Cech came off his line to claim Fabregas' corner on the stroke of half-time but the Blues keeper was left grasping at thin air as the ball sailed over him and onto the head of Gallas, who gleefully nodded home against his former club.

Arsenal welcomed back midfield trio Cesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb for the second half of 'Grand Slam Sunday' but there was little in the way of entertainment until Gallas struck.

Chelsea had already survived one near-embarrassment, though, when Alex headed a long ball back towards his own goal and over the advancing Cech, who was grateful to see the ball bounce a couple of yards wide.

Manuel Almunia made two smart saves to deny Shaun Wright-Phillips and Andriy Shevchenko at the other end, but the main talking point of a disappointing first half was an injury to John Terry.

The England skipper was caught by a bad challenge from Emmanuel Eboue in the 35th minute and hobbled off a few minutes later after initially trying to run the knock off. News later filtered through that he has suffered a suspected broken metatarsal.

The second period struggled to get going, with a series of stray passes from both sides ensuring little goalmouth action.

Wright-Phillips flashed a low drive just wide and Almunia saved well from Mikel John Obi before the former missed a gilt-edged chance to level things up with 15 minutes remaining.

Frank Lampard's dink into the box flicked off Gallas' head and into the path of Wright-Phillips, who blasted his volley wide from close range when he should have scored.

Robin van Persie came off the bench and soon missed a great chance to kill the game off following a cutback in the box from Alexander Hleb, while fellow substitute Salomon Kalou hit the back stanchion with a 20-yard effort at the other end.

Van Persie and Adebayor had efforts rightly ruled out for offside as Arsenal pushed forward late on, with Cech also making a superb double save to deny van Persie's 12-yard effort and Fabregas' follow up with two minutes remaining.

Shevchenko was twice denied at the other end, from a header and a free-kick, by Almunia but Arsenal held on for a deserved win and even had one final chance to double their advantage in stoppage time - Fabregas denied by an Ashley Cole block.