Chelsea vs. Arsenal
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick off: 1:30pm
The highlight fixture of this weekend’s Premier League action comes at Stamford Bridge, where champions Chelsea host Arsenal on Wednesday (today).
The two teams have already met once this season, with Arsenal coming out on top on penalties in the Community Shield, but it is Chelsea who have made the superior start to the Premier League season.
Chelsea’s difficult start to the season continues this weekend, though, and looking further ahead they have a tricky away trip to Stoke City, a visit to Atletico Madrid’s new stadium and a home tie against free-scoring Manchester City to come in their next three league and European outings.
Chelsea have won seven of their last eight home games and 23 of 26 across all competitions at Stamford Bridge since Antonie Conte’s arrival, scoring 10 goals in their three outings in front of their own fans so far this term.
Conte also had the luxury of resting a number of key players for the comfortable win over Qarabag in midweek, so it will be a fresh Chelsea side that welcomes the Gunners to West London on Sunday.
While the midweek return of European football was plain-sailing and straightforward for Chelsea, that could not have been further from the case for Arsenal.
Already attempting to adapt to a late Thursday kickoff following 19 years in the Champions League, the Gunners saw the start of their Europa League match against Koln delayed by an hour due to crowd trouble before finally finishing at almost 11pm.
The saving grace was the fact that Arsenal were at home and so do not face a long journey back to England, while the relatively short trip to Stamford Bridge should also serve to limit the unfamiliar fatigue issues of a Thursday-Sunday turnaround.
The result will have also helped Arsenal to overcome the unsettling circumstances off the field as Arsene Wenger’s side produced a second-half comeback to run out 3-1 winners.
Chelsea possible XI: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso, Pedro, Morata, Hazard.
Arsenal possible XI: Cech, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Kolasinac, Sanchez, Ozil, Lacazette.