Q:

Defeat vs Victory

I recently heard a news report about a football match, which spoke of "Arsenal's defeat of Chelsea by three goals to nil". 
Can the word "defeat" be used in this way? (BTW Arsenal won the match 3-0)  - it strikes me as odd/incorrect, because if they just said "Arsenal's defeat", I would take it to mean Arsenal lost. By sticking "of Chelsea" on the end, does it turn it around?
Surely they should have said, "Arsenal's victory over Chelsea"

A:

The American Heritage Dictionary gives two definitions of defeat as a noun. Note the example given in definition (a):

a. The act of defeating an opponent: the home team's defeat of their
rivals.
b. The state of being defeated; failure to win: the home
team's defeat by their rivals.

