Chelsea head to Arsenal Wednesday night to end the festive period fixture congestion that supporters and television companies love, but managers abhor. This London derby has been a very busy and active one for the officials, as there have been six red cards in the last seven meetings between these sides across all competitions.
Chelsea has had a player sent off in each of the last three meetings.ย Arsenal are slightly favored in this one, even though they have failed to score in seven of their last nine against the Blues in league play.
The Gunners have just four goals in total during that span.
In team news today,ย Arsene Wenger could be hit with a match ban, as the Football Association has charged him with verbally abusing official Mike Dean on Sunday. Flipping over to the Chelsea side, Antonio Conte said that he thinks David Luiz, who has been linked to the opponent here this transfer window, not to leave in the January window.
Additionally, Wenger said that both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are replaceable, should they leave. On the other side, Conte has dismissed the idea that his side will acquire his former player, Giorgio Chiellini.
Full match injury/fitness report: go to this link
Let’s take a a look at our starting XI predictions for both teams, starting with the hosts.
Attack: Danny Welbeck,ย Alexandre Lacazette, Theo Walcott
Midfield: Ainsleyย Maitland-Niles,ย Jack Wilshere, Granit Xhaka, Hector Bellerin
Back Line: Per Mertesacker, Shokdran Mustafi, Calum Chambers
Goalkeeper: Petr Cech
Odds: Arsenal โ 15/8 Draw โ 5/2 Chelsea โ 8/5
Chelsea Starting XI Prediction
Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois
Defenders: Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen
Midfielders:ย Cesc Fabregas, NโGolo Kante, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Victor Mosesย
Forwards: Eden Hazard,ย Marcos Alonso, Alvaro Morata
Prediction:ย Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1
As always, feel free to post your own Chelsea or Arsenal starting XI prediction, and/or the score prediction, the comments section below.
Paul M. Banks runsย The Sports Bank.netย and TheBank.News, which is partnered withย News Now.ย Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times,ย NBC Chicago.comย andย Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly toย WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging communityย Chicago Now.
Follow him onย Twitter,ย Instagram,ย Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.
