Arsenal have not beaten Chelsea in the league since 2011, and the job has just gotten harder on paper.
The Gunners will now have to try and overcome their rivals with referee Michael Oliver in charge, with the official having overseen eight consecutive matches with our side not winning.
On the flip-side, Chelsea haven’t been beaten in any of Oliver’s last 13 meetings, picking up seven wins and six draws.
We also have the demoralising records of having failed to beat the Blues in the league in any of our last nine encounters, as well as having failed to find the net against them since January 2011 in any of our last six match-ups.
We will be able to take a little hope from the fact that Chelsea had to play 120 minutes of football on Tuesday night, while we barely had to get out of first gear against Nottingham Forest, and are hopefully the more rested of the two sides.
We also come into the match on the back of a six-match unbeaten run, wile the Blues only lost at the weekend against Liverpool, and may still have that loss in the back of their minds.
This may be our best chance to beat our rivals in some seasons, with the side’s new manager yet to prove he is accustomed to the guile of the Premier League.
I will be very shocked if we don’t manage to at least break our hoodoo of having failed to score against the West London side, and I’m trying to remain upbeat despite our record making it very difficult!
Are we certainties to break our barren goal scoring run? Are you confident we can break their winning run this weekend? Is the referee just another record waiting to be broken?
Pat J
Hey, What’s with the negative vibes, man? ? ?
Chelsea are playing really well
Costa has scored 5 PL goals already
Fabregas looks hot atm
It will be a tough match
Yeah right, ?
Chelsea’s last two league games:
Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2
Swansea 2 Chelsea 2
As for Fabregas, he has so far made 3 substitute appearances in the league which barely totals 30 minutes! ? Just because he scored two goals against a weakened Leicester side that doesn’t make him Hot! Unless of course you were referring to his hairstyle? ?
I am going for a 2:1 home win for us. It will be tensed, tough and nail biting but we will win.
Off topic: When I see Michael, I remember the red card he gave to Di Maria when we played manu in the FA cup. That’s the ref right?
Hopefully the ref will be fair and we enjoy a good game. If we get lucky, oh yeah.. .
This will be a major test to us
Fabregas and Costa look back in form
But we have the team to beat them
Ok guys… In light of Jose’s comments about breaking “Arsene Wengers face” if he ever saw him outside a football environment, I want to know who you thought would win a street fight with no weapons allowed?
@ Stew pot
Hahaha ?That story annoyed me, aswell as the supposedly Arsenal star leaking team news to Mo via sms.
Anyways, Wenger is used to shoveling ? onto the back of a cart, So no doubts that Mo would end up in some non – Recycling wheelie bin.
Jose Mourinho claimed to have receive secret text messages from an Arsenalplayer telling him that his rival Arsène Wenger ‘does nothing’ in training, according to a new book about the Portuguese coach.
One extract, serialised in the Daily Mail, claims that Mourinho, then in charge of Chelsea, received messages from an unnamed Arsenal player during the 2014/15 season.
Place your Bets on the sneaky Leak:
A) Ozil
B) Ozil
C) Ozil
D) Ozil
E) All of the above. ?
I think Michael Oliver is one of the best managers in the PL actually.
managers, oops, referees I meant
MIchael Oliver is the most competent ref in the league, IMHO. I remember him giving Di Maria two yellow cards in the same game against us for flopping. So as long as it’s not Mike Dean, we should be alright.
Against other top teams we need a win at home and draw away. We have already slipped up against liverpool at home this season and need a win against chelsea.
With regards to chelsea the players must not let costa wind them up. It is unusual for costa to be sent off so he is very skilled at fouling out of sight of the referee and looking for a reaction and red card. OK last season he received a retrospective ban for incidents the ref did not see, but we still had a player sent off and chelsea kept the points.
We should be confident, not because of Chelsea on a patchy spell, but because there is a buzz about the Arsenal right now. It’s been years since I’ve felt we are genuinely strong, all over the pitch. Some might point to striker role, but Id point to our goal stats. So yeah, we should be confident. It’s Chelsea though, even when they don’t deserve it something weird will occur, but I hope our strong buzz about the place will be too much for them. The one worry I have is ..Our CM of Coquelin and Cazorla have not really done anything wrong, they’ve looked good. But Che are physically very tough in the middle, and I worry that they could get the better of Ozil Cazorla & Coquelin. That’s my main worry, but we have looked good.
Micheal Oliver has been good to us.. United FACUP game comes to mind…. the main threat however is Diego Costa.
Koscielny can hold off his end
but Mustafi hasn’t convinced me yet, especially with his performance against Cavani and PSG.