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