It happened in the 17th minute when Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled the ball in the box. Ref Andre Marriner gave the penalty but sent off Kieran Gibbs, the wrong player, despite Oxlade-Chamberlain appearing to admit that he was the culprit, as Chelsea went 3-0 up, killing the game.

Chelsea’s goals came from Eto’o, Schurrle, Hazard (pen), Oscar (2) and Salah.

A statement read that Marriner was “disappointed” to have made the error.

“Incidents of mistaken identity are very rare and are often the result of a number of different technical factors,” the Professional Game Match Officials Limited said.

“Whilst this was a difficult decision, Andre is disappointed that he failed to identify the correct player.

“He expressed his disappointment to Arsenal when he was made aware of the issue.”

Arsenal’s defeat by league leaders Chelsea, which Wenger said was his “fault”, saw the Gunners drop down to fourth in the table after Liverpool and Manchester City both enjoyed big wins.

Liverpool twice came from behind before seeing off Cardiff 6-3, Luis Suarez bagging a hat-trick.

Not to be outdone Yaya Toure scored three as City chalked up a routine 5-0 win over bottom of the table Fulham.

The goal of the day came as Wayne Rooney scored an exquisite lob as Man Utd beat West Ham 2-0. The England International scored from just inside West Ham’s half.

Image via Getty