Arsenal will welcome Premier League and local rivals Chelsea to the Emirates stadium tonight for the 4th round of the year’s Capital One Cup tournament. Having beaten West Bromwich Albion in the 3rd round, Arsenal were only expecting a tougher opponent from then on and we now seem to be ready to face up to that challenge with a visit from the Blues.

Chelsea, who currently occupy second place in the Premier League, take on first placed Arsenal at the Gunners stadium tomorrow night in what is sure to be a highly contested and exciting match for fans of both teams as well as the neutrals. With both teams doing so well so far this season, it may well be a clash of the titans and whilst it will be interesting to witness Jose’s return to Chelsea vs Arsenal, what is more interesting from an Arsenal fan’s perspective is how well we can play against the toughest opposition.

So far this season we have faced some difficult teams, mainly in the Champions League against Napoli and Dortmund. However so far we haven’t really been tested by any Premier League title challengers, except for Spurs if you want to count them. So with Chelsea being the first real big club from English football to face Arsenal this season, it will be interesting to see how we face up against them, especially as our record against the top 4 clubs is recently pretty poor.

So ahead of the game there aren’t any real concerns regarding injuries except for the news that Flamini won’t be available, whilst the likes of Frimpong and Gnabry will face fitness tests to see if they can be involved. Wenger was also quick to state that Ryo Miyaichi could be involved as well as Jack Wilshere. But Mikel Arteta will miss out with a one match ban.

From the sounds of things Wenger is looking to send out a side mixed of both youth and experience to balance the books against a tough opponent, whilst also keeping his philosophy. Therefore I expect the Arsenal side to line up as follows:

Szczesny
Jenkinson Mertesacker Vermaelen Monreal
Hayden Wilshere
Cazorla
Gnabry Giroud Miyaichi

In my opinion it’s not the kind of team I would put out because I think there are some obvious weaknesses in there. I would say that Ozil would play but bearing in mind he hasn’t been rested since the day he joined I think this may be the game our German superstar misses out on. Ramsey could very well play but he and Cazorla also probably need to be rested.

Overall I’m expecting a very tricky game, depending on the Chelsea line up possibly the toughest game yet however once again it’s a game that we are very much capable of winning, especially with the team on form.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.