Chelsea have already shamely conceded their most goals in a EPL season

It may have only been the hardier of the Stamford Bridge faithful who might have backed Chelsea to bloody the nose of title-chasing Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday evening, but few could have expected the utter humbling the team would experience by the time the final whistle blew.

After a frustrating trip to Wembley saw them knocked out of the FA Cup after a promising performance against Manchester City, Mikel Arteta's side ripped through Mauricio Pochettino's juvenile squad like a hurricane - and handed them their biggest-ever defeat against their London rivals.

Pochettino may have called upon his players to prove that they could still impress without their season's lynchpin Cole Palmer, out of the squad due to injury, but the showing the Blues served up only seemed to underscore that the former Man City player's individual performances have often patched over the glaring errors that have dogged the side throughout their campaign.

Tuesday evening in north London exposed the worst of them. A woeful lack of clinical edge - with Nicolas Jackson the funky-finishing focal point - from the forwards and a jittery hesitancy at the back. An unfocused and casual midfield stuffed with players struggling to live up to their £100million-plus price tags. Plus, the ability to look entirely without a game plan, a criticism which must fall at the feet of Pochettino himself.

'Three days ago, fantastic game, great performance, deserved to go to the final,' the Argentine manager summarised after the whistle. 'Today, you can use any words to describe our performance. Our standards are not sustained for the bad days.

'When we have bad days, we are so bad. When we are good, we are capable of everything.’

Cutting a wearied figure, the end note