Arsenal beat Wolves last weekend to maintain their push for the Premier League title but next up, they face a sterner and trickier test in the form of Chelsea, a team who are fresh out of defeat at the hands of Manchester City.
Arsenal have won 11 out of their last 13 EPL matches and currently, they sit at the top of the table, having played one more game than Manchester City. Each game is like a final for Mikel Arteta’s side right now because one slip and both City and Liverpool will move above them.
The Gunners have kept the most number of clean sheets in the league this season but they conceded two goals in a 2-2 draw the last time these two sides met back in October. Since then, Arsenal have been very solid and they will go into Tuesday’s match as the firm favourites.
Also, Chelsea suffered an FA Cup semi-final loss to Man City at the weekend so the Blues’ confidence will be at an all-time low. Having said that, Arsenal are going through a rough patch themselves because they have won just two out of their last five matches and last week, they were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
Arsenal’s team news and injuries:
The Arsenal manager shuffled his team for the Wolves game with Kiwior coming in at left-back and for the Chelsea, Zinchenko will once again have to warm the benches.
If Zinchenko is sat on the bench then the backline will remain unchanged.
Kai Havertz played in midfield at the weekend but Jorginho will come back into the side allowing the German to move back into the centre-forward’s role. This change means Gabriel Jesus will have to make way, along with Leandro Trossard who is going to be replaced by Gabriel Martinelli.
Trossard scored the first goal for Arsenal at Molineux while Jesus provided an assist but the pair are not first-choices and against a team like Chelsea, there’s no way they will be handed starts.
Thomas Partey had a positive impact as a sub against Wolves but Mikel Arteta will prefer Jorginho as his primary holding midfielder.
Jurrien Timber has been training with the squad for some time as he recovers from his ACL injury and there had been some rumours that he could be involved in the North London Derby next weekend.
Arteta, however, has made it clear that the Spurs game will come too early for him.
He said in his pre-match press conference: “That’s a quick step. Let’s see how he feels today. He’s been training really good. He looks ready. He needs that exposure and after that, we’ll assess whether that game comes at the right time or too fast. We’ll try to get him with us for the final games.”
Arsenal predicted line up vs Chelsea:
Predicted Starting XI(4-3-3): David Raya; Ben White, Gabriel, Saliba, Kiwior; Jorginho, Declan Rice, Odegaard; Bukayo Saka, Martinelli, Havertz.
