Arsenal will host Chelsea this Sunday at the Emirates stadium in what promises to be high octane and intense London Derby. Both sides had drastically different starts to this season.
Arsenal come into this match off the back of a Humiliating two-nil defeat to Brentford in what was a disappointing display from Mikel Arteta and his team.
The result means that Arsenal come into the match sitting in 17th above Crystal Palace, Norwich City, Leeds United purely on goal difference and with Matches against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur before the end of September this is already looking like a must win for Arsenal.
In contrast, Chelsea started the season in style by comprehensively beating Crystal Palace by three goals to nil with Trevoah Chalobah also scoring one of the best goals of the opening weekend.
It means unlike Arsenal, Chelsea sit pretty in second place behind Manchester United and will be looking to build on their momentum. However, like Arsenal Chelsea have a difficult set of fixtures with them having to play Liverpool, City, and Spurs as well as Aston Villa before the end of September.
Team news
Mikel Arteta has several injury worries ahead of the match with Chelsea. Pierre-Emerick Aubamyang and Alexander Lacazette are both doubts having missed the match last week due to illness, while Eddie Nketiah, Thomas Partey, and Gabriel are all expected to be absent due to injury. New signing Nuno Tavares could start at right back to try and give Arsenal more of a threat going forward
Tuchel has only 2 major injury concerns ahead of the trip to Arsenal, with Hakim Ziyech still recovering from his shoulder injury sustained during Chelsea's super cup win while Ruben Loftus-Cheek tested positive for covid 19 earlier this week. Ngolo Kante is expected to be back after his ankle injury while Romelu Lukaku is in line to make his first Chelsea start this season after his transfer from Inter Milan.
Predicted Lineups
Arsenal: Leno, Tierney, Mari, White, Tavares, Lokonga, Xhaka, Saka, Smith-Row, Pepe, Martinelli
Chelsea: Mendy, Rudiger, Silva, Chalobah, Alonso, James, Jorginho, Kante, Mount, Lukaku, Werner
Ones to watch
Although he did not start the match against Brentford due to a lack of match fitness Bukayo Saka was exactly the player Arsenal looked like they needed. His pace and Directness in taking on defenders helps Arsenal create chances.
Arteta could bring him into the side to replace Gabriell Martinelli on the left hand side , who had a very quiet game against Brentford.
Anyone who watched England at the Euros knows the vital role Saka played them in unlocking defenses, and against a team with a rigid defence such as Chelsea he could be the key to unlocking it and help Arsenal to win the game.
Romelu Lukaku
By far one of the biggest transfers of the summer, Romelu Lukaku will be hoping to make an instant impact if he starts against Palace. Having scored 47 goals in 72 matches in Serie A as well as four goals at the euros this summer.
Chelsea will be hoping he will be able to replicate his from for them this season. If Lukaku does start it means the Arsenal defence will have to be absolutely perfect and not make any mistakes otherwise they will be punished.
In particular Ben White who had an absolute nightmare against Ivan Toney's physicality last week, losing most of the ariel duels to him.
Last time out
Arsenal and Chelsea last faced each other 20 days ago in the mind series at Stamford Bridge which Chelsea won by two goals one thanks to some bad individual mistakes from Arsenal.
Arsenal started brightly with Pierre-Emerick Aubamyang flicking the ball out to Kieran Tierney on the left wing who put a dangerous cross into the six-yard area however no one was able to get onto the end of it.
However, it was Chelsea that scored first in the 28th minute. They recovered the ball and caught Arsenal high up the pitch,. Timo Werner was left one on one Pablo Mari and after carrying the ball a few yards slid the ball through to Kai Havertz who smashed the ball into the top corner.
Chelsea nearly got a second minutes later when Werner got in behind the Arsenal defense again however his short went wide of Bernd Leno's near post.
After the period of domination from Chelsea, they very nearly gifted Arsenal a goal. Ruben Loftus-Cheek's pass was intercepted in Chelsea's final third and Smith Rowe hit a dangerous curling shot towards the Chelsea goal but it hit the post. Ziyech also hit the post before halftime.
After a sustained period of pressure Arsenal finally got an equalizer in the 68th minute. Granit Xhaka managed to lose Danny Drinkwater at the back bost and rose tallest to power the header past Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Chelsea goal.
However they were not level for long as just four minutes later after a horrendous error from Hector Bellerin, Tammy Abraham cooly and confidently dispatched the ball into the bottom right-hand corner beating Leno.
How to watch
Fans in the UK can tune to Sky Sports at 16:30 to catch all the action while fans in the US can tune to NBC to catch all the action.