Morning all.
It’s Chelsea at home this afternoon, and after years of Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola stories as we competed with Man City, I have a feeling we’ll have to get used to the Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso conversation for a few years. I know Chelsea is a lunatic bastard club where managers come and go like Monday morning commuters, but I do think he’s actually smart enough and good enough to last longer than most.
Quite how much their relationship makes a difference to anything today is another question, but perhaps a bit like Villa away on Monday, today is a decent time to play Chelsea. Again, it’s to take nothing for granted, but Alonso hasn’t had long in charge, and there are definitely things they need to work on in terms of their midfield and defence, even if their forward line looks pretty good. They conceded three against Brighton and two against Fulham, albeit in games they won, so I’m sure that’s something our manager will be looking at as he sets his team up today.
I’m expecting a couple of changes to the side, with Ezri Konsa coming in for Cristhian Mosquera after the Spaniard went off injured against Villa. Konsa has the experience to hopefully slot in well alongside Gabriel, and in a game where I think we’ll have most of the ball, his passing quality will be important. I don’t see anything different in midfield, although if Mikel Merino was in Arteta’s thoughts I wouldn’t be surprised, but more than likely it’ll be Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Odegaard with doubts again over Bruno Guimaraes’ fitness.
Then, on the left, I reckon we’ll see Eberechi Eze. Christos Tzolis had a difficult game last time out, and while I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, it was a reminder that the Premier League is a step up. Eze did well when he came on, was involved in the goal that helped us to the three points, and the reality of our squad after the window closed is that he is one of the two main options to play out there. Eze and Tzolis are likely to be this season’s Trossard and Martinelli (in terms of how they’re used, not playing styles), and I think for Eze in particular it’s a real opportunity to nail down a place in this team.
Last season he had some very important moments, and some good games, but it never quite felt like he was the perfect fit in any one position. Now, after not signing anyone else for the left-hand side, we need him out there, and I hope that clarity is useful for both him and Arteta when it comes to the season that lies ahead. He’ll have Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka in that front three with him, and let’s hope they can do what we need to hurt this Chelsea team and take all three points.
In their win over Brighton last weekend, Chelsea had just 26% possession, and it was just 38% against Fulham. It tells you how you can still hurt teams who dominate the ball, and we’ll have to be very mindful of counter-attacks and transitions against them today, an area I thought we looked just a little bit suspect in at Villa Park. But typically this is not how a Xabi Alonso team sets out to play. When asked what he expected from Chelsea today, Arteta said:
That would depend on a lot of factors and game state is a massive one, especially because the two games that they played, they scored very, very early and that changes the momentum and the shift of the game. But they are capable and he’s capable of playing in various ways.
Hopefully the manager’s attention to detail will play a part, and as Chelsea start to learn more about what their new manager wants, our stability and quality is too much for them later on.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. As ever, we’ll bring you live blog coverage of the game later, as well all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News like the match report, player ratings, manager reaction, quotes round-up and more. Don’t forget the preview pod on Patreon, and we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you tomorrow as well.
Catch you later for the game.
