Derby County have lost 6-2 to Arsenal in their Premier League encounter at pride Park on Monday night, despite a concerted challenge in the first-half of the match, but Emmanuel Adebayor dashing any hopes with a second-half hat-trick.

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 to The Gunners.

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

The second-half saw Arsenal take complete command of the match, with Emmanuel Adebayor replacing Robin van Persie at the break, and with the Togolese striker sealing a second-half hat-trick.

Adebayor made it 3-1 in the 59th minute, but Derby striker Robbie Earnshaw brought some hope of a result back in the 77th minute scoring to make it 3-2.

Arsenal then completely ran riot over Derby, with Theo Walcott scoring Arsenal's fourth goal just two minutes later to take the game away from The Rams.

Adebayor scored twice in the last 10 minutes of the match to seal the win for Arsenal who, despite all the talk of Manchester United and Chelsea, could still mathematically win The English Premier League this season.

Togo international Adebayor had an excellent match, summed-up by winning the match ball for his three goals.

Derby County Team: Roy Carroll, Andy Todd, Darren Moore, Alan Stubbs, James McEveley, Tyrone Mears, Hossam Ghaly (Benny Feilhaber, 60), Robbie Savage, Eddie Lewis, Mile Sterjovski (69, Robert Earnshaw), Emanuel Villa.

Derby County Substitutes Not Used: Lewis Price, Marc Edworthy, Jason Beardsley.

Arsenal Team: Lukasz Fabianski, Kolo Toure (Johan Djourou, 78), William Gallas, Alexandre Song, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue, Cesc Fabregas, Neven Denilson (Gilberto Silva, 64), Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin van Persie (Emmanuel Adebayor, 45).

Arsenal Substitutes Not Used: Manuel Almunia, Philippe Senderos.