CHELSEA GAME IS MOMENTUM FUEL, BUT FOR WHO?

Liverpool smacked up Ipswich with a pretty simple 2-0 win. There are a whole host of games early in the season for clubs that kind of blur the lines of ‘are they good?’ and this type of outing is most certainly one of them. You just don’t learn much from Hull, Ipswich, or Coventry unless you’re Michael Carrick.

Arsenal will certainly be learning something from the Chelsea game this weekend. Chelsea are title contenders, don’t mollycoddle their fans into transition-season nonsense, they are going to be up there this season and we have to respect them.

Xabi Alonso is a world-class coach, no doubt about it, winning the Bundesliga in your first season with a Leverkusen that were struggling is one of the greatest achievements of the past 20 years. He didn’t just win it, he won it going Invincible… annoying that when I write sentences like that, you think it’s an AI tool. It’s ok people, you can embrace an ‘if not this, then that’ every now and then.

How about those new AI tools? Can’t wait to sit in a concrete box on my own and render out fantasy 3D renderings like a total loser. So glad Sam Altman is thinking out a perfectly isolated life for me. What a guy.

To be honest, I sit in my concrete box writing for you every day. But, I’m writing for 1,000s of best friends on the eve of Le Grove’s 19th birthday. Can you believe it? You know what I love about writing this site? The range of ages of the readers. I love that people in their 80s and 90s are threatening me with slander lawsuits over my Gyok opinions. Anyway, you’re all great people, thanks for reading. I hope nothing bad happens on a big anniversary against Chelsea… right…?

Anyway, back to it…

Chelsea had another mad transfer window.

… but according to Transfermarkt, they somehow managed to come out of it making a profit. Insane stuff, really. It’s fun to watch, but it must be a nightmare to manage for the manager. The complaints of Enzo Fernández and Marc Cucurella were that there wasn’t enough experience. So Chelsea sold those two and added a group of players who hit the average age of 24.4. That’s including 35-year-old Danny Welbeck and 36-year-old Jordan Henderson.

The big question I always have here… what is the point in all of this mess? At the LA Dodgers, they win. Chelsea finished 9th last season. They go out of their way to spend, spend, spend… but it doesn’t pay off on the pitch. You’re just never going to win major trophies if you can’t get to stability. I don’t understand the desire to be the most chaotic club in Europe.

On the game…

Caicedo is going to face a late fitness test for an injury the club knew about, doubt they’ll be taking chances this early in the season. If that’s the case, they’re going to have quite a light midfield, which is an amusing thing to write about a club that has spent the best part of $2b over the past 4 years.

Chelsea have a forward line that has Arsenal fans fighting like teenagers over whose is the best. Neto, Morgan Rogers, and João Pedro is a nice line-up, but I do think we underestimate the potency of what we have at Arsenal right now because we’re sad about our summer. Eze, Kai, and Saka would have been far sexier if we were talking about it last season. Eze vs Rogers is probably more slanted their way, but only because of the raw power Rogers has.

The midfield is where we know the battle will be won… Bruno will have a late fitness test for a rolled ankle, but regardless, we have so much power. Chelsea will have to roll with Lavia and Reece James as their pivot. Not terrible, but come on, that’ll be meat and potatoes to an Arsenal midfield who will probably eat that sort of thing up.

Cole Palmer is the most gassed-up player of all time, hopefully we can keep him at arm’s length regardless of his mildly positive start to the season.

The big difference for Arsenal in this game vs the Villa one is Chelsea won’t play a deep block. They might forfeit the ball, but they won’t bed in like Emery’s cowards did last week. The game will have transition moments, there will be sublime offerings in attack, and I’d imagine Arsenal will try and smack their young team around and show them who the Champions are.

I’m interested who will play in the pivot. Zubimendi is quite suited to a game like this, but so is Myles, who has had a very good start to the season. The rest of the side kind of picks itself. I think Arteta has to go with Eze after the Tzolis showing at Villa. Saka and Kai obviously start. Defence, one would suspect Arteta has been itching to get Konsa on the pitch. Ben White will be touch and go, but I reckon he gets the nod, knowing Timber is coming back into contention soon. Then on the left, how can you look past the imperious Calafiori?

This isn’t a be-all and end-all for either team… but it is a momentum moment. If Chelsea get a point or more, they will take huge belief from the moment, and that sort of boost is not what you want to give Alonso so early on. The worst thing that could happen to Arsenal is Morgan Rogers does something of consequence. Arsenal fans are not emotionally capable of dealing with that right now. So hopefully there’s a lot of focus on the free-rolling midfielder.

My main ask is that the defence isn’t the hero again (don’t be the villain, obviously). I want to see some of that sparkly open-play attacking stuff we’ve been getting excited about. Chelsea are a good team, but they are very weak defensively, you can get at them, there will be chances if we’re bold. That’s why I’d quite like to see Bruno play, his rapid progressive passes could be good in a game like this. I’m also looking forward to seeing what Martin has on the big stage this season, his brain was not on Arsenal last season the way we’d have liked it… he needs to make up for it this season and give us some of that World Cup stuff.

This is also one of those outfits where great players take on outsized responsibility. I want to be complaining Saka does too much, that we’re too dependent, I want to get back to having an unfair dependence on our star player. It’s been too long. He looks a different man this season and I want to see him smack up Chelsea so we can talk about men vs boys.

Ok, that’s me done for the day, enjoy the games, let’s do some damage tomorrow!

P.S. Get signed up for a membership here! We have two podcasts in the locker for you. Matt Kandela is back with a bang and me and Jacob did a Chelsea deep dive in the before the whistle. GOOD TIMES. Loads of value to be had if you join! x

Subscribe now