5 Things Chelsea Must Do To Beat Arsenal

League leaders Chelsea hosts Arsenal on what promise to be an entertaining afternoon of football on Sunday in the match day seven of the 2014/2015 English Barclays’ Premier league season. Chelsea have kicked off their campaign in fine style after winning five of their first six games and scoring nineteen time in the process. Arsenal on the other hand have not be convincing with their performances affter only winning just two games and drawing four in the first six matches of the season.

After an impressive performance and wins for both teams in the midweek Uefa Champions league, both teams will be high on confidence going into this game. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has not recorded a win over a Mourinho-led team. Out of the eleven previous meetings between the two managers, Mourinho has won six and drew the remaining five. The last match between these two sides back in March ended in a 6-0 win in favour of Chelsea. Wenger will look to turn this ill fate around by beating Mourinho moreso, after the Portuguese labelled him a specialist in failure. Mourinho will however want to continue his head-to-head dominance over Wenger.

So we look at five things Jose Mourinho and Chelsea need to do to get the better of Arsenal again.

• Keep it tight at the back:

Chelsea have conceded cheap goals earlier this season but the team seem to have organised their backline and that has seen the team come off a back-to-back clean sheet against Aston Villa and Sporting Lisbon. Against Sporting, Chelsea kept it tight at the back thus restricting Sporting strikers to long range shots which never trouble Thibaut Courtios. Keep it tight at the back, close down the striker and stop them from making runs into the box and you shut Arsenal out.

• Start Willian:

Willian is known for his exceptional work rate. He is also able and willing to take up defensive responsibilities. This atributes will be invaluable in helping out Branislav Ivanovic to track and close down the runs and subsequent threat of Alexis Sanchez as Arsenal likes playing through his wing.

• Use the full backs:

Arsene Wenger is known to set up his team in such a way that the full backs joins the midfield once they are in possession. This has however proved to be costly against big teams as the full backs are cut out of place once the opposition recovers possession thus making them defensively ineffective. Chelsea with quick players like Hazard, Oscar, Willian or Schurrle can watch the the likes of Calum Chambers and Kieran Gibbs and punish them when they are drawn out of position.

• Hit Arsenal on the break:

With only one fully fit defensive midffielder- Mathieu Flamini, Arsenal again would be vulnerable to Chelsea’s counter attacking just like in the 6-0 mauling. With players like Fabregas, Hazard and Oscar, Chelsea should hit Arsenal a great deal on the break and expect Diego Costa to be at the end of the post to poke in the goals.

• Stop Ozil:

It is said that when Ozil plays Arsenal play as anytime the German is played out of game Arsenal seem to be lethargic. Arsenal’s decent form so far is a function of his recent found form. Matic would do a good job to keep the former Madrid man quiet all games. Expect Chelsea to over run Arsenal once Ozil didn’t come to the party.