PL: Arsenal Vs. Chelsea-19:45 Emirates

WoollyRedHat

Now is the winter of our discontent. Famous words spoken by Gloucester in Shakespeare's Richard III. But it could equally apply for the homeside manager in particular as of late, with Wenger's men languishing outside the top 4, having been left with a feeling of anguish after the previous game with West Brom, with a dubious penalty giving West Brom an equalizer and a share of the spoils in the process. Wenger faces a possible sideline or even a stadium ban for critizing 'He who shall not be named' for awarding of said penalty and reminding us that VAR cannot come quicker. Coincidentally the referee of this game is Anthony Taylor who Wenger has previously come to blows with only 12 months prior, resulting in his last sideline ban. The festive season has been disapoining for Arsenal with performances patchy at best.

Meanwhile, for Chelsea, while a joust at Man City for the title seems unlikely, if they beat Arsenal in this evenings game, they will leapfrog Man United to 2nd place as they look to secure top 4 qualification at the earliest possibility. It's been a blue Christmas indeed for Chelsea. They've only dropped 2 points over the festive period and cruised past Stoke easily in Monday's game, with 5 goals to 0.

Injury News: Mesut Ozil is a doubt for this fixture, as is Koscielny who is unlikely to feature. Meanwhile Sead Kolasinac, Ramsey, Oliver Giroud and Monreal all remain sidelined.

Chelsea only have Daivd Luiz and Musonda out.

Stats
In all competitions, no team has won more away games at the Emirates Stadium than Chelsea (5, level with Man United).
The last time Arsenal didn't lose either Premier League meeting with Chelsea in a season was in 2011-12 (W1 D1), while the last time they kept a clean sheet in both league meetings was 1998-99.

Arsenal have failed to score in seven of their last nine games against Chelsea in the Premier League, netting just four goals in total in this run, including their 3-0 victory over Chelsea in the same fixture last season.

There have been six red cards in the last seven meetings between these sides in all competitions, with Chelsea having a player sent off in each of the last three.

Arsenal have kept 10 clean sheets in their last 15 league matches in front of their own fans.
They have won 13 of their last 15 games at home.

Time: 19:45 Sky Sports Main Event
Predicted line-ups

Arsenal starting XI: Cech, Chambers, Mustafi, Mertesacker, Bellerin, Wilshere, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Iwobi, Sanchez, Lacazette

Chelsea starting XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger;Moses, Bakayoko, Kante, Alonso; Fabregas, Morata, Hazard

Arsenal Form: D-D-W-D-W-D
Chelsea Form: W-W-W-D-W-W
Last five meetings: Arsenal W3, Chelsea W2

GavRedKing

I cant see Zappacosta starting over Moses but the rest is pretty much nailed on.

I reckon a score draw is on the cards too, Conte has only beat Arsenal once in five attempts I think.

Trigger

What happened to Ozil?

WoollyRedHat

GavRedKing wrote: »

I cant see Zappacosta starting over Moses but the rest is pretty much nailed on.

I reckon a score draw is on the cards too, Conte has only beat Arsenal once in five attempts I think.

Cheers have updated to reflect this.

Agreed on score, think it will either be 1-1 or 2-2 at best. With the form Chelsea are in I would take that tbh, with no more injuries to boot.

astradave wrote: »

What happened to Ozil?

It's rumoured he has a knee injury while conspirators might murmur about him receiving a sneaky winter break.

Harry Palmr

Christ, is there any chance of football ending?

Hard to know who to cheer on, Arsenal win tightens up Top 4 race, Chelsea win keeps Gunners a safe distance but strengthens Chelsea who are quite catchable right now.

callaway92

I see Welbeck starting ahead of Iwobi for Arsenal

1-2

GavRedKing

Top 4 is very much in the balance.

If Chelsea win, Arsenal are 10 pts behind Chelsea with 16 games to go, its hardly the end of the world but makes the gap.

Arsenal win and they leap frog Spurs who have a game in hand, and theyre chasing down the top 4 again.

Given City cant be caught, finishing 2nd or 4th makes no difference to me TBH, as long as Chelsea finish top 4 I'd be happy.

We've dropped stupid points against the lesser sides in the league but have played ok against the better sides, other than the City game where we were very much 2nd best throughout the game and played with no CF for over an hour.

Juicy game

Hoping for an Arsenal win here

Roaster

Cech
Bellerin-Holding-Mustafi_Debuchy
Elneny-Niles_Wilshere-Ozil
Sanchez-Lacazette

although Niles will be LB and Xhaka and one of Iwobi or Welbeck will start.

rob316

Another game in the prestigious battle of who finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th. Yipee

davycc

Any chance both could lose and with 11 straight red cards each please

WoollyRedHat

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/948626299479871488

Vs.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/948626409047674880

Ozil is starting
Could make the difference here

Barr

Hazrad and Cesc back. I would fancy Chelsea getting a win tonight.

WoollyRedHat

Sanchez looks like he was laughing at kick off there.

Hahah what a miss from Morata

Where the **** was the defending from Arsenal

WoollyRedHat

What a miss....

Skylinehead

Wow

From both sides. Wow.

~Rebel~

Christ, that's an incredible miss...

niallo27

Czech for me needs to be dealing with it.

Barr

My Granny could have finished that. Morata had so much time

shrewd

What a miss from Morata!..chances like that makes me miss Costa

Wow, double post

Could have had a peno

~Rebel~

Great great hand from Courtois!

gstack166

No a big fan of his personally, no denying his quality though. Arsenal just look a better team when Jack whilshere is in it!

Johann.

Christ we need to buck up here. Ozil & Sanchez really causing us problems.

Arsenal on top here

Ozil and Sanchez playing well
As is the young lad at left back

Replay shows clear foul from Moses on Maitland-Niles. Chelsea will no doubt score now.

Big save there

Quazzie

Basil3 wrote: »

Replay shows clear foul from Moses on Maitland-Niles. Chelsea will no doubt score now.

What foul. He tripped himself up

Barr

Tbo pulling out great couple of saves.

Quazzie

Quazzie wrote: »

What foul. He tripped himself up

Moses' right knee clipped Maitland-Niles' heel before he tripped.

blueser

How the fcuk did that not go in?Hit both posts and stayed out.

Barr

Basil3 wrote: »

Moses' right knee clipped Maitland-Niles' heel before he tripped.

That was never a pen. Ref got it right.

Quazzie

Basil3 wrote: »

Moses' right knee clipped Maitland-Niles' heel before he tripped.

I think you're the only person in the world that can see that.

Quazzie

Quazzie wrote: »

I think you're the only person in the world that can see that.

My dad as well :pac:

WoollyRedHat

Need to score before half time.

Quazzie

Basil3 wrote: »

My dad as well :pac:

:D:D

Barr

Basil3 wrote: »

My dad as well :pac:

Must be watching Arsenal TV :pac:

~Rebel~

Basil3 wrote: »

Replay shows clear foul from Moses on Maitland-Niles. Chelsea will no doubt score now.

Really? Would have said anything but clear. There was the merest touch, and then Maitland-Niles tripped himself up.

Basil3 wrote: »

Moses' right knee clipped Maitland-Niles' heel before he tripped.

It's a massive leap to go from that to calling it a 'foul'. The player himself didn't even seem to look for it.

Quazzie

Sanchez seems to be bang on form for giving the ball again tonight. Must be near double digits already

~Rebel~

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Really? Would have said anything but clear. There was the merest touch, and then Maitland-Niles tripped himself up.

It's a massive leap to go from that to calling it a 'foul'. The player himself didn't even seem to look for it.

I'm only calling it a foul based on Moses' contact causing Maitland-Niles to go down. I didn't know that slight contact causing a player to trip themselves isn't a foul.

Barr

This could be interesting.

monkey9

Basil3 wrote: »

I'm only calling it a foul based on Moses' contact causing Maitland-Niles to go down. I didn't know that slight contact causing a player to trip themselves isn't a foul.

There was no contact. I think you’re only seeing what you want to see tbh.

Xhaka is clueless at times

Rekop dog

Özil is unplayable around contract renewal time.

Osmosis Jones

Good tackle from Fabregas

blueser

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Good tackle from Fabregas

There's something about him I just can't warm to, but that wasn't even a foul, never mind a booking. Taylor is a dreadful ref.

ERG89

Rekop dog wrote:

Ozil is unplayable around contract renewal time.

Kante nabbing the ball off him there to spring a counter attack was very familiar tho

Barr

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Good tackle from Fabregas

Ridiclus yellow card tbf.

monkey9

monkey9 wrote: »

There was no contact. I think you’re only seeing what you want to see tbh.

I now have me, my dad and Jamie Carragher on the list of people that saw the contact. I'm sure the list will grow :pac: