God knows how many times JustArsenal readers have begged Arsene Wenger to adjust his tactics depending on the opposition instead of just Attack! Attack!, especially after Arsenal’s embarrassing defeats against the Top Teams last season including the 6-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Well this time around Arsenal have Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck around to cause a few more problems for the Chelsea defence, and according to Per Mertesacker, the Gunners will be “trying new things”>
He was quoted in the Independent after the excellent performance against Galatasary: “Obviously it is a good lift before the Chelsea game. We have got good confidence at the moment and will try to implement that into the game on Sunday,”
“We know we can do better than the two consecutive seasons (at Chelsea) before and I think we will try new things on Sunday to get a better result than last year.”
Arsenal could hardly get a worse result than last year, but it is definitely a plus that we are going to the Bridge with a bit more confidence than last year. After the Tottenham draw Arsenal fans were giving us no chance at all for the trip to our other London neighbours, but the massive improvement we saw on Tuesday will surely stand us in good stead for Sunday.
Mertesacker also thinks that Danny Welbeck has now reached the understanding with the team to be a real threat to the Blues. “He is the main threat at the moment, especially on the counter-attack,” said Mertesacker.
“We have players who can put him in the right situations and that is what we need to find ourselves.
“It took a bit of time, but I think now we are on the spot and we see what it takes to be a team and to be fully integrated.”
So it is all set up to be a classic game on Sunday. Both teams are unbeaten in the League this season, and I for one wouldn’t complain if we came away with a point. Would you?