Two teams battling for redemption after poor 2017/18 campaigns will meet on Saturday when Chelsea host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
For the first time in two decades, it won’t be Arsene Wenger in charge of the Arsenal side that arrives at Chelsea, instead, it’s Unai Emery’s turn to try to get the better of his London rivals.
Maurizio Sarri will be in the Chelsea dugout and he’ll be in a good mood after his side defeated Huddersfield Town 3-0 on the opening day of the season. Emery has a few more questions to ask himself about his side after they lost pretty comprehensively to Manchester City.
With two new managers and after a summer of ins and outs, it’s hard to know what to expect from both sides, although that is not reflected in the Chelsea vs Arsenal betting odds as the home side are the strong favourites to win the clash.
Both sides are in transition but it looked, before a ball was kicked, that Arsenal were in better shape as they made their changes a lot earlier in the summer, whilst Chelsea waited much longer to implement their new plan.
However, if Sarri’s men can defeat the Gunners, something they are more than capable of doing, they’ll already find themselves six points ahead of Arsenal and whilst it’s only very early on in the season, that is still a significant cushion, especially as Chelsea’s new manager has already stated that it will take him some time to implement his strategy.
Having said that, Arsenal still have some quality attacking players and Chelsea have, over the course of pre-season, have shown a vulnerability at the back and the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette are more than capable of hurting the Blues, so the home side will need to be on their game at the back.
