Arsenal looked finished. Trailing by two goals, there were just 13 minutes to go and the story looked set to be about a statement win for Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea; Arsenal goalkeeping woe, too.

David Raya was badly at fault for Chelsea’s second, allowing a swirling ball in from Mykhailo Mudryk to sail over his head and drop into the far corner. It said everything about the frustration of the Arsenal fans that, shortly afterwards, they would chant the name of their former No 1, Aaron Ramsdale.

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Yet Raya was not the only goalkeeper to suffer here. It was a Robert Sánchez error at the other end that offered Arsenal a lifeline, the Chelsea No 1 sending a low pass straight to Declan Rice, who returned it with interest from 25 yards into the mainly empty net.

Arsenal would complete the comeback. It was Bukayo Saka who fired the move, slinging over a deep cross from the inside right and the substitute, Leanadro Trossard, who got the precious touch, guided home with the outside of his right boot. Gusto had lost him and Sánchez had been rooted to his line. A breathless derby had a stunning sting.

The omens had been on Arsenal’s side. They arrived at Stamford Bridge with a league record of six wins, two draws, 16 goals scored and six against – exactly the same as the club’s Invincibles after eight games in 2003-04. The ninth fixture of that season was a 2-1 win over Chelsea at Highbury.

Pochettino probably feels that every day is an injury crisis. He was without seven players here, a line that might benefit from an “only,” and his big move was to start Cole Palmer through the middle of his front three.

Palmer was booked early on for a scrape down the back of Gabriel Jesus’s heel and he would inflict further damage on Arsenal when he opened the scoring. Mudryk had stretched to head a Gusto cross at goal and, in the moment, it really did look as if William Saliba had blocked the ball with an unnaturally placed hand.

The referee, Chris Kavanagh, allowed the play to continue but the VAR wheels were turning and, moments after Marc Cucurella had chopped into Bukayo Saka, Kavanagh was asked to take a look at the pitchside screen. Palmer’s conversion from the spot bristled with assurance.

It was feisty and it was easy to think that Cucurella had targeted Saka, who was passed fit after his recent injury issues. Arteta seemed to think so. He was unhappy at Cucurella’s first challenge on Saka in the sixth minute and there were 17 on the clock when Cucurella took another swipe at this opponent. Rice got away with a trip on Palmer to halt a Chelsea break. Oleksandr Zinchenko did not for one on Mudryk, going into the book.

Arsenal’s passing was too loose for Arteta’s liking; Chelsea brought the intensity. Pochettino’s team could point to a half-chance at the very start, Zinchenko giving the ball away to Moisés Caicedo, Conor Gallagher spinning and seeing his shot blocked. Gallagher drove from the No 10 role, playing in Palmer on the half hour, who dragged narrowly wide of the far post.

Cole Palmer gives Chelsea the lead from the penalty spot against Arsenal. Photograph: Ian Stephen/ProSports/Shutterstock

It was one of those occasions when the sub-plots crackled, not least the head-to-head between Pochettino and Arteta, whose close relationship began when they were Paris Saint-Germain teammates in 2001. It was their first meeting as managers.

What did Arsenal create before the interval? Very little. They established themselves higher up the pitch as the half wore on but their efforts were summed up by a wild miscue by Jesus as he tried to shoot in the 42nd minute.

Zinchenko had got Rice away only for the former Chelsea academy player’s cross-cum-shot to be neither. Jesus got the ball across but to nobody in particular after Sánchez had ventured out from the left of his area and Arsenal’s only real first-half flicker came when the centre-forward shot after a Saka cross. Thiago Silva blocked easily.

Arteta introduced Takehiro Tomiyasu for Zinchenko at half-time; the orders for the new left-back were the same – get up and across into midfield. But Arsenal did not keep the back door shut, Mudryk’s streaky goal a hammer blow to their hopes.

It had to be Mudryk and not only because of the narrative strand that clung to him – the one about how Arsenal had tried to sign him before he went to Chelsea in January. The winger is finding his feet at Stamford Bridge, his confidence stabilising after a tricky start.

Did he mean it as a visionary lob from the left-hand side or was it a cross? Only he knows. What was clear was that Raya’s positioning was suspect; he seemed to lose his bearings under the ball, he was a good way off his line and it sailed over him and inside the far corner.

Worse would nearly follow when Raya played out to Rice only for Palmer to intercept. Raya did recover to prevent Palmer from going around him, diverting the subsequent shot behind. The Arsenal support sang the name of their deposed No 1, Ramsdale, who was absent from the bench after his wife gave birth to a baby boy. Chelsea looked comfortable and then they were not when Sánchez erred. It was the cue for the late drama.