Similar to last week in Premiership, this week we got another London derby. Current Premiership leaders Chelsea take on Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea advanced through in the Champions league, while Arsenal get kicked out the previous week but they didn’t disappointed their fans vs. Bayern Munich (1-1).
Chelsea had an easier task on their hands on Stamford Bridge as they faced Galatasaray. Jose Mourinho troops dominated the entire game and won 2-0, and that victory led them to Champions League quarter finals.
Chelsea Team Info:
Chelsea are now the league leaders of Premiership, but they are not playing anywhere near their best football. But even without any spectacular performances Chelsea have still got the best league defence conceeding only 23 goals.
With the amount of star forwards and attacking midfielders that are playing in Premiership that is remarkable achievement in itself.
For this game Jose Mourinho will not be able to count on Ramires and Willian who are both on suspensions and Ashley Cole sidelined with a lateral knee ligament injury.
Young Belgian star Eden Hazard is without doubt Chelsea’s best player this season. He has been Chelsea’s best performing player this season, receiving the best ratings, best goal scorer and the most assists this season.
This season Mourinho has been playing his standard 4-2-3-1 tactic, so it is likely to expected Chelsea to keep the same formation on Saturday:
Arsenal Team Info:
Arsenal is placed third in the Premiership, only four points behind Chelsea but also with one game in hand. If they beat Chelsea on Saturday and Swansea on Tuesday then they could welll be top of the Premiership.
For the last couple of seasons Arsenal has suffered almost the same fate each season, they got very talented squad which play very good but falter behing as the injures cripple their squad.
This game is not any different with five players are on injury list and two are under question mark. Vassiriki Abou Diaby, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey are all out due to injures while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Nicklas Bendtner are under question mark for this game.
If we look at player statistics then it become clear on how many players will be missing for the Gunners in this game. Aaron Ramsey is best ranting player and Mesut Ozil with most assists, both players are injured.
France forward Olivier Giroud is the club’s leading goalscorer with 12 goals, but again behind him is injured trio Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil.
Arsenal have been playing 4-2-3-1 this season, but depending on games they play. That tactic sometimes changes to 4-1-4-1.
It is expected that due to nature of this game Wenger will go with two defensive midfielders in front of the defence which could be Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta:
Head-To-Head:
Both of these teams suffered defeat in last few weeks in Premiership, but also both team manage to beat Tottenham.
First Chelsea beat them 4-0 and in last week Arsenal beat them 1-0.
In terms of head to head Chelsea have got three wins, two draws and Arsenal have got only 1 win from last six games.
If we narrow down our comparison on home vs. away then Chelsea have won four and Arsenal two, but those victories were in 2011 (5-3) and in 2008 (2-1).
