LONDON DERBY: ARSENAL’S INJURY WORRIES; CHELSEA’S ATTACK INDECISIVE
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Arsenal’s injury concerns have eased significantly over the last week and they will only be missing four players when they entertain Chelsea on Saturday evening: Danny Welbeck, Rob Holding, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Lucas Torreira will return to the starting XI after he was surprisingly dropped to the bench in last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham and Unai Emery must decide between Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi as his partner in midfield.
Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic have been in competition to partner Jorginho and N’Golo Kante all season and that will continue here.
It is in these matches that will convince someone like Callum Hudson-Odoi to stay or leave Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri is expected to pick Willian and Pedro ahead of the Bayern Munich target.
Alvaro Morata may not even be a Chelsea player by the time this match starts with a move to Atletico Madrid almost complete. Gonzalo Higuain is close to joining Chelsea but time is running out to have him available for this game.
Eden Hazard will more than likely start as a false nine against Arsenal, though Olivier Giroud will want to start against his former club.
Arsenal will be down to sixth in the table by the time this match starts if Manchester United avoid defeat at home to Brighton in one of Saturday’s 3pm fixtures. The Gunners were streaks ahead of United prior to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment but have endured a terrible run of two wins from their last five league matches.
Chelsea haven’t been much better either of late. Maurizio Sarri’s side have suffered a dip in form and haven’t won a match by more than a one-goal margin since beating Manchester City 2-0 over a month ago. The west London outfit has historically come out on top in this fixture but that has changed slightly in the last few league meetings between the two sides.
Neither London rival are at their best ahead of Saturday’s match and both know the consequences of defeat with Manchester United breathing down their necks. Will either side do enough to get all three points? A draw would be a great result for their top-six rivals.
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