Chelsea v Arsenal: the Arsenal signing and the Arsenal injuries
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By Tony Attwood
Ahead of today’s game, Arsenal are reporting three players out injured. Mikel Merino is, of course, out for a long spell, Max Dowman is out for even longer and now we have the problem with Bukayo Saka. In this case, no one is being very clear about how long he will be out for, We all hope not for long.
Yesterday, Arteta said, “It doesn’t look like something too serious. Whether he’s going to be available for tomorrow or the weekend, we’ll see.’
But even so, we will still have a bash at predicting the line-up.. Especially since the current “Last six games table” has Arsenal and Chelsea sitting second and third in the league. This table comes from The Fishy.
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Football 365 have as their line up a 4 2 3 1 formation…
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Rice, Zubimendi;
Madueke, Odegaard, Trossard;
Gyokeres.
But as we ponder such things, we should also remember what recent results between Chelsea and Arsenal have looked like, and these results do cover the last nine games, not games selected in relation to specific competitions.
Date Game Res Score Competition
20 Apr 2022 Chelsea v Arsenal W 2-4 Premier League
06 Nov 2022 Chelsea v Arsenal W 0-1 Premier League
02 May 2023 Arsenal v Chelsea W 3-1 Premier League
21 Oct 2023 Chelsea v Arsenal D 2-2 Premier League
23 Apr 2024 Arsenal v Chelsea W 5-0 Premier League
10 Nov 2024 Chelsea v Arsenal D 1-1 Premier League
16 Mar 2025 Arsenal v Chelsea W 1-0 Premier League
30 Nov 2025 Chelsea v Arsenal D 1-1 Premier League
14 Jan 2026 Chelsea v Arsenal W 2-3 League Cup
One can, of course, see such charts in two ways – either as a promising sign that Arsenal are regularly beating Chelsea, or that after such a run, surely Chelsea will have learned how to get their own back.
But here is an extra thought from Football 365 on this topic. Only two of the 32 teams to win the first leg of an EFL Cup semi-final tie away from home have been eliminated. They were West Ham in 1971-72 (vs Stoke) and Tottenham in 1986-87 (vs Arsenal). However, they do also make the point that “Arsenal have kept just one clean sheet in their last seven games at the Emirates, while Chelsea have scored 19 goals in their seven games with Rosenior.”
TalkSport seem to have given up on making team predictions but the Metro give us
Kepa;
White Saliba Gabriel Calafiori,
Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice
MadukeGyokeres Martinelli
MSN have gone a bit strange, only telling us their vision of the Chelsea team. So we move on to Football Today…
Kepa
Hincapie, Saliba, Magalhaes, Timber,
Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard,
Trossard, Jesus, Madueke.
There is also some chit-chat around to the effect that Arsenal don’t really bother with the League Cup, seeing it as a handy way of giving players who are not normally in the squad practice. But I would suggest that Arteta has noticed the constant, recurrent and really rather tedious commentary to the effect that under him Arsenal have only won one trophy – the FA Cup.
Now, of course, we all know what a total rebuilding job Arteta has had to do, having to take apart the squad that his predecessor left at the club. What’s more, this “have to win a trophy” and “winning mentality” and all that palaver is in fact just media tedium. Those of us who have been watching and supporting the Arsenal for many a long year know that the performances we have seen in the last few seasons have been magical compared to what happened in the few years before. Yes, obviously we all like to see Arsenal win trophies, but many of us also want to see Arsenal play in the stylish, adventurous approach that we saw during the first part of Wenger’s tenure, before he had to cut expenditure to pay for the stadium.
So obviously, we all want to see an Arsenal victory, or failing that a draw to see us through to the final, but we also want this wonderful new approach that Arteta has gradually been putting together. If we can have both, then that’s wonderful. But one of the two is better than nothing.
It is not about winning, no matter the cost. If it were, I’d support ManC.
But I don’t.
.
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Chelsea v Arsenal: the Arsenal signing and the Arsenal injuries
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