By Bulldog Drummond
As we often do with these games, we can have a look at the results Chelsea and Arsenal have had in playing matches against each other and against Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.
Here to start us off are Chelsea’s games…
| Date | Match | Result | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | L | 1-1 (4-1) | Community Shield |
| 20 Aug 2017 | Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
| 17 Sep 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 30 Sep 2017 | Chelsea v Manchester City | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 05 Nov 2017 | Chelsea v Manchester United | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
| 25 Nov 2017 | Liverpool v Chelsea | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
So Chelsea have played six, won two, drawn two, lost two. Obviously if we take the Community Shield game out their record improves slightly to two wins, two draws, one defeat.
Arsenal against top six clubs reads
| Date | Match | Result | Score | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 1-1 (4-1) | Community Shield |
| 27 Aug 2017 | Liverpool v Arsenal | L | 4-0 | Premier League |
| 17 Sep 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 05 Nov 2017 | Manchester City v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 18 Nov 2017 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur | W | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester United | L | 1-3 | Premier League |
| 22 Dec 2017 | Arsenal v Liverpool | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
Played seven, won two, drawn two, lost three. Chelsea, having played one fewer game, slightly have the edge, and as noted above the including the Community Shield game does help Arsenal. Without that the results of won one, drawn, two, lost three are not so encouraging.
What is interesting in looking at these results is how imbalanced they are in terms of home and away – Chelsea got a run of three top six matches at home over a seven week period from September to early November, while Arsenal got a run of three away games early in the same period against Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City. Of course they all even up in the end, but it seems a curious way of arranging matches.
The games against Chelsea overall have been evenly balanced of late. Here are the results over a three year period from October 2014 to September 2017…
| 05 Oct 2014 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 26 Apr 2015 | Arsenal v Chelsea | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
| 02 Aug 2015 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 1-0 | FA Community Shield |
| 19 Sep 2015 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Premier League |
| 24 Jan 2016 | Arsenal v Chelsea | L | 0-1 | Premier League |
| 24 Sep 2016 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 3-0 | Premier League |
| 04 Feb 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 27 May 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 06 Aug 2017 | Arsenal v Chelsea | W | 1-1 | FA Community Shield |
| 17 Sep 2017 | Chelsea v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
The last ten games in all competitions have given Arsenal four wins, Chelsea four wins and there have been two draws but here that does include the Community Shield matches and an FA Cup game.
On the injury front things don’t look too good… Here is the regular physioroom chart
| Man down | What’s wrong | When’s he back | What about today? |
| S Kolasinac | Ankle Injury | January 14, 2018 | No |
| L Koscielny | Achilles Injury | January 3, 2018 | Late Fitness Test |
| M Ozil | Knee Injury | January 3, 2018 | Late Fitness Test |
| N Monreal | Ankle Injury | January 20, 2018 | No |
| O Giroud | Hamstring Injury | January 14, 2018 | No |
| A Ramsey | Hamstring Injury | January 10, 2018 | No |
| S Cazorla | Plantaris Injury | No Return Date | No |
I’m fed up saying that Santi shouldn’t be on the list because he is not listed in our 25 man squad, so I won’t say it any more. Oh. I just did.
Chelsea have but two men out, and both are certainly out for this game: Musdona who has a groin strain and Luiz who has a knee injury.
Mr Wenger’s comment was that ‘We lost Kolasinac, Koscielny in the game (at West Bromwich Albion). ‘The two who have a little chance… Ozil might have a test this morning. Koscielny is 30-70 available.
And yes there is a big big big transfer story in the offing. It is in the Daily Cannon and has the headline “Arsenal deal expected to be completed today.” And the story is “Charlton Athletic are reportedly set to sign Stephy Mavididi on loan again.” And later “Mavididi is allegedly set to embark on his second loan move to Charlton today (Tuesday).” And where does that allegation come from? Why, that other major source, LondonNewsOnLine.
Now we know.
Up next, the teams.
- Arsenal v Chelsea: the indicators that tend to be the best predictors of the result
- Arsenal v Chelsea Wednesday 3 January 20018 – The Match Officials
- Looking back at 2017: you will never be able to take that year away from us!
Looks bad with our injuries, but maybe, just maybe we may see one or two youth stars tonight?
Anyway, expectations are not great considering, but maybe, just maybe we will do it.
It won’t happen because he is far from fit but in theory Cazorla could play in tonight’s game
The believes among some of us the Gooners is not maybe Arsenal will do it tonight. But they have to do it and will do it firmly. For, the Gunners have no any other choice of option that is acceptable by us to choose from other than the only victory option of doing it to get a win over the Blues tonight at the Ems.
The intrigue beclouding this match are the FA charging of Le Boss for ungentlemanly behaviour charge in the last Arsenal away match to WBA in the PL. And misconduct charge for questioning Mike Dean’s match referring integrity in the PL. But if the FA deemed if so fit to charge Le Boss with such charges, the question which begs to put before the FA for answer is why didn’t the same FA charge Mike Dean for bringing the game to confusion for failing to make a penalty call correctly? If the FA hierarchies that accepted if referee Mike Dean had seen the handling incident properly, he will likely not have erred to give the penalty he gave to WBA are to be taken seriously in their sense of judgements charge.
I want to beseech the starting XI and on the bench 7 Gunners for this Chelsea match tonight not to allow the FA charging of Le Boss and the setback in points collection which they suffered from the WBA match bad officiating by referee Mike Dean to affect them mentally but be mentally strong than ever in their game against Chelsea and put them to the sword absolutely in the game tonight.