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.
Good morning Rico, as the weather is so nice, down your way, I hope you were out for a nice early dog walk. 😎🐩
Strongest possible starting line-up today, any tired internationals can have a rest whirled on national service.
I fully agree, with you, shots on site from outside the box is the way to go.
While! Not whirled!
Morning Cicero, not yet this morning as it’s bloomin cold. 😜
Saka’s fame has spread as far as The Sunday Telegraph general knowledge crossword, his first name is the answer to 54 across, now what could that be? Six letters fourth letter is “A”.
Arsenal team news
Team to play Chelsea: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Martinelli, Merino, Trossard
Subs: Neto, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji, Nwaneri
Can’t think what it could be Cicero… lol
Nice post Rico.
Brighton drawing with Man City was handy, Forest are breathing down our necks, so we have to get at least a draw vs Chelsea to maintain our lead, narrow lead that it is.
Saka looking close to a return after the Interlull, his return could just about get us over the line for 2nd?
Lots of Geordies in London yesterday most of them carrying supermarket bags of beer. So a few sore heads today on the Underground as they weave their way to Wembley.
Thanks Kev.
Having Saka back will a huge boost.
I think I’d rather Newcastle win later although it’s always nice to see a dejected Shearer. Not as good as seeing that idiot Carragher all red faced and close to tears though..
Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, M L S, Partey, Odegaard, Rice, Martinelli, Merino, Trossard.
Afternoon everyone. It’s not often I get to say this but it’s 32 degrees here in Dubai 😉.
Definitely a must win for all of the reasons you gave Rico. Forest are the scary team at the moment doing a “Leicester”, though I don’t see Littlepool losing that many games over the next few weeks and I’d like to think we won’t either.
You wouldn’t expect Saka to hit the ground running but here’s hoping.
Hi there!
come on Arsenal!
We must shoot…
Earwig O!
First shot… first miss. Trossard.
penalty at anfield
Good afternoon Gunners
Lovely post Rico. And like you said we are shooting. However we haven’t scored yet.
Oh we have
Merino makes it 1-0
he is finding his feet as a CF
One nil to the Arsenal. Merino with a looping header from a corner.
Lucky you Berg..
1-0 up, nice…
Thanks Devil.
Home fans are in full throttle.. love it.
All those shots and we haven’t yet scored with one……Merino’s goal was a header so technically we haven’t yet scored with a shot.
One side of me wants Merino to succeed till the end of the season as a CF, scoring a good amount of goals to help us.
The other side is afraid….very much afraid that if he is a big success, the club might think that him and Havertz are the answers to the CF position and they strengthen elsewhere and not buy Sesko or someone as a CF
Chelsea leaving their collective ‘feet in’ it seems, not sure about this referee on past experience.
Dev, I’m fairly confident that our new Director of Football won’t procrastinate and will bring in not only one but two strikers.
He bloody needs to…
I too think we’ll sign a striker or two regardless of what we do between now and the end of May. Really can’t see the club cocking up another transfer window.