Derby County are currently trailing Arsenal 2-1 at half-time in their Premier League encounter at pride Park on Monday night.

The home-side, already facing relegation to The Championship next season, started the first-half the brighter of the two sides, and pushed the Arsenal defence hard for the first twenty-five minutes of the match, but couldn't find a way through.

Against the run-of-play, Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner scored the opening goal in the 25th minute, after a dreadful defensive mistake by Darren Moore.

Jay McEveley scored the deserved equaliser in the 31st minute, toe-poking the ball home past Lukasz Fabianski, who was making his first Premier League appearance for The Gunners, to make it 1-1.

This seemed to galvanise Arsenal, who suddenly began to take control of the match and it wasn’t long before the visitors took the lead.

Robin van Persie, who had missed a couple of opportunities earlier in the half, gave Arsenal the lead again in the 39th minute.

The Dutch striker chested down a beautifully lofted chip from Kolo Toure, before smashing it past Roy Carroll In the Derby goal to make it 2-1.

The half finished with Arsenal in command, despite the early pressure from Derby County.

DERBY COUNTY 2-6 ARSENAL FULL-TIME UPDATE: CLICK TO VIEW

Derby County Team: Roy Carroll, Andy Todd, Darren Moore, Alan Stubbs, James McEveley, Tyrone Mears, Hossam Ghaly, Robbie Savage, Eddie Lewis, Mile Sterjovski, Emanuel Villa.

Derby County Substitutes: Lewis Price, Marc Edworthy, Robert Earnshaw, Benny Feilhaber, Jason Beardsley.

Arsenal Team: Lukasz Fabianski, Kolo Toure, William Gallas, Alexandre Song, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue, Cesc Fabregas, Neven Denilson, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin van Persie.

Arsenal Substitutes:Manuel Almunia, Philippe Senderos, Gilberto, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Adebayor.