Arsenal beat Chelsea in eight-goal thriller

Skipper Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick as Arsenal beat Chelsea 5-3 after twice coming from behind in a remarkable Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The astonishing victory was Arsene Wenger's 500th since he became Arsenal manager in 1996 and was Arsenal's first away win in the league this season.

It also consigned Chelsea to a second successive defeat in a London derby after they lost at Queens Park Rangers last weekend and was the first time Chelsea had conceded five at home in a league match since Liverpool beat them 5-2 in December 1989.

Chelsea lead through Frank Lampard after 14 minutes before Van Persie scored his first in the 36th minute before Chelsea skipper John Terry took advantage of some woeful Arsenal defending to put his side 2-1 up in the last minute of the first half.

Andre Santos struck Arsenal's second equaliser early in the second half before Theo Walcott scored a brilliant solo goal to put Arsenal 3-2 ahead after 55 minutes.

Juan Mata equalised for Chelsea with a brilliant swerving shot to make it 3-3 after 80 minutes but then Dutch striker Van Persie took advantage of some terrible Chelsea defending to make it 4-3 five minutes later and wrapped up the points with an outstanding shot in the second minute of stoppage time.

In the other early game, Manchester United bounced back from their harrowing 6-1 defeat by Manchester City last weekend when they beat Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park to move to within two points of City at the top of the Premier League, at least until City play Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 1400 GMT kickoff.

Javier Hernandez scored what proved to be the winner and gave United their first victory at Goodison since September 2007 when he capitalised on good approach work from Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck before Patrice Evra crossed from the left for the unmarked Mexican to turn in from close range on 19 minutes.