Arsenal crush Chelsea 5-0 to set Premier League pace

Kai Havertz has scored twice against his former team and Ben White also got a brace as Arsenal brushed aside a dismal Chelsea side 5-0 for their biggest Premier League win over their London rivals.

The win on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST) ensures Arsenal will go into the weekend atop the standings, lifting them three points clear of Liverpool ahead of Wednesday's Merseyside derby at Everton.

Man City are four points back before they play at Brighton on Thursday, with another game in hand.

"It's a great night," said Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard, who opened the scoring in the fourth minute. "The early goal helped us and after that we played so well. We had a lot of chances and we turned them into goals."

For Chelsea, it was another dispiriting loss after a 1-0 defeat to Man City in the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday that ended any hope of finishing a disappointing season on a high note.

Chelsea's leading scorer Cole Palmer was absent with an injury but the manner of the team's second-half collapse will only renew questions about what progress - if any - the expensively assembled team have made in their first season under Mauricio Pochettino.

"When we have bad days, we are so bad," Pochettino said.

Arsenal's previous biggest league win over Chelsea was 5-1 in 1930.

Pochettino, though, insisted he didn't feel let down by his players' overall effort, pointing to mitigating circumstances such as Palmer's absence, a young starting lineup and fatigue from what he called "an amazing performance" against Man City three days ago.

"I'm not going to blame the players," Pochettino said. "The circumstances are bigger than the performance of the players."

Trossard put Arsenal ahead in just the fourth minute by beating Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic at his near post from a tight angle.

Petrovic made amends by single-handedly keeping his team in the game with a handful of good saves until the floodgates opened in the second half as visitors' resistance melted away.

White swept home the second in the 52nd and Havertz added the third just five minutes later with a well-taken goal after being teed up by a perfect throughball from Martin Odegaard.

The Germany international, who made an expensive move to Arsenal from Chelsea last summer, got another one in the 65th with a shot from the middle of the area, and White added to the rout with a fortunate second goal when his attempt at a volleyed cross sailed into the net in the 70th.

Pochettino responded by bringing on centre back Thiago Silva to prevent the scoreline from getting even bigger.