Arsenal - Match Preview

[Barbara 15,149]

The Match

Arsenal will receive Chelsea at the Emirates to close Premier League 17^th round, on Monday at 8pm and the top of the table is at stake. The teams have played earlier this season for League Cup also at North London, with Chelsea winning 2x0, but neither team played with their first squad and the context is completely differently for the Premiership match. With the top of the table at stake, the Blues could reach the top position alongside Liverpool (but second in goals deficit to the Reds) whereas Arsenal need to win to keep the highest position. Currently Chelsea stand at 5^th making the win all more important to keep the team in the Champions League zone and also to have a close gap to the leaders.

After the anticlimactic elimination in the League Cup to Sunderland, last Tuesday, José Mourinho signalized that he may adopt a more defensive posture seeing as the attack hasn’t been scoring enough and the defense has been leaky. The last time Chelsea had a clean sheet in the Premier League was at November 23^rd when the team won the London derby against West Ham, 3x0. Ever since the team has played four times for the national league and conceded eight times. Arsenal have also struggled in the last couple of weeks. In addition to the 1x1 draw against Everton, the team was smashed by Manchester City last weekend, 6x3 for the Citizens and also faced a defeat in Champions League to Napoli, missing the top position in their group. The match is redeeming for both sides after such disappointment results, in such a critical time of the season with matches pilling up as the holidays approach.

Teams News

Arsenal

Starting with the home team, Arsenal will miss defender Laurent Koscielny due to injury and Jack Wilshere for misconduct after the central midfielder flashed his middle finger to Manchester City’s supporters last in the embarrassing defeat. On the brighter side, the French manager can count with Polish striker Lukas Podolski who’s recovered from a hamstring injury.

The scouting report for Arsenal can be found here.

Form (latest first): LDWWWL

Key-player: Mesut Ozil.

Possible lineup: Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Monreal; Flamini, Arteta; Ramsey, Wallcott, Özil; Giroud (4-2-3-1).

Chelsea

Mourinho has Branislav Ivanovic back to the squad after the defender missed the League Cup match for collecting a 5^th yellow card against Palace. The Portuguese already confirmed most of the defenders – the Serbian himself, John Terry and Cesar Azpilicueta. The only doubt is who to play by the Blues’ skipper, the manager said he hadn’t made a decision between David Luiz and Gary Cahill. Midfielder Michael Essien can’t be selected, after also being suspended for reaching yellow card’s limit.

Form (latest first): WLWWWD

Key-player: Eden Hazard

Even a provisional squad for Mourinho’s side has been difficult to predict this season, and while the manager confirmed 80% of his defense (supposing Petr Cech also plays), the attacking midfielders’ and striker’s are anyone’s guesses.

Possible lineups: Cech; Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Schürrle, Oscar, Hazard; Torres (4-2-3-1).

Stats and Facts

§ Head to head: 183 matches - 71 Arsenal wins, 58 Chelsea wins and 54 draws.

§ Chelsea have won the three most recent matches.

§ Chelsea have kept just one clean sheet in their last 11 Premier League matches.

§ Wenger has never won against Mourinho as an opposition manager, with four draws and five losses in all competitions.

§ Juan Mata has scored in each of his four starts against Arsenal in all competitions for Chelsea.

§ Last time Arsenal went three Premier League matches without a win was in January, the third match then being against Chelsea.

§ Chelsea have scored at least twice in each of their last six matches – 16 goals total.

Match Odds by SkyBet

Arsenal – 11/8

Draw - 12/5

Chelsea – 15/8

TV coverage

United Kingdom: Sky Sports 1/HD

Belgium: Sporting 1

Brazil: FoxSports (HD)

Canada: Sportsnet

India: Star Sports 2 (HD), Star Sports 4

Middle East: Al Jazeera Sports HD1, HD6

United States: NBCSN

For additional regions, you can check out the TV schedule for the match here.

There should be many match streams that can be found online if your local sports channels are not broadcasting the game or if you happen to be busy and cannot catch the game live, follow TalkChelsea on Twitter as it would provide live match commentary on the action.

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[CHOULO19 24,332]

Great work, Barbara. Very refreshing from the boring crap that @ has been writing for the past couple of weeks!