Teams and line-up analysis
Edouard Mendy makes his first Premier League start since September 3rd as Chelsea host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
The Senegal goalkeeper, recalled for the midweek Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb after Kepa Arrizabalaga's injury, starts once more as one of four changes from the heavy defeat to Brighton in the Blues' last league outing.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also come in with Mateo Kovacic, who missed the Dinamo clash, fit enough for the bench where he joins Christian Pulisic and Conor Gallagher.
Having made a number of changes for their midweek Europa League clash with FC Zurich, Arsenal revert almost back to the line-up which beat Nottingham Forest 5-0.
Mikel Arteta makes just one change from that clash on October 30th, with Oleksandr Zinchenko included in place of the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Chalobah, Cucurella, Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Mount, Havertz, Aubameyang, Sterling. Subs: Kovacic, Pulisic, Bettinelli, Broja, Zakaria, Ziyech, Gallagher, Koulibaly.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli. Subs: Tierney, Nketiah, Holding, Cedric, Vieira, Sambi Lokonga, Nelson, Elneny, Turner.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
The teams
Chelsea: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Chalobah, Cucurella, Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Mount, Havertz, Aubameyang, Sterling. Subs: Kovacic, Pulisic, Bettinelli, Broja, Zakaria, Ziyech, Gallagher, Koulibaly.
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli. Subs: Tierney, Nketiah, Holding, Cedric, Vieira, Sambi Lokonga, Nelson, Elneny, Turner.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
Match preview
Good morning and welcome to live coverage of a 30-year Super Sunday staple, Chelsea vs Arsenal, with the slight twist that this one is on BT Sport. Arsenal, in second, travel to Stamford Bridge, formerly their Cockney Via Dolorosa but now a journey of great joy after winning there for the past two seasons, breaking a 10-year winless streak. They need to win to go back above Manchester City and, those setbacks at Southampton and Manchester United notwithstanding, showed against Forest that they are in the form to make it three out of three in SW5.
Chelsea, in seventh, and with a good victory over Dinamo Zagreb to restore morale after their shellacking in/by dear old Sussex by the sea, have mounting injury problems, particularly at full-back. Reece James and Ben Chilwell, both guaranteed places in England's World Cup squad, are out and Graham Potter's innovations to try to plug the gap by turning Raheem Sterling into Solly March haven't worked. The defensive balance simply doesn't look right without proper full-backs and he needs to find a way to stop Gabriel Martinelli and, presumably, Reiss Nelson from doing what Arsenal like to do, make the pitch as wide as possible to make space for incursions by their midfield runners, which ought to provide a severe test for Thiago Silva's 38-year-old legs.
There will be much focus on the former Arsenal captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first match against his old club after essentially having Mikel Arteta's chisel-toed loafer applied to his jacksie but he says all rancour is long gone and he is concentrating solely on helping Chelsea rather than any notion of revenge. There's a touch of Mandy Rice-Davies about that assertion but everyone is far too well media trained these days to hazard saying what they truly think. It will be interesting to see whether instinct kicks in should he score rather than constraining himself diplomatically. He's had five games without scoring in the league since his goal at Selhurst Park. There would be no better moment to show everyone he can be a viable solution for Chelsea up top for the next 18 months and not just a stop-gap.
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