Our great leader Arsene Wenger has no interest in citing history lessons ahead of Arsenal’s top-of-the-table clash against Chelsea on Sunday, and the Frenchman thinks that current form should be the deciding factor in the game.
Wenger may have lost his twelve previous meetings with Jose Mourinho, but, as he points out, they have not all been easy wins for Portugese Bus Conductor. “We have not always lost, first of all, in 12 attempts. We have come close to beating them a few times and they’ve always had very strong teams,” he was quoted as saying on the Official Arsenal website.
“I’m not a great believer in history. I just think football is down to the fact that the performance on the day will decide the game and the result, so let’s focus on that.
“We are on a good run and we have an opportunity to beat them at home, and we want to take it. From a good run of form you get a good belief and we have good solidarity. We know we have passed many tests recently where we were questioned.
“It’s the first time we’ve won away from home against Manchester City [in a while] and other things like that. We have passed many tests and we have another test on Sunday that we want to pass.
“It is very important for us to beat them. I think everybody on board is highly focused to achieve it. We will prepare well to do that.
“Chelsea have been very, very efficient on counter-attacks, very efficient on set-pieces as well, so to nullify their strengths will be important.
“They have been very consistent until now. They are the team that have lost less games than any other team so the Premier League rewards the consistency and on that front, they have been defensively very strong and very consistent.”
Arsenal certainly did beat Man City at the Etihad, which doesnt happen very often, and when we knocked Man United out of the FA Cup it was our first victory at Old Trafford in ten visits, so records are there to be broken.
If we can beat those two in their own backyards, surely we can beat an out-of-sorts Chelsea at home?