Arsenal-Chelsea is a rematch of the 29th day of the Premier League and is played Tuesday at 9 p.m.: live TV, probable formations, predictions.
It was by no means easy to pick up the head immediately after the double slap, between the league and Champions League, received first by Aston Villa (0-2) and then by Bayern Munich (1-0), in the space of a few days. But Arsenal succeeded last Saturday, taming Wolverhampton at Molineux (0-2) thanks to goals from Trossard and Odegaard and momentarily returning to the top of the Premier League table.
Mikel Arteta’s team has thus archived the elimination from the premier competition and will now focus all its efforts on the league, in an attempt to get its hands back on that title that has been missing in North London for as long as 20 years. The tumble a week ago with Aston Villa, however, has complicated the plans of the Basque coach, who is no longer master of his own destiny. Manchester City, in fact, has one match less than Arsenal and Liverpool, momentarily paired on 74 points. And should they win them all between now and the end of May, they would confirm themselves as champions of England. The Gunners therefore only have to win as many games as possible and hope for a misstep by Pep Guardiola’s battleship, which is also out of the Champions League.
A derby worth a lot
Arsenal, however, is the one among the three direct competitors with the toughest schedule. After their success with Wolves they will face the derby with Chelsea – the 29th day recovery – at the Emirates Stadium.
The Blues will only be able to gain access to the next European cups (Europa or Conference League) through the Premier League: hopes of getting there through winning the FA Cup vanished last Saturday following a narrow defeat (1-0) at Wembley against Manchester City, who will therefore go on to play the final- derby with Manchester United. Nothing is lost for Mauricio Pochettino’s men, who remain in the thick of the race for sixth place: Newcastle have three more points than the Londoners but also one more game. Everything still hangs in the balance as far as qualification for the “minor cups” is concerned.
The prediction
Gunners and Blues chase different goals but have the same urgency to bring points home. The feeling is that while starting slightly favored, it will not be easy for Arsenal to bend a Chelsea side that, beyond the FA Cup defeat to City, has risen in recent weeks, especially offensively (14 goals scored in the last four days). We could see a spectacular extracittadina like the first leg – it ended 2-2 – in which there will certainly be no shortage of goals: even Chelsea should manage to score at least one.
The probable lineups of Arsenal-Chelsea
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu; Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard; Saka, Havertz, Trossard.
CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Petrovic; Disasi, Thiago Silva, Chalobah, Chilwell; Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Palmer, Gallagher, Sterling; Nicolas Jackson.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
