Untold preview: Chelsea versus the Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

After a bit of an absence, you will probably be totally ambivalent to the fact that the Untold match preview is back (though I’d like to hope otherwise!). Like the site after the vagaries of technical issues, we are here and hopefully for good this season. The soul-crushing tedium of applying for graduate schemes alongside the workload of a final year student has meant that from time to time I have had to drop my writing commitments, but for now we’re back on track for a weekly preview.

Anyway, onto the game. We’ve got the early Saturday kick off, which means I’ll be able to watch virtually none of the game before heading up to coach my all-conquering 11 a side team for a 2pm kick off, which is a little disappointing. However, the uptick in Arsenal results recently means that we can travel over to Stamford Bridge hopeful.

Chelsea needed extra time to beat Everton and played on the Wednesday night as opposed to our Tuesday. On paper, that suggests we may be slightly fresher than them but really I can see it being a marginal benefit at best. Much more important will be the performance we put in (and Robin grabbing another brace of course).

The injuries have lessened recently, with the return of Vermaelen in the Carling Cup against Bolton a real positive for the team. While he did go off injured, it was merely cramp and Arsène indicated he is likely to be in the squad for Chelsea. Gibbs is out injured whilst Jenkinson may or may not be fit in time for this clash.

Szcznesy

Djourou Mertesacker Koscielny Santos

Arteta Song

Ramsey

Walcott Van Persie Gervinho

The team is pretty standard, I went for Djourou as I don’t think we’ll throw a potentially not quite fit Jenkinson into this one given there will be a lot of weight on his shoulders over the next couple of months.

Poor old Drogba is suspended for this game according to Chelsea’s preview of the game (and they should know), with Torres likely to come in for him. The Spaniard has looked a little sharper recently, so a note of caution should still be sounded despite the absence of our Ivorian nemesis.

As for the result… I’ll take 1-1 now, with all bets off if RefWatch throws something worrying up (as it quite often does). We’ve certainly got enough about us to be competitive and win the game, with the only real weakness being the right back position. It’d be great to keep up the positivity with a win, but I’ll hedge my bets and stick with the draw.

p.s. For all of Liverpool’s spending, they aren’t shaping up to challenge for the top four at this rate. Take a look at our next four fixtures versus theirs, and despite our horror start of the season we could be above them certainly after the next four games. If Tottenham are our main rivals for fourth, I’m certain we’ll get it come May.