Premier League
Arsenal vs Chelsea Preview
Emirates Stadium, London – Arsenal and Chelsea meet in a crucial battle for a top-four spot on Saturday with six points currently separating the two sides in the Premier League table.
Sarri’s team enter the weekend in fourth place and victory in north London would see them go nine points clear of Arsenal, currently fifth, in the race for Champions League qualification.
Arsenal aren’t quite clicking, Chelsea are clicking, or certainly passing, too much. Maurizio Sarri’s style of football doesn’t appear to be as effective as it was at the start of the season while Unai Emery’s Arsenal feel like a bit of a mish-mash of styles, as though they are a club stuck in transition.
Previous Encounters:
- Arsenal have won just one of their last 14 league games against Chelsea (D5 L8), with that win coming at the Emirates in September 2016 (3-0)
- Chelsea ran out 3-2 winners in the return fixture at Stamford Bridge.
View From Both Camps:
Unai Emery (Arsenal):
“After our loss to West Ham, it is a big difference to be six points behind Chelsea instead of three points. The opportunity we now have against Chelsea is not the same but, if we win, we have the opportunity to be closer to them.”
“With a player like Hazard, usually all of the big teams in the world will think about the possibility of trying to sign them. “He is in the top five players in the world. He has been the difference in a lot of matches.”
“I think the best possibility for us when we can’t control the match like we want is to sometimes use three centre-backs. But at other moments, we need to play with full-backs because we need to control a different situation, with more players in the midfield.”
Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea):
“This match for us is a risk, and an opportunity. A risk, of course, because they’re doing very well at home, so it’s a very difficult and dangerous match for us. And, as you said before, it’s a great opportunity for us. ”
“In the offensive phase, I think they are one of the best teams in the Premier League – really very dangerous. So the match will be really very difficult and, for us, will be really very important.”
Team News:
Emery could welcome Ozil back into his squad after he was dropped for last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at West Ham.
The Gunners have no fresh injury concerns heading into the game, with Rob Holding (knee), Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Danny Welbeck (both ankle) still missing.
With only Ruben Loftus-Cheek (back) out, Sarri has choices to make against Arsenal, particularly up front.
Predicted Lineups:
Arsenal (3-4-3): Leno; Mustafi, Sokratis, Koscielny; Bellerin, Torreira, Xhaka, Kolasinac; Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Chelsea (4-3-3): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic; Pedro, Hazard, Willian.
Match Prediction:
Neither of these sides have been in the best form lately, but Arsenal simply have to go for the win in this match and that could leave their already-leaky defence even more vulnerable. Arsenal have to win this game otherwise it’s all in for the Europa League, which may actually help as they can then concentrate on that competition as they will be out of the top-four race.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Chelsea
Photo credit to James Anderson via Flickr
