Arsenal beat Chelsea ONCE at Stamford Bridge with Arteta and Lampard on pitch

Arsenal have endured some bruising away trips in their slow but steady fall from grace across the last few years and the short trip to west London has been as arduous as many for the most faithful of Gunners fans.

They head to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea on Tuesday night in an encounter that Mikel Arteta believes his side have to win to have any chance of reaching the top four this season.

Such talk from the Spaniard is fanciful. Arsenal are 10 points and six places behind Chelsea, who occupy fourth, and are nearer to the bottom three than the Champions League places.

Arsenal are playing better football under Arteta than his predecessor, Unai Emery, and of course they could beat Chelsea but there has been nothing like the short-term resurgence that suggests they can surge up the table to that extent.

But there have been slow and steady signs of improvement and another would follow on Tuesday if Arsenal avoid defeat.

Chelsea are far from flawless and have a patchy home record, especially of late. Their record against Arsenal, however, is strong - they only lost once to the Gunners at home across the last decade.

A good omen for Arsenal is that Arteta played in that match, the 5-3 triumph on October 29, 2011. Robin van Persie fired an astonishing hat-trick in the day's early kick-off to propel Arsenal to victory against a Chelsea side managed by Andre Villas Boas that would end the season winning the Champions League.

Frank Lampard headed Chelsea into the lead that day in 2011 in a match that was level at 3-3 in the final 10 minutes. Van Persie got his second of the day on 85 and then rounded off his hat-trick in stoppage time thanks to an Arteta assist.

The lowest point Arsenal endured at Stamford Bridge occurred just three years later, when Chelsea ran out 6-0 winners in what was Arsene Wenger's 1000th game as Gunners manager.

Arsenal were reduced to 10 men that day after only 15 minutes. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hand-balled a goal-bound shot from Eden Hazard but referee Andre Marriner mistakenly dismissed Kieran Gibbs instead.

By that point, Chelsea were already 2-0 ahead thanks to goals from Samuel Eto'o and Andre Schurrle, and Hazard duly converted the resulting penalty from the handball.

None other than Mohamed Salah scored Chelsea's sixth goal that day.

Arsenal head Chelsea to two draws across the last decade - one in the Premier League in 2017 and the other in the semi-final on the League Cup in 2018. Arsenal won 2-1 at the Emirates in the other leg but lost 3-0 to Manchester City in the final that season.

Tuesday's clash is the first at Stamford Bridge between the two since 2018, where Maurizio Sarri's Chelsea went up against Emery's Arsenal in only their second league match of the 2018-19 season.

Chelsea were 2-0 up after 20 minutes but two goals in four from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi meant the scores were level at half-time. An 81st minute goal from Marcos Alonso gave Sarri the three points.

Arteta has already claimed one landmark win in his short time as Arsenal manager when his side defeated Manchester United 2-0 on New Year's Day. A reversal of form against Chelsea would be another feather in Arteta's cap as he builds towards his first full season at the helm of the club.