When Chelsea come to the Emirates on Sunday, they will be trying to retain a 100% start to the season, while Arsenal will be looking for damage control after losing to newly-promoted Brentford in the League opener.
Chelsea were not known as a highscoring team last season despite their success, but a 3-0 win against Palace shows they are hoping to change that in this campaign, and will be keen to get their new superstriker Romelu Lukaku on the scoresheet if he makes his debut against the Gunners.
Lukaku spoke to Football.London about this weekends game, and feels ready to go into battle for Chelsea again. “They [Arsenal] are a team who are rebuilding I think.” he said. “At the end of the day, I just look at my team and focus on the players that we have. It’s going to be a tough game, big game, London derby obviously.
“But you know, we are preparing ourselves for a battle because they didn’t have the best start and we want to keep building on the good result that we got at the weekend.”
The Belgium international is feeling fit and ready to go straight away, so we are likely to see him on Sunday at some point, although he hasn’t had much time with his new team-mates so far. He said: “I’m ready so it’s just about getting into the team and trying to prove myself to the coaches that if I’m needed, I can play. We all have to compete throughout the week to earn our starting spot.
“For me it’s going to be a new fight but we’re all fighting for one cause – to make sure that Chelsea win! I’ll make sure that in training I give 100% every day and make sure that I’m ready for each game.
“I’m happy the first one is a big game away at Arsenal so hopefully we can prepare ourselves well and get a good result.”
Arsenal I would say are not considered to be ready. It seems that Martin Odegaard will not be playing, and who knows what is going on with Aubameyang and Lacazette after their illnesses last weekend?
It is certain that Chelsea will be the hot favourites, but then they were in both our League games last season, but we ended up doing the Double over our neighbours.
Let’s hope we can shock them once again on Sunday….