It’s another match day today and another opportunity for me to get too worried and stressed ahead of yet another ‘cup final’ for The Arsenal, as we take on Chelsea at the Emirates in what I believe, is going to be a very tough game. These always are. Last season’s felt relatively comfortable, but that’s because they were on the beach, Lampard was in charge and we coasted through the game with just the slight irritation of a Madueke goal to tarnish what should have been a clean sheet.

I don’t care what anyone says about Chelsea this season though, I think their players will be up for it and having spoken to a mate at work who is a Chelsea fan, they will want to come and spoil the show this evening. Let’s not forget that Chelsea have had a habit of doing it over the years; remember the Gerrard slip that led to Demba Ba scoring? Chelsea weren’t fighting for the title but they were happy to break Liverpool hearts on that day and they will be more than happy to do the same to us tonight. So we need to be on it and ready for them in a game in which I suspect some of those Arsenal players will need to be emptying the tank tonight.

On Saturday evening at times we looked leggy and I suspect Arteta will not undertake a mass rotation to bring in fresher legs. We’ll see some changes, of that I think there can be no doubt, but I doubt it’ll be a whole new front line that will rock up for the 8pm kick off. I think we’ll see a change at left back and if I was to have a bet it’d be Zinchenko to come in, then I think we might see Jorginho at the base with Rice further forward, Havertz shifted up top, with Odegaard in right eight and Havertz flanked by Saka and possibly Martinelli. It sounds a little like Chelsea have the possibility of playing a makeshift right back with James and potentially Gusto out, so the running pace and speed of Martinelli could frighten somebody like Chalobah if he is given the nod.

ON the other side it sounds like Chilwell isn’t 100% and so that will be Cucurella and I just hope Saka and White have enough in the tank to get beyond him, because that is where we might get some joy if Pochettino’s press conference is anything to be believed.

I’m not sure it is though. He also said that Cole Palmer is a doubt and I’m pretty sure that we’ll see him at some stage. He’s become their shining light of a player and without him they miss a very big goal threat. Some have talked about how Chelsea’s season is basically over, but they still have hopes of catching Newcastle above them for a European spot and if you think about the games they have in hand now, I think they’ll patch Cole Palmer up and send him out if they can.

In terms of how Chelsea approach this game today, I guess a lot depends on the mentality post-FA Cup defeat to City on Saturday. Are their heads down? Do they feel like they have nothing to lose and therefore might have a go? In a way, I hope for both, because from what I’m reading and hearing from Chelsea fans, their big issue is in defence and if they are leaky goals at the back then potentially there’s an opportunity for us tonight (hence me thinking Martinelli having a run might be a good thing). They’ve conceded 27 away from home which is actually the sixth best in the league, with 26 scored on their travels (eighth in the league). So away from home they’ve not been as poor defensively as they have at home. That’s a little like us; we’ve found keeping clean sheets away from home a little more difficult than away from home, so I am thinking that they might get chances this evening.

But so will we. Chelsea are distinctly average when it comes to conceding shots on target and have conceded 156 in all games this season – 10th in the league and at the exact mid table point, with Forest, Everton and Palace having conceded less shots on target. They also don’t take a ton of shots – they’ve had 426 this season compared to our 550, which puts them in at 13th in the league – that says to me that whilst they do create chances, they don’t take loads, which means we need to shut them out, but also try to reduce the quality of those chances.

The good news – we hope – is that this Arsenal team have been quite good at suppressing shots this season and you feel that if we perform like we know we can and can keep Chelsea at arms length, then it comes down to whether we can do the business in the attacking third of the pitch. That won’t be easy though. We created very little in the second half against Villa, the same against Bayern and although we had loads of shots by the end of the game against Wolves, I didn’t personally feel comfortable enough in my own head to think “these goals are coming”. That is my big worry tonight i.e. that we have a good first half, then fade again as the team starts to tire. It wasn’t until the 45th minute that we scored against Wolves and in the previous two matches before that we’ve had goalless first halves, so it just feels like our potency in front of goal in the first half has been drying up a bit. Just think about what a goal in the first 20 or 30 minutes could do for us tonight; it could result in Chelsea heads dropping, it could open up spaces, it could be vital in terms of how the narrative of the game develops.

What we have to do is that buzzword for this season: control. We need to control tempo, the ball, we need to try to pin Chelsea back and make them chase the ball. The way we do that is through the type of players we have on the pitch, which is why I think Arteta will go for Zinchenko and Jorginho. Personally I’d love to see Partey coming in from the start but given he’s only really been given 10 – 20 minute cameos, I doubt he can last even 60 – 70 minutes. Maybe he and Jorginho can share game minutes though?

This is a tough one, the Villa game showed we can take nothing for granted, but once again for us just like it was the case on Saturday, it’s win or bust for our title chances. Only victory will do and we have to be looking at winning this if we want to stand any chance of that elusive title being ours. I still think it’s probably a bit too much of a long shot, but every win just edges us closer and that’s what I’m praying for tonight.

Catch you all tomorrow for a post-match review. Let’s hope it’s a happy one.