SOCCER:For two distinguished returnees there were highly contrasting fortunes, writes RICHARD WILLIAMS

ARSENAL EXORCISED a significant ghost last night, ending a long run of defeats at Chelsea’s hands with a result which Arsene Wenger will offer as proof of what he has been saying for some time, that this is a team whose time has come at last.

We will need a few more of such resounding displays against top-class opposition before the verdict can be definitive, and questions will be asked about Chelsea’s form since they began their defence of the title in such an imperious manner four months ago. For two distinguished returnees, however, there were highly contrasting fortunes.

Frank Lampard was one, Cesc Fabregas the other. Lampard was making his first start for Chelsea since August, hoping to restore some of the qualities of imagination and unpredictability Carlo Ancelotti’s squad have been lacking while making their hesitant progress through the last couple of months, and which they also forfeited, quite voluntarily, with the departures of Deco and Joe Cole in the summer.

Soon the 17-year-old Josh McEachran will be ready to provide those ingredients on a regular basis to a side not lacking in the complementary virtues of strength and stamina. In the meantime Chelsea will continue to rely heavily on a 32-year-old whose 317 league games in blue have produced 106 goals.

Were McEachran on Arsenal’s books, he would probably be starting big games already. Last night Wenger sent out a side including no player over the age of 27, and with an average of 23½. Ancelotti, by contrast, picked six players in their thirties in a team averaging three years older than their opponents.

Any side would notice the absence of a midfielder whose habit is to score 20 goals a season, and a midfield trio of Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and the Brazilian newcomer Ramires certainly missed Lampard’s contribution, notably his habit of timing his arrival on the edge of the opposition penalty area to maximum advantage and the way he unobtrusively lubricates the movements in which others are more prominent. Last night, however, Lampard’s priorities were elsewhere.

As Arsenal set out to swamp the visitors’ rearguard with fast, one-touch passing moves, he was often occupied in helping Ashley Cole to resist the incursions of Theo Walcott, who had been preferred to Andrey Arshavin for the first time since mid-November. Only when that duty had been fulfilled was Lampard able to turn his attention to breaking forward.

For Arsenal, Fabregas’s return seemed equally crucial. After missing two games with a hamstring, the club captain came on as a substitute in the defeat at Old Trafford on December 13th and looked completely out of touch, leading Wenger to speculate, rather surprisingly, on whether his problems had been physical or mental.

In his absence Rosicky had been given the playmaker’s role, with unsatisfactory results. When the restoration of the Catalan to the key role was marked by a series of dangerous passes in the early stages last night, Wenger would have been much relieved.

Not surprisingly, Chelsea’s defenders concentrated on getting tight on Arsenal’s forwards, with John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic squeezing Robin van Persie to good effect as Fabregas attempted to slide and float the ball between and over them for the Dutchman to chase. The visitors’ rearguard seemed to have less of a problem with the more typical style of Arsenal attack in which a posse of lightweight forwards attempts to pass its way through the defensive web.

But it was from just one such full-frontal assault that Arsenal took the lead a minute before half-time. Alex Song, lurking just outside the area, pushed a short pass to Jack Wilshere and ran on for the return, which the English teenager delivered with excellent timing. Emerging from a crowd with the ball at his feet he shot aross Petr Cech.

The goals that took the lead to 3-0 within 10 minutes of the restart were both the product of possession errors in the Chelsea midfield, an area in which they have been so strong in recent seasons.

Walcott and Fabregas combined well to take advantage on both occasions, the Englishman’s finish being particularly noteworthy for its composure and accuracy.

Both Lampard and Fabregas found their way into the referee’s notebook, the former for tripping Song and the latter for pulling back Essien as the tempo and intensity of the match rose in the final half-hour, an indication of the significance of this night in the greater scheme of the season.