Arsenal and Chelsea featured on Saturday evening in different competitions, so both sets of players will be jaded physically and mentally, with Arsenal getting a nervy win over Wolves while Chelsea suffered a late sting in the FA Cup semifinals against Manchester City. Both managers will need to motivate their players for what would prove to be a leggy encounter, but it will not have the importance of the Arsenal vs Chelsea clashes of the yesteryear.
While Arsenal has turned their fortunes to be a title challenging outfit and many years in the trenches under Mikel Arteta, Chelsea are going through a transition under Mauricio Pochettino and in Cole Palmer, the club has a player in the form of his life. With 23 goals this season, Palmer has joined the elite class of Chelsea players to score at least 20 goals alongside Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Diego Costa.
To team news, there’s a clean bill of health for the Arsenal team, which includes Jurrien Timber, that managed to get 45 minutes away to Blackburn U-21s yesterday. It was a brilliant goal that looked better with each passing replay. Let’s hope he gets more game time with the U21s to build his fitness in the coming games.
We should expect some rotation at left back and maybe a return to midfield for Jorginho. This may allow Kai Havertz get the chance to lead the line against his former club and that will see Gabriel Jesus or Martinelli replace Leandro Trossard in that flank.
Let’s hope for a great game of football and a positive result for Arsenal.
Sayonara
