- Arsenal v Chelsea: what’s happened so far between the two clubs?
- Arsenal’s record against Italian teams in Europe
By Tony Attwood
The Standard announced that Arsenal have completed two more the signings before this game: Habeeb Ogunneye and Axel Donczew. Ogunneye joins on a free transfer from Manchester United , Axel came from Cardiff.
Elsewhere the Standard offer us this team for the match today
Raya;
White, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Rice, Lewis-Skelly;
Saka, Odegaard, Tzolis;
Havertz
with the added note that Saliba is injured, which I think we knew. Mosquera, Timber, Guimaraes are said to have fitness concerns.
Football Line Ups offer a slight variation….
Raya,
Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Calafiori,
Gabriel, White, Rice, Ødegaard,
Saka, Havertz, Tzolis,
Meanwhile we can of course now report the final collection of insw, outs and loans
Players transferred into Arsenal . It should be noted that Arsenal have not disclosed any of the amounts of money have have changed hands over any of the players listed below, so where you might read a sum listed in the media (or even on this site!) it is going to be a guess.
The incoming players are listed below with links to their pages on the official Arsenal site.
- Bruno Guimaraes – Newcastle United
- Piero Hincapie – Bayer Leverkusen
- Ezri Konsa – Aston Villa
- Illan Meslier – Leeds United (free transfer)
- Christos Tzolis – Club Brugge
OUTS
- Karl Hein – Werder Bremen
- Jakub Kiwior – Porto
- Christian Norgaard – Everton
- Leandro Trossard – Besiktas
- Reiss Nelson – released
- Fabio Vieira – Hamburg
- Gabriel Jesus – Barcelona
- Ethan Nwaneri – Borussia Dortmund (loan)
- Tommy Setford – Stevenage (loan)
And so after all the fuss and listing of names in the media that is it, and as ever the media got it wrong, so that they can spend the time from now until the next window telling us who Arsenal should have bought, without any explanation as to why, if these journalists know so much they don’t go and earn a huge amount more actually working for Arsenal and getting it right so we win the league.
Except that we did win the league..
David Raya. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Illan Meslier (3)
William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Gabriel, Jurrien Timber, Ezri Konsa, Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly (9)
Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze, Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi, Bruno Guimaraes, Declan Rice (6)
FORWARDS
Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyökeres, Christos Tzolis, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz (5)
That makes 23 players, exactly the number that we had at the start of last season. It obviously does include some under 21 players – I have not checked all the ages but I am sure Myles Lewis Skelly is only 19.
This is an interesting move by Arsenal since it clearly shows that the management were not willing to accept second best players if they couldn’t get the right man for the 25 man squad.
It also means that come January, if there is a player who is available and Arsenal want to buy they can indeed buy him without worrying about the size of the squad, and the need perhaps to let a player go in order to keep within the 25 man rules…
I perhaps should add for clarity that there is an article “How every Premier League club could line up in 2026/27” published on PremierLeague.com which has a different listing which does get to the 25 player total, but it includes several players who have now left the club, and so is slightly out of date and thus not been used here.
But as ever if you spot errors, please to write in and correct them. Contrary to popular belief I am only human.
You missed out that Martinelli has been our record sale.
Great performance and result. Hard to pick a stand-out player. All starters and subs played their part.
Chelsea now much tougher opponents under Alonso than last season.
Palmer should have had a red card, for numerous yellow card offences and ref was clearly on their side in the awarding or non-awarding of free-kicks.
Also a mention for Ainsley Maitland-Niles for his last second fantastic goal against MU
oh happy days…
What fun to watch Arsenal play with the handbrake off and shifting into high gears.
This team is better then last year IMHO.
Chelsea made 9 fouls in the first half. This had not happened since 2024-2025…. so don’t tell me they are a ball playing team now.
That being said, I believe it was a good thing to face them so early in the season
Another 3 points . Sad that we conceded a goal .
WOO HOO, HOO !
Up the Gunners !