Chelsea outclassed Dynamo Kiev 3-0 in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday but Arsenal faces an uphill task to make the quarterfinals after slumping to a 3-1 defeat at French club Rennes.
Napoli, Dynamo Zagreb, Villarreal and Valencia will also take victories into next weeks second legs, while Sevilla v Slavia Prague and Eintracht Frankfurt v Inter Milan ended all square.
Chelsea was by far the better side at Stamford Bridge as they had eight shots on target to Kiev’s none — but it was not until Callum Hudson-Odoi scored a third goal in stoppage time that the scoreline fully reflected their dominance.
Pedro put the home side ahead after 17 minutes when he played a one-two with Olivier Giroud and set it on the road to their eighth win in nine Europa League games this season. Brazilian midfielder Willian made it two with a perfect free kick after 65 minutes before 18-year-old substitute Hudson-Odoi side-footed home.
Arsenal had never lost to French opposition away from home in 12 previous European games and it took an early lead when what looked like a cross from Alex Iwobi evaded everyone and sneaked in at the far post.
The English side controlled most of the first half but the match changed completely four minutes before halftime when Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Rennes equalised from the resulting free kick when Benjamin Bourigeaud rifled home at the second attempt and it came out for the second half looking far more positive than the Londoners.
The French team went ahead 20 minutes into the second half when Mehdi Zeffanes shot looped off defender Nacho Monreal into the net and Ismaila Sarr made it 3-1 two minutes from time when he powered home a header from a lovely curling left-wing cross.
The results (Last 16, first leg): Eintracht Frankfurt 0 drew with Inter Milan 0; Dynamo Zagreb 1 (Petkovic 38-pen) bt Benfica 0; Sevilla 2 (Ben Yedder 1, Munir 28) drew with Slavia Prague 2 (Stoch 25, Kral 39); Zenit St. Petersburg 1 (Azmoun 35) lost to Villarreal 3 (Iborra 33, Moreno 64, Morlanes 71); Rennes 3 (Bourigeaud 42, Monreal 65-og, Sarr 88) bt Arsenal 1 (Iwobi 4); Chelsea 3 (Pedro 17, Willian 65, Hudson-Odoi 90) bt Dynamo Kiev 0; Napoli 3 (Milik 10, Ruiz 18, Onguene 58-og) bt Salzburg 0; Valencia 2 (Rodrigo 12, 24) bt Krasnodar 1 (Claesson 63) .
