Arsenal vs. Chelsea: London Derby To Define Gunners’ Premier League Title Push and Blues’ Champions League Qualification
by Devesh Jaganath | by Cydias Aujard
Arsenal out to extend impressive form in London Derbies
A Super Sunday is on the cards in the English top flight, with Manchester United taking on Crystal Palace at Old Trafford before our focus shifts to the Emirates, where Arsenal and Chelsea face off in a crucial London Derby. Both games are covered in our Premier League predictions.
The Gunners start the day top of the table, but they have played a game more than second-placed Manchester City and saw their lead cut to just three points yesterday after Pep Guardiola’s side edged Leeds United to a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Elland Road.
Mikel Arteta’s team are set to tackle their second London Derby in the space of a week following a comprehensive 4-1 demolition of Tottenham Hotspur on the road last weekend. With that result, Arsenal have now lost only one of their last 25 EPL London derbies (W18 D6)!
Additionally, the current league leaders have the psychological edge in this clash, having beaten the West Londoners home and away (4-2 on aggregate) in the Carabao Cup semi-finals this year, which extended their unbeaten run against this opponent to 10 matches across all competitions.
However, neither of these sides have been in the best form in recent weeks, with the Gunners dropping points in consecutive games to Wolves and Brentford before their victory over Spurs, while the Blues were held to stalemates by newly promoted Leeds and Burnley in their last two top-flight fixtures.
As a result, Liam Rosenior’s men have slipped to sixth place in the standings after Liverpool’s victory over the Irons yesterday, and a defeat here could leave them trailing fourth by six points if Michael Carrick can orchestrate another win for the Red Devils against Crystal Palace earlier in the day.
Beyond the points at stake, this match could be key to helping these two teams build momentum ahead of a tough run of fixtures. On the horizon, Chelsea have Aston Villa, Newcastle, Everton, and the two Manchester clubs to face either side of their RO16 UCL clash against PSG.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have a tricky trip to the South Coast to face Brighton in midweek and Bayer Leverkusen in Europe a week later. All building up to what could be season-defining clashes against the Citizens in the EFL Cup final and Matchday 33 in the Premier League.
Gyokeres vs Pedro: Key duels that could shape EPL London Derby
There could be as many as nine players sidelined for this evening’s EPL capital clash, which we’ve discussed in detail in our Arsenal vs Chelsea prediction, but two players that will almost certainly feature from the off here are Viktor Gyokeres and Joao Pedro.
Gyokeres took a while to find his stride in North London since arriving from Sporting, but the Swede enters this fixture off the back of his best performance in an Arsenal jersey, scoring a brace against Spurs en route to earning the Player of the Match award.
However, it is not just the Gunners’ striker that enters this match in form, as the Blues’ front man, Joao Pedro, is enjoying a magnificent run of form as well, having recorded nine goal contributions in his last six EPL matches. He has scored just one goal fewer than Gyokeres since the turn of the calendar.
While Gyokeres and Pedro will be looking to add to their tallies, there are plenty of interesting duels across the pitch for this fixture, including Declan Rice going up against Moises Caicedo in the centre of the park and arguably the most intriguing one of all - Bukayo Saka versus Cole Palmer.
Saka ended his 15-game run without a goal for the Gunners against Wolves and has been operating more centrally in the absence of skipper Martin Odegaard. Palmer, on the other hand, has netted four times in his last three league games since returning to the squad from injury.
