Pre-match conference | Team news | Credits: Arsenal.com
Good day all!
It’s Chelsea today in what is perhaps the toughest match we’re playing in this season as of yet. It’s a handy way to measure our title challenges (if any) and, more importantly, shut those Chelsea cunts up.
After a fast start to the new season, Chelsea seemed to have stuttered in momentum a bit. Their comfortable wins became narrower, and they even flirted with draws and defeats. Antonio Conte is a young and exciting manager, but this is the first time he’ll be facing a challenge at a ‘so-called’ big club like Chelsea, and it remains to he seen how he deals with it.
Maybe we’re lucky and he’ll Jose Mourinho himself into more trouble – scolding and icing the dressing room as results suffer and we dance over their graves. Unfortunately, football just isn’t that perfect and you’d bet good money that Conte will have gotten his players well up for this London Derby. Their comeback 4-2 win over Leicester City may be a sign of them getting back on the horse, but it’s worth noting that they were forced to play an extra half hour there as well. We don’t know yet if that will affect them on a decisive level, but we certainly can’t go into this game only with that in our favour.
Arsenal need to be prepared. With John Terry injured after presumably getting himself a pasting for throwing racist slurs at women while trying to hit on them, it adds to the chinks in Chelsea’s armour. Despite their overall quality we’ve found them on a bit of a back foot, and we need to take advantage of that if we’re to get what we want – three points, no less.
The back five pretty much select themselves. I don’t think Petr Cech’s form is bad enough (nor is David Ospina’s f0rm good enough) to warrant a change in goalkeeping capacity. Midfield will worry a few; not because we don’t have the quality to choose from there, but it’s uncertain if Wenger will choose what’s better for the team. He’s been adhering to the ‘Coqzorla’ base for quite a while, but Granit Xhaka has given him arguments to break that partnership. Considering the fans on Xhaka’s side and the intensity of the occasion, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wenger experiments with a Santi-Xhaka pivot tonight.
Mesut Ozil will boss the attacking midfield role, but it remains to be seen how Wenger positions the rest of his troops. Does he persist with Alexis Sanchez as the lone striker? It’s an experiment that hasn’t borne enough fruit yet, and to be perfectly honest, I can’t really envisage him making a huge impact there tonight as well. That’s no indictment on the quality of the player, but really, Sanchez has always been better for Arsenal on the flanks. Where, then, does that leave our front trio?
I feel Theo Walcott should be given a start on the right flank (yeah, I’m saying that). He’s been putting decent shifts in as of late, trying to force his way into the manager’s plans, and he’s always had a knack of scoring goals against Chelsea, although not so much lately. If he starts today, it just feels like he’ll have one of those games where he’ll cause problems and track back; akin to the time he helped defeat Manchester United 3-0 this time last year.
Alex Iwobi is having his breakthrough season so far and for very obvious reasons I’m happy for him, but I do wonder if tonight may be one too many nights for him. Say what you want about Alexis and his performance levels this season, but the Chilean is easily our top scorer this season with four goals. On paper, he’s most likely to get Arsenal a goal or two today, which invariably means we must play him in a position he feels most comfortable in. Besides, Iwobi as an impact sub? Not too shabby.
Even if Olivier Giroud finds himself fit, I’d hope for Lucas Perez to start as the lone frontman. I’ve not suddenly caught on to the hype because of his two goals against Nottingham Forest, but maybe he could offer a different kind of threat up front. He’s new, he’s an unknown quantity and he may not be scouted that well by Conte. He won’t be a guaranteed success by any stretch of the imagination, but could be unanticipated enough to cause Chelsea’s backline some problems.
In any way, who starts as striker will not be as important as how we tackle this game. With home support on our side (heh), the onus is on us (get it?) to dictate the flow of the game. We can’t play second fiddle and be slaves to their style of play, definitely not at home. Set up offensively, start the game flying out of the blocks and let Conte know we mean business.
It won’t be easy, it may be too cavalier, but with the momentum we’re in and the momentum they’re in, it’s probably the best way we should approach this. Let’s hope the eleven men do the talking and send a “fuck you” to Chelsea.
Come on You Gunners!
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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