Chelsea are an unknown quantity; Arsenal have to show their quality

It’s the third match week in a row in which we find ourselves NOT playing on a Saturday and, if I’m honest, I don’t like it.

I enjoy change. I work in marketing and ‘doing new stuff’ is something I always try to adhere to as a work principle.

Not when it comes to football, guys, not when it comes to football. Give me a good ol’fashioned 3pm kick-off any day of the week. But we are where we are, and it’ll be Chelsea tomorrow at 4.30pm that we’ll all be either in the ground or tuning in to see if we can overcome what I think is quite an unknown quantity in Chelsea. I mean, we all know what they are – the most reprehensible football club in the history of the world (The Scum are Scum, City are cheats, but Chelsea are just despicable) – but under Xabi Alonso they have done a full 180 (based on two games) in terms of playing style and approach. I don’t know if it was just game state, but in their first two games they’ve basically just not wanted the ball, which was the opposite of what Maresca was teaching them. Under Xabi Alonso, they don’t want it, happy to let their opponents have it, and want to win games in transition with rapid counters. I’ll do more of an analysis on them tomorrow in the match preview, but that as a teaser sets us up nicely for today’s focus – Mikel Arteta’s press conference and what fans/pundits are saying.

First up, Mikel, and the not-so-surprising news from Mikel’s press conference is that we’ll have to wait until after training to know exactly who is available for Chelsea, with Bruno assessed after his knock against Villa, while Timber is back in full training and sounds to be in a really good place – although he wouldn’t be drawn on whether he’ll make the squad. Mikel did what he always does with opponents: complimentary about the job Xabi Alonso is doing, admitting that signing Emi Martinez was a “really smart decision”, but he also pointed out that their fast starts in the opening two games have heavily influenced how those matches have played out (kind of why I say they’re a bit of an ‘unknown quantity), so he’s expecting a side capable of adapting depending on the game state. There was plenty of chat about our own squad too, with Mikel making it pretty clear that he’s very happy with the attacking options we have, insisting that the club “100% ticked” the boxes it wanted to tick in the transfer window and that he’d rather focus on the players we do have than the winger we didn’t sign. He also backed the academy, praised the different midfield combinations available to him and described Monday’s win at Villa as a genuine squad victory. In other words, the window is closed, the excuses are over, and Mikel’s message is pretty simple: this is the squad we have, he likes it, and now it’s time to get on with the football.

Whether all of that is true remains to be seen; after the Champions League Final, we all know what Mikel said about acting fast, and I think the actions in the attacking spots suggest that perhaps that wasn’t the case. Let’s not re-litigate the situation, as everyone has spoken about it already, but Mikel has to put on a brave face and smile for the cameras – I think we all know that. I do believe him when he says he is happy overall with the squad depth, and it’s something I’ve also been talking about this last week – we’re well-prepared for every eventuality, and when you see quality players not even making the matchday squad, you know you’ve got a great team.

But we need to show it on the pitch tomorrow. The pundits, unsurprisingly, are going for us. We’re the Champions; we’re there to be shot at, we’re the ones wearing the crown, and this will happen for most of these opening months of the season, I suspect. The only way it starts to turn is if we start to blip, like in games tomorrow. Personally, I feel like this could easily be a score draw. Still, Lewis Jones on Sky Sports is calling it a 2-0, Shearer says ‘Arsenal win’, Sutton goes 3-1 to The Arsenal, and the guys at Sports Mole have us at 2-1, saying that “if ever there was a match that screamed ‘defence versus attack’, Arsenal vs Chelsea is the dictionary definition”. They also say our current shut-out of two clean sheets will end this weekend. I make them right, to be fair, but although they’re calling us ‘defence’ versus them ‘attack’, they still think we’re outscoring them and winning. Work that one out, eh?

I do think we will score; I also think this could easily be a draw – as I already mentioned – but this is going to be really tough. It’s funny because as good a time as it was to face Villa last weekend, it’s probably not the best time to face them this weekend; they’ll be bullish, buoyant and will no doubt fancy an upset. We have an amazing record against them – 16 games undefeated I believe – and that will come to an end. Could easily be this weekend given their firepower, so to work out how they’re feeling, I did my usual behind-enemy-lines stuff and had a look at a couple of fans’ forums. The first ten comments on one thread of match predictions read:

• Arsenal win = 3
• Chelsea win = 6
• draw = 1

Another site had a voting buttons thing going on, which had 19 calling Arsenal, eight calling a draw, and seven calling a Chelsea win. I gotta be honest, I thought they’d be more bullish than what I’ve read, but they’re really worried about their defensive issues. I think they sorted one out by signing Martinez, but they still conceded three against Brighton last weekend, and even though a couple have said they fancy themselves to score, they also think they’re 100% conceding. One person even said if we don’t score two or three, we should be automatically relegated! They’re saying things like “too early (in the season) for us” or “I hope we give them a good game,” which really surprised me. Maybe it can give us a little bit of confidence in a good game and a victory tomorrow, but let’s not forget just how good their attack has looked so far.

More on that tomorrow, as I try to do a “what Chelsea might actually see” preview, having looked at a few numbers on them so far. Until then, we sit back, watch the games, hope that Forest make it three defeats in a row for the Scum, and wait patiently for our turn tomorrow.

Catch you then.