Chelsea v Arsenal preview: Champions meet FA Cup victors on Super Sunday

Chelsea host Arsenal in the first part of Super Sunday knowing a victory will heap more pressure on Arsene Wenger’s shoulders.

Arsenal have not won any of the last 13 Premier League away games against last season’s top-six teams and have suffered defeats on seven of their last eight visits to Stamford Bridge.

Wenger last tasted victory on the road against one of the big boys nearly 1000 days ago when they saw off Manchester City 2-0 in 2015.
Despite winning the FA Cup in May, the heat is already being turned up on Wenger after the Gunners suffered two straight league defeats on the road against Liverpool and Stoke.
The last time they lost their opening three league away games was in 1954.

Chelsea – the Premier League champions – have been ticking over nicely since their opening weekend defeat at home to Burnley.

Victories against Tottenham, Everton and Leicester followed which have put Antonio Conte’s men in a strong position going into this intriguing clash.

Team news

Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater is expected to be out until the October international break.

Drinkwater was an unused substitute against his former club Leicester last Saturday and missed the midweek Champions League win over Qarabag with a calf problem which means he could be out for four weeks.

Chelsea are likely to rotate their options after making changes for the Qarabag contest, with playmaker Eden Hazard in contention to start for the Blues for the first time this season.

Arsenal are likely to recall a host of first-team regulars for the short trip.

Wenger made nine alterations for the Europa League win over Cologne but the likes of Petr Cech, Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Alexandre Lacazette will all return to the squad at Stamford Bridge.

Alexis Sanchez will feature after playing the whole game on Thursday night, where Theo Walcott (calf) hobbled off. Francis Coquelin (hamstring) and Santi Cazorla (ankle) are definitely out.
Opta stats

After winning just four of the previous 16, Chelsea have won their last five home Premier League games against Arsenal, since a 3-5 defeat in October 2011.

The Gunners haven’t kept a Premier League clean sheet at Stamford Bridge in their last 12 visits there, shipping at least twice in each of the eight.
Arsenal have lost their last five away Premier League games versus Chelsea, their joint-longest away losing run in the competition against a single opponent (also 5 in a row vs Man Utd between 2009-2013).

Should Arsenal concede here, it will equal their longest run of away games without a clean sheet against a specific opponent in Premier League history (13 against Liverpool between 1999 and 2012).

Chelsea have scored in 23 successive Premier League games at Stamford Bridge with over half of these (12) seeing them score three or more goals.

Arsenal have lost their first two Premier League away games of the season (0-4 vs Liverpool and 0-1 vs Stoke) – the last time that they lost their first three away games in a league season was 1954-55. Interestingly, this was also the season of Chelsea’s first top-flight title win.

Arsenal last won a Premier League away game against a side that finished in the top six last season, back in January 2015 (2-0 at Man City) – they’ve since lost eight and drawn five of their 13 matches on the road against these clubs.

Paul Merson’s prediction

It’s all about the first goal. If Arsenal score first you will watch and think ‘wow, they look decent’. They will be confident and they have good players who look decent when they are winning.

But when they are losing too many of them just go completely and utterly missing. The shape goes out of the window and if they let in the first goal it could be anything. People are saying to me ‘what a good result against Bournemouth’ but if you could have handpicked any team to play last week it was Bournemouth.

If Arsenal score first it will be a very interesting match but I don’t think they will.
Betting

Chelsea are Sky Bet’s 4/5 favourites with Arsenal priced at 3/1 while the draw is a 29/10 chance. Antonio Conte’s men have shortened back in from 7/1 to 9/2 to defend the title after bouncing back from their opening-weekend loss, while the Gunners are already all but dismissed from the title race at 28/1.
Alvaro Morata is the 3/1 favourite in the first goalscorer betting, half the price of Alexandre Lacazette and Olivier Giroud, while Sanchez is enhanced to 8/1 to break the deadlock in Sky Bet’s Price Boosts.Euro Soccer Bonus

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