Arsenal vs Chelsea: Preview and Prediction

Saturday 19th January 2019

England Premier League
Saturday 19th January 2019
Kick off at 5:30pm GMT
Venue: Emirates Stadium

Match Preview:

The game of the weekend at least on paper will take place early Saturday evening when Arsenal take on Chelsea at The Emirates.

It has been fascinating to watch the two new managers this season. For Arsenal Unai Emery has stepped into the hot seat as a new face for the first time in 22 years and it has been quite a revelation for him. On the whole The Gunners have played good football, but still showed some naivety, the same kind that made Arsene Wenger’s teams so predictable to watch, but they have also garnered some good wins. Bottom line is that they are in a Wenger esque 5^th place. So far they have 41 points and Manchester United have the same and they have slipped 6 points behind Chelsea.

This is a massive game for Chelsea for the run in of 4^th place and they could stretch that lead to 9 points over Arsenal. Indeed win this and they have a chance to topple Tottenham in 3^rd. It has been on the whole a very impressive season for Maurizio Sarri, whose side went the first 3 months of the campaign undefeated.

But the team have unravlled since then and lost a few games they would have been expected to win. Earlier in the season Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-2, and yet most pundits came away thinking that the game was Arsenal’s to be won.

Arsenal come into this game having won only 1 game from their past four matches and Chelsea are undefeated in their last 4 games having won 3 of those.

Team News:

Arsenal: Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are definitely out, whilst Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a doubt.

Chelsea: Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Marco van Ginkel are both unavailable, whilst Alvaro Morata is a doubt for the game.

Arsenal vs Chelsea Head to Head:

Chelsea have not beaten Arsenal away for the past 6 meetings.

3 from the last 6 games have finished in a draw.

Arsenal vs Chelsea Prediction:

We feel that Arsenal can win this. They have been very strong at home and rarely lose points here. Chelsea have had good form but are winning games with one goal margins and have not been very decisive. If we look at Arsenal they are a different team at home, where they have already struck blows to top teams. Beating Tottenham 4-2 and drawing 1-1 with Liverpool. This is quite a statement game for Emery to say that Arsenal under him have arrived and we can feel that it is their final chance with the ever looming presence of Manchester United to stake a claim for a top 4 finish.

Arsenal vs Chelsea Betting Tips:

Asian handicap (+0.5 Arsenal) at 1.625

Over 2.5 goals at 1.62