Mikel Arteta has got an excellent record against Chelsea in his short career as Arsenal manager, despite nearly every pundit predicting an Arsenal defeat before every meeting.
And yet again the Gunners are preparing to face the Blues as huge underdogs, after losing to Brentford with many of the first team unavailable.
Chelsea won the Champions League last season, but have still invested an incredible amount in Romelu Lukaku to give them the prolific goalscorer they were missing last season, and the Arsenal legend Ian Wright, is not only very worried about Thomas Tuchel’s side beating Arsenal, he thinks they could even go on and win the title this season.” He said in the Wrighty House podcast. “Since Lukaku was linked, Romelu’s been talking to me on a consistent basis, so I know it’s happening but I have to keep quiet. All the time I thinking this is fine, but when I see how Arsenal got beat against Brentford knowing that Romelu will be there,’
‘I knew that this was going to happen, watching how we play, seeing how Ivan Toney and Mbuemo dealt with our defence, let’s face it Lukaku with the players he now has, it’s going to be devastating against most defences.’
‘I know that Arsenal won twice against Chelsea last year and it did change Arsenal’s trajectory, Bukayo Saka came in, Emile Smith Rowe came in, We kind of started to create,’
‘We’re now dealing with a completely different animal. We’re dealing with one of this hybrid dinosaurs they created in one of those Jurassic Park films. We’re dealing with a Chelsea team now that are so ready. We saw that when Thomas Tuchel got there, another elite manager.
‘He sorted the defence out. And that you throw Romelu Lukaku into that mix, into a team that is so confident, this frightens me. We’ve got a Chelsea where they now think they can win the Premier League.”
Chelsea are one of the favourites to challenge Manchester City for the title this season, and if Lukaku continues his goalscoring exploits they will have every chance, but hopefully Arteta’s record against the Blues will give us a little psychological advantage.
We can hope, can’t we?