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Morning all.
It’s a cold and frosty one in West Berkshire but the sun is shining and it’s going to be a beautiful day.
Arsenal face Chelsea at The Emirates at lunchtime today.
This fixture last season saw us run out 5-0 winners but not for one minute do I expect a repeat scoreline. Trossard scored our opening going within five minutes of the game starting and then both Havertz and White scored two each to finish the West London side off. Pochettino was Chelsea’s manager back then and despite having a multimillion pound squad, he couldn’t get them playing well enough to save himself from the sack.
The away fixture back in November was a much closer affair with neither side able to take all three points. An offside flag denied Havertz before Martinelli gave us the lead but the Neto equalised around ten minutes later. We had opportunities to nick all three points before the referee blew the final whistle but we had to settle for the draw.
With Nottingham Forest winning yesterday, there’s now just one point between us in second place and them in third and domestically, that’s what our season is about now – securing top four, hopefully second. Chelsea and Man City aren’t far behind us although Guardiola’s side dropped another two points yesterday at home against Brighton.
Our last home match, which was back in February, ended in a 1-0 defeat to West Ham. Arsenal’s performance was not very good. Mikel Arteta was angry after the game, with himself and the performance because as he put it, the team didn’t reach the level required to win the game. The following game, away to Nottingham Forest, was better as far as Arsenal’s performance goes but again, we lacked a cutting edge in attack.
Saying that, so have Chelsea this year apparently. Palmer has reportedly gone through a sticky patch and Jackson has been out injured for a while and will miss today’s game too. Madueke and Guiu are ruled out and Mudryk is serving a provisional ban after testing positive for a banned substance.
Thankfully, Arsenal don’t have an additional injuries after the game in midweek.
_Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme:_
_Maresca’s preferred formation is a 4-2-3-1, but in possession his side often look more like a 3-2-5. The Italian likes one of his full-backs to push on into very advanced areas and swing the other around to make up a back three when they build from deep. Left back Marc Cucurella is the man most likely to take up attacking positions, often popping up as an unorthodox inside forward._
_Chelsea boast the second highest average share of the ball this term, on 58%. As they are so capable of pinning rival teams back, the Blues have had the third-highest number of shots in 2024/25. In terms of expected goals, they also rank second in the division. In my opinion, Chelsea are at their most threatening on the counter. Liverpool are the only side to have had more shots from fast breaks than Maresca’s men, who have scored seven times on the counter-attack._
_The central midfield unit of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, with Cole Palmer in front as a No. 10 is the beating heart. When space opens, they love to slide through balls in behind – and in that department they are the joint most productive team in the division alongside Aston Villa. The absence of injured striker Nicolas Jackson has impacted this strength though. Without his blistering speed they are not finding it as easy to penetrate opposition backlines._
_Individual errors have plagued them all season. Remarkably, only Southampton have seen more errors lead to shots against them than the west Londoners who have leaked 12 goals from individual mistakes._
Chelsea’s keeper isn’t the best in the league by far so I’m hoping Arteta has had a word with his players. Shoot on sight rather than try and score the perfect goal. Any goal is a perfect goal in my book because they all count. I don’t even care if a Martinelli shot is way off target if it hits a Chelsea defenders backside and lands in the back of the net. We’re up against a team which huffed and puffed its way to a 1-0 win over a dreadful Leicester team last weekend. We have to win this one not only to put a bit more space between them and us but because it’s Chelsea, because it’s a London Derby and because the fans deserve to see us win at home.
The midfield battle should be tasty, Cucurella’s sneaky and dirty play needs to be kept an eye on by Chris Kavanagh and if at all possible, Arsenal need to avoid doing anything which ends up with VAR making a decision because Gillet has that duty todays and he’s last person we want or need making a decision on one of our players.
Arsenal are overdue a big league performance, let’s hope today is the day we get one.
Catch up in the comments.