HOW ARSENAL CAN WIN AGAINST CHELSEA by Nicholas Oyoo
Do you get that feeling again? It’s another big game and a derby that looks Chelsea’s to lose. In other words, Arsenal are just not ready. First, we have mounting injuries and about six first team players are expected to be out. Unfortunately, it’s against one of our biggest bitterest rivals in the EPL and London, Chelsea – and yes, they are cruising into the derby from their latest matches, while we are barely pulling through.
Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey are all expected to miss the clash with Chelsea. Five of these players would make first XI in any Arsenal squad with the exception of Olivier Giroud. As if that is not enough, Chelsea have cruised through the gruelling December holiday season with 4 clean sheets out of 5 games, won three by more than 2 goals and only drew one of the matches picking 12 points out a possible 15. In contrast Arsenal have won just two of their last 5 matches, drew three and kept two clean sheets, collecting only 9 points from a possible 15.
Arsenal however were robbed of a win in their last time out by dubious refereeing. In that match against West Brom, Arsenal were frustrated and finally scored in the 83rd minute. Chelsea on the other hand scored 5 without a reply last time out against Stoke City. Finally, Arsenal are playing with lesser rest time than Chelsea with Chelsea having played on the 30th December and Arsenal having played on the 31st December.
In fact, as much as anything, the only up for Arsenal in the match is that it is at home where Arsenal have had a great record. They have played at home 9 times, won 7 times, drew once and lost just once against Manchester United.
So how do Arsenal ‘rescue’ the game against Chelsea faced with such odds?
My view is that Arsene Wenger take the ‘opportunity’ to carry out squad rotation. When I say squad rotation I also mean some tweaking of the playing pattern too.
Here is the squad that I’m certain has a chance to ‘steal’ the game from Chelsea. Playing Pattern 3.4.1.2
———————Cech———————–
———Mustafi, Elneny, Chambers———–
—–Bellerin, Xhaka, Coquelin, Iwobi—-
———————Wilshere———————
—————Sanchez, Lacazette———-
We have played Elneny in the back three before. We must avoid Mertesacker’s slow performances against which Chelsea should exploit. I’m worried about Calum Chambers but with no one else to place here at the moment, he gets the nod. Iwobi in the left. He is hard worker and can pull through some good performances. Coquelin comes in so that Wilshere, who is on the ascendancy can have his chance in the Ozil position. Two main centre forwards. In the last match, Lacazette looked poor and can only be helped with his duties to be more effective. Sanchez, has played and performed in this role before and the two could complement each other effectively. One problem I have had with Arsenal is that they score much less than their chances suggest they should score. We could have a collapsing defense but if we can’t score we lose points because we don’t get to win matches. And we have drawn too many games already.
How do you think we can beat Chelsea?
Nicholas