This weekend's London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal perhaps has less significance than many would have thought at this stage of the season. Chelsea are cruising through their campaign, whereas the Gunners keep on slipping up at pivotal moments.
Earlier in the season Arsenal blew away their rivals at the Emirates Stadium, winning 3-0 thanks to goals from Alexis Sánchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Özil. However at a ground where they don't fare particularly well at, it will be a completely different proposition this Saturday.
On that occasion Chelsea were in relatively poor form, but the tide has turned now with the Blues sitting pretty at the top.
Arsenal need to bounce back
If there was ever a game Arsenal needed to bounce back in, it would be this one against Chelsea. It would be wrong to suggest that a win at Stamford Bridge would get their season back on track, because in some senses their title bid was over before defeat to Watford. However what a win would do, is restore some confidence and faith back in Arsenal supporters.
The Gunners have earned many late points this season, performances that looked to suggest that there was a different steel within this crop of players. However, defeats to the likes of Everton and Watford in the past month and a half have been damning and indicate that this team just haven't learnt from previous seasons. There has to be an improvement against Chelsea on Saturday but it will be hard to see where that will come from.
Everyone knows what Arsenal can do in attack, and they have considerable options in that position at the moment. The win over Southampton proved that, but against Watford, Arsene Wenger opted for a vastly different front three, and it didn't seem to work.
Defensively though the Gunners will have to improve significantly, especially against the likes of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard. Shkodran Mustafi suffered his first defeat as an Arsenal player in midweek and he wasn't great so his performance against Chelsea will be watched with great intrigue.
Chelsea look to extend advantage
The league leaders drew just their second game of the season in midweek when they dropped points away at Liverpool, another team that appeared to be in the mix. However Chelsea's advantage over the teams behind them is nine points. It is hard to see Antonio Conte's side losing three matches between now and the end of the season but who knows what could happen before campaign's climax in May.
It is safe to say that if Arsenal lose to Chelsea at the weekend they can firmly put any title ambitions for this season behind them. As for the hosts, it will only further their grip on this season's Premier League.
Chelsea will need to show an improvement of their own going into this game though. Their record against the teams around them this season hasn't been overly amazing, despite an impressive win over Manchester City earlier in the season so they will be looking to assert themselves to a degree.
David Luiz scored a brilliant free-kick in midweek but aside from that their attacking outlets weren't as free flowing as we've come to expect this season; something that was summed up by Costa's penalty which was kept out.
Team news
The visitors go into this game with just one fit central midfielder among their ranks; Francis Coquelin. Aaron Ramsey suffered an injury against Watford and will face around three weeks out whilst Mohamed Elneny was injured on international duty with Egypt who have reached the Africa Cup of Nations final so he won't play a part. Santi Cazorla still remains out and Granit Xhaka will serve the third game of his suspension.
That means that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is expected to start centrally after starring against Southampton last weekend.
Olivier Giroud came off at half-time in midweek and has since had a test, but he should be fit to play against Chelsea. Danny Welbeck meanwhile is expected to come back into the squad after sitting out against Watford. Gabriel had a torrid game last time out so Hector Bellerin should come back in at right back too.
For Chelsea, they essentially have a fully fit squad of players so their line-up will likely have a very familiar look to it. Pedro didn't start against Liverpool but he may well return in place of Willian who took the Spaniard's place on Tuesday. Meanwhile Cesc Fabregas could play against his former employers.