Will Chelsea v Arsenal be decided by the midfield battle

The Chelsea versus Arsenal London derby is upon us this weekend. We, the Gunners, like the Blues, hope to be the ones who come out on top.
Former Chelsea and Scotland international Pat Nevin believes two players will decide which team wins this time around. He suggests how the fixture could well be won in midfield and how our Declan Rice or Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez plays could influence the final result.

“For their part Arsenal are in great shape, joint top of the league having just beaten the Champions Manchester City. They can also take heart from the statistics, having only lost one and drawn one of the last eight meetings against Chelsea.

Nevin told the BBC website: “I am looking forward to being at the game and seeing how Chelsea old boys Kai Havertz and Jorginho fare but the crucial battle should be for central midfield dominance.

“Declan Rice and Enzo Fernandez might not be directly up against each other all the time, but whoever shines brightest between those two could help control and decide the game.”

In our case as Gooners, hopefully Rice will prevail. We can be confident that he will shine, as he hasn’t let us down since he started playing for us, but for Chelsea Enzo is the main man. The World Cup winner has quickly become key to Chelsea’s set-up, ranking second for completed passes and third for final-third completed passes per 90 among all Premier League midfielders this season and he has excelled since Jorginho moved across to the Gunners.

But, as with the whole Chelsea team, there is still plenty of room for improvement in front of goal. Fernandez is yet to score in 26 Premier League games, while he has just two assists.

Let’s hope he doesn’t start scoring this weekend!

Darren N

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