Arsenal will look to bounce back from their shock midweek loss at home to Watford when they travel to Stamford Bridge to take on league leaders Chelsea this weekend.
The Gunners have a terrible away record against big name opposition in the Premiership. Since the 08/09 season, in a span little over eight years, they’ve won ONLY eight times on the road against United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs, effectively averaging just 1 win a season.
And Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is facing a severe midfield crisis heading into this weekend’s clash– Granit Xhaka is suspended; Aaron Ramsey has just joined Santi Cazorla on the physio’s table after picking up a calf strain against Watford, which also rules him out of their crucial CL clash against Bayern, and Mohamed El Neny is away on international duty- Egypt will play Cameroon in the final of the 2017 African Cup of Nations. With these four players out, Wenger only has Francis Coquelin available to him and will probably have to play Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Ainsley Maitland-Niles, both of whom will be severely tested by a Blues midfield marshalled by the fantastic N’Golo Kante.
More worryingly for their fans, Arsenal have not scored at Stamford Bridge since January 2013-that’s a goal drought extending to over four years. Their opponents have lost just one game at home this season (to Spurs) and have only conceded five goals in eleven games. Arsenal are however the team with the most away goals scored this season in the league. They also beat the Blues 3-0 at the Emirates in September and PaddyPpower have them at 10/3 to win at the Bridge and do a league double over Antonio Conte’s men. If those odds look attractive, be sure to read the Bettingexpert.com review of PP for some bonuses before placing a bet. The last time Arsenal did a league double over Chelsea was in their title winning 2003-04 season.
Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal (the last time the Gunners won at Stamford Bridge)
Arsenal’s last seven results at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal
Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal
Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal
Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal
Arsenal were well beaten by Watford at home and it’s poor results like these that have hurt the Gunners’ title challenge. Add the three if they had beaten Watford and the four dropped due to the draws against Boro (H) and Bournemouth (A) (both games you’d expect the Gunners to have won), and Arsene Wenger’s side would’ve replaced Chelsea at the top of the table with a win on Saturday.
Arsenal lose to Watford- Video
Chelsea drew away at Liverpool in midweek but were aided by Arsenal and Tottenham failing to win against Watford and Sunderland respectively. The Blues now have a nine point advantage over their nearest rivals and could deal a killer blow to the Gunners’ title chances by beating them this weekend.
Blues playmaker Eden Hazard picked up a knock against Leicester but has been playing through the pain barrier and despite not being 100%, is still able to come up with key moments- for instance, he won the free kick against Liverpool that was converted by David Luiz.
CFC form
Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea
Chelsea 4-0 Brentford
Chelsea 2-0 Hull City
Leicester 0-3 Chelsea
Chelsea 4-1 Peterborough United
Chelsea v Arsenal
4 February, 2017- 12.30 UK KO Referee Martin Atkinson