There was nothing fortunate about the result and one only needs to look back to the corresponding fixture last season for a game in which Arsenal began brightly before being swept away 4-1 by the Blues.

Carlo Ancelotti may have supplanted Guus Hiddink in the Chelsea hot-seat but the counter-attacking tactics, level of performance and emphatic scoreline were all scarily similar.

Wenger, in typically pugnacious style, opted to turn the focus away from his side’s deficiencies and on to the referee, Andre Marriner, after his side were denied a goal early in the second half when Andrei Arshavin’s effort was ruled out for a foul on Petr Cech.

He claims to have watched the incident ‘four times’ yet still does not know why the decision was made, which shows such unashamed bias as to make ‘Comical Ali’ seem objective.

The ball appeared to be in Cech’s grasp before it was poked out but even if that was not the case, Eduardo’s boot was almost at neck height when the ball was diverted into Arshavin’s path, which surely must be considered dangerous.

An incensed Wenger asked ‘how can you trust referees?’ – a comment  that is reckless and unwarranted and in this current climate must surely be punished by the authorities.

If Wenger wanted to enhance his point by highlighting decisions that the officials did actually get wrong, then he should have pointed out two first-half incidents.

He could have mentioned the cast-iron penalty Chelsea should have been awarded after 20 minutes when Bacary Sagna dragged Nicolas Anelka to the ground – a red-card offence, no less, that would have made Chelsea’s eventual victory even more straightforward.

Or he could have mentioned the errant offside flag that stopped Didier Drogba in his tracks when one-on-one with Manuel Almunia.

Instead, Wenger attempted to fabricate a miscarriage of justice and once more undermined the authority of the referee. Sir Alex must have been impressed.

The usually highly intelligent and articulate Frenchman then entered the realms of utter delusion when he claimed that Didier Drogba ‘doesn’t do a lot’ which, if accurate, is a damning indictment on his Arsenal team that have conceded 10 goals to the Ivorian in the 11 games in which he has faced them.

It is, of course, pure fantasy. Drogba is at the top of his game and, along with Fernando Torres, David Villa, Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is undoubtedly one of the five best strikers in the world and arguably top of that particular tree.

Wenger, who clearly felt he had not yet embarrassed himself quite enough, then said: “The score is a very unfair reflection of the game but it is the score. The first shot on goal they scored and with their second cross they scored.”

That is a bit like saying ‘we need five chances to score a goal and they need one’, which obviously implies that the better, sharper, more clinical team came out victorious. A curious complaint.

Without their usual strike pairing of Nicklas Bendnter and especially the dazzling Robin van Persie, Arsenal were always going to struggle to break down a parsimonious Chelsea defence. But the lack of a single clear-cut chance must have worried Wenger in light of the cutting edge amongst their opponents.

The Gunners huffed and puffed and in patches played some decent football but the experience and organisation of a Chelsea team formerly derided by Sir Alex Ferguson as being too old were far too savvy for Cesc Fabregas and Co.

Arsenal will continue to roll over lesser opponents but in their rivals from west London they more than met their match. It might be nice, for once, for Wenger to acknowledge that.