Building on the derby win as Chelsea visit

Morning.

After a rare midweek off, we’re back in action this afternoon as we face Chelsea at home. Team news from the manager’s press conference was vague, so we’ll have to wait and see who is available later. Reports circulating this morning that Kai Havertz is going to be in the squad are welcome, and while he’s not going to start, his presence on the bench could be very useful.

I can’t really see any change from last week’s team unless it’s enforced by injury, which probably means Eberechi Eze will get the nod again ahead of Martin Odegaard. For the second time this season, he shone brilliantly in the derby, but after his hat-trick in November, he didn’t have another shot on target in the Premier League until he scored last weekend. There’s a bit more to his situation, obviously, but this time around we really need him to build on what he did against Sp*rs. He’s got all the talent and the ability, now add some consistency.

The same goes for Viktor Gyokeres, who has been in better goalscoring form of late, but his overall performance last weekend was excellent. The goals are the most important thing, but if he can reproduce that kind of display, it makes the team better and more effective. I think he does operate better with more technical players around him, so with Eze, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard all buzzing around, hopefully we can get something similar from Big Vik today.

Beyond that, what we can ask of Arsenal other than to avoid some of the recent bad habits that have crept into our game. Individual errors are not something anyone makes on purpose, but there have been too many of late. Similarly, if/when we score, make sure we don’t let the opposition score in the subsequent few minutes. These really are issues of concentration and decision making, and these players have shown they’re capable of doing better in that regard.

As for Chelsea, they’re familiar opposition this season with the two cup ties on top of the league game at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season. Asked how he feels they might approach this one, Mikel Arteta said:

We don’t know – I mean, they’ve done different things, they can change throughout the game. They have the players and they have a manager who is very comfortable doing that. So we’re going to be prepared for the possible scenarios that we can face throughout the game, and try to do better than them.

I think they’ll look to do something similar to the second leg EFL Cup tie when they weren’t quite as expansive as you might have imagined a team needing to score might be, but as ever with this team, they’ll be sharp and aggressive. They’ve had more red cards than anyone else this season, and it’s not a coincidence either. I’m sure their manager will hammer home the importance of maintaining discipline, but they also have some players who just can’t help themselves. Either way though, this will be a physical battle, and they have pace on the wings which is something we’re going to have to contend with.

After Man City’s win yesterday, the gap has been closed at the top to just 2 points, and while I’m sure this was more or less what the manager and the players would have expected, it’s still another little bit of pressure to deal with today. Hopefully though, after a week when we’ll have taken stock, and hopefully recharged the batteries a bit, we can put in the performance we need to take all three points. There’s a round of midweek games too, where we both play at the same time, so it’s important to get the maximum from this one today as we show we can respond to what they do.

It’s like last week, and how every week will be from now on: just win.

As ever you can join us for live blog coverage, as well as the report, player ratings, reaction, and all the rest on Arseblog News. There’s a preview podcast on Patreon to listen to in the meantime as well.

For now, have a good one, and come on you reds!

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