to his strike.
However, the British record signing was denied an opportunity to hit brace, after his powerfully headed cross from Mason Mount was pushed against the crossbar by Bernd Leno.
James who assisted Lukaku’s first goal, doubled the lead 10 minutes into half-time as Chelsea went on to inflict more miseries on the Gunners.
The European champions will host Liverpool for their next game on Saturday, while Arsenal takes on Manchester City at the Etihad stadium.
