Emmanuel Adebayor scored a brilliant hat trick as Arsenal secured a crushing 5-0 victory over Derby County in their Premiership clash on Saturday.

Vassiriki Diaby and Francesc Fabregas were also on target as Arsenal maintained their 2 point lead at the top of the league table. With Derby struggling to come to terms with life in the Premiership, they were always easy pickings for Arsenal as they asserted their superiority right from the kick off.

Arsenal created the first chance of the game as early as in the 4th minute when Gael Clichy raced along the left wing and released a perfect cross that found Adebayor unmarked in the penalty area, but the striker was unable to hit the target.

But the goal was not long in coming as Arsenal took the lead in the 10th minute with a brilliant goal from Diaby as the French midfielder beat two defenders on the edge of the penalty area before smashing a rising shot into the top corner of the net.

Adebayor had another chance to score in the 23rd minute when he latched on to Kolo Toure's long ball, but was unable to put power in his shot as it was held easily by Stephen Bywater. The 23-yard old finally hit the target in the 25th minute when he was released by a Fabregas through ball before rounding Bywater and passing the ball into the empty net.

Arsenal continued to press forward and though they create a number of chances, they were unable to beat Bywater again for the remainder of the half. Eduardo Da Silva was fouled inside the penalty area by Matt Oakley and Adebayor made no mistake in scoring his second of the match from the penalty spot.

Derby were struggling to contain Arsenal as Walcott, Adebayor and Toure went close to extending the lead. And the situation worsened for the Rams when Fabregas scored his sixth goal of the campaign with a scorcher from 20 yards out.

Adebayor finally got a deserved hat trick 11 minutes from time when he brilliantly controlled a long ball with his chest before slotting home his third and Arsenal's fifth of the night from 8 yards out.