Diaby & Chamberlain To Start – Arsenal Strongest Squad For Chelsea

Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday for a Premier League date with Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea as they look to right the wrong of last season’s 6-0 defeat. Arsene Wenger’s side goes into the fixture on the back of a convincing 4-1 win over Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday. However, the match at the Bridge is expected to be a different proposition.

Arsenal would be without four first team players ahead of the match, with Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta the latest to join long term absentees in Mathieu Debuchy and Oliver Giroud on the sidelines. Although, there is some measure of good news as Nacho Monreal makes a return to the squad after missing the last five matches with a back injury. Jack Wilshere’s role was restricted to a substitute appearance in midweek after his ankle knock last weekend, while the other players came out unscathed against Galatasaray.

As a result, we are likely to see a line up of:

Wojciech Szczensy-Calum Chambers-Per Mertesacker-Laurent Koscielny-Kieran Gibbs-Abou Diaby-Jack Wilshere-Oxlade Chamberlain-Alexis Sanchez-Mesut Ozil-Danny Welbeck

with a substitute’s bench of:

David Ospina, Mathieu Flamini, Tomas Rosicky, Nacho Monreal, Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla, Joel Campbell

While the trip to Stamford Bridge has been dominated by Cesc Fabregas coming up against the team where he made his name, that is just a sub plot to the main plot that sets the scene for the Premier League meeting with Chelsea on Sunday.

Arsene Wenger had talked up the need to rewrite history after the scandalous defeat of last season which was his 1000th game in charge. Wojciech Szczensy had also joined in the chorus in declaring that Arsenal would be looking to redemn themselves.

However, Arsenal’s record against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea makes for grim reading with 5 draws and six defeats in eleven games. Last season, Arsenal conceded 8 goals against Chelsea without scoring a goal in three matches.

Although, both clubs are unbeaten going into the match, Chelsea’s form have been ominous as they have won five of their six matches with 19 goals scored. While Arsenal’s are still finding the right way to fit all it attacking players into a new formation that has resulted in a slow start to the season.

As Arsene Wenger’s side face a daunting task on Sunday, these set of players would be seeking to do what others have failed to do under Arsene Wenger, that is beat a Jose Mourinho team for the first time. It should be an interesting matchup between the two unbeaten side in the league in West London.