The London Derby will decide the winner of a trophy for the third time in the past four years. At first, these two sides met in the FA Cup finals back in 2017, then in the Europa League finals last year, and now this. Do know that this is the closing game in the English football for the season, and the last chance for winning a piece of silverware for both the Gunners and the Blues. Even though Chelsea has a UCL game to take care of, after 0-3 in London against Bayern, they pretty much have nothing to hope for in Munich. Arsenal, meanwhile, ended his odyssey in the EL.
Preview
Arsenal has numerous players injured, and as always, they can’t put together the strongest lineup. But that is something we all adjusted to, and we believe that Arteta already made piece with it also. Right now, Martinelli, Mustafi, Chambers, and Guendouzi are definitely out, while Leno remains questionable.
The Gunners lost the previous two games away from Emirates, against Tottenham, 2-1 and Aston Villa 1-0, and that is something that frightens their fans a lot. Arsenal hasn’t been convincing on the road even before the pause, and they continued in the same manner now.
When talking about efficiency, before the previous two games in the EPL, they had five in a row with a moderate one, 2 or 3 goals. This outcome is the most frequent in Arsenal’s matches since the restart of the football activities in England.
Chelsea did its part of the job regarding the league, and that is a place among the top four teams. They secured another Champions League episode and now have a chance to make this a trophy-year.
The Blues play open and attractive football, sometimes inconsistent. Then again, they are still young and have a lot of room for improvement. As for efficiency, when Lampard’s boys appear on the pitch, you might expect goals. Seven of the latest 10 matches saw over 2.5 goals, and five in a row on the road went above that limit.
A fortunate thing for Chelsea is that they don’t have any injured players. All those who are sidelined are like that for a long time, Loftus-Cheek, Musonda, van Ginkel, etc. But, truth to be told, all of these guys weren’t some notable players this year.
Head to Head matches
We will start with games from this season. The first one at Emirates ended 1-2 for Chelsea, while the second concluded with a draw, 2-2. Those two mentioned finals, saw goals on both sides and over 2.5. FA Cup finals in 2017 saw Arsenal defeating the Blues 2-1, and the EL finals 4-1 for Chelsea. The latter one was a pretty painful experience that sealed Arsenal’s terrible season.
Five of the previous six events saw over 2.5 goals.
Prediction
Arsenal has a fantastic attack, but poor defense. We might say that the situation is similar in Chelsea, but with the note that the Blues have a slightly better back line. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang will probably play his last game for the Gunners and will try to give his best to say goodbye with a trophy.
So the bottom line is to expect goals, and to expect them on both sides in high volume. Our pick here is over 2.5 goals and both teams to score, with the odds at BetXChange at 1.06.
