The deafening chorus of “Wenger out” cries reached fever pitch around The Emirates midweek as Arsenal crumbled to a 2-1 home defeat against a Watford side that hadn’t won in seven and was sliding towards the relegation zone. Meanwhile Chelsea battled to a 1-1 draw away at Liverpool and extended their lead over Arsenal to nine points and pretty much wrapped up the league title. Chelsea will be full of confidence going into this game, while Arsenal are all over the place.
What a difference half a season makes. When these two sides met in September, Arsenal thrashed Chelsea. It finished 3-0 and could have been many more. Arsenal fans were full of optimism – this could finally be the season to end the long, miserable title drought. They played with verve and vigour and looked the genuine article, while Chelsea were hopeless. Slow, plodding, cumbersome at the back, toothless in attack, devoid of inspiration. Their title chances were written off by fans, pundits and some of our green listed bookmakers alike.
But that caused Antonio Conte to have a sleepless night in which he devised a masterplan to turn Chelsea’s season around. He switched to three at the back – a system that served him so well at Juventus – and employed Marcus Alonso and Victor Moses as rampaging wing-backs. The transformation was monumental. Since then they have won 15 of 17, losing just once, to leave them nine points clear and heavy favourites to win the league (3/10 with Bet365 and Paddy Power). They have great balance in their side and Eden Hazard has been a revelation since being freed of his defensive responsibility, while they did well to keep hold of star striker Diego Costa for the run-in.
In the meantime, Arsenal continued being Arsenal, doing Arsenal things in a completely Arsenal way. False dawns, optimism rising up only to be crushed, meek displays, a lack of leadership and backbone, a reluctance to dip into the transfer market, bizarre tactical decisions from Arsene Wenger… The list goes one and Arsenal fans have heard it all before. They lost consecutive games in the northwest, to Everton and Man City, and most Arsenal fans gave up hope for another season then. A good spell raised expectations among the rest, but they were obliterated with that horrendous result against the struggling Hornets. They keep starting games in a dreadful manner. They went 3-0 down against an average Bournemouth side and salvaged a 3-3 draw and were even trailing Preston in the FA Cup before snatching it in stoppage time, and had to rely on a stoppage time winner to see off Burnley. They left themselves with too much to do against Watford and it cost them.
So the momentum is with Chelsea, and it is very difficult to see them losing this game, particularly as Arsenal are in the midst of an injury crisis and bereft of central midfielders. The bolder among you could go Chelsea outright at 2.05 with William Hill, Betfred and Stan James, but Chelsea draw no bet looks really interesting at 1.50 with Stan James and Paddy Power.
One thing you would expect to see is goals: Arsenal’s last six games have seen 25 goals, an average of 4.16 per game. They are often superb going forwards and are the one team in the league that can really create many chances against Chelsea, but they are also hopeless in defence right now – particularly in the first half – and are likely to be pulled all over the place by Hazard. Over 2.5 goals looks a good bet at 1.87 with BetVictor as a 2-1 or 3-1 win for Chelsea could be on the cards here.
Arsenal have started games in such a lethargic manner of late that a great bet looks to be Chelsea to score the first goal at 1.75 with Bwin. Arsenal frequently get the last goal, however, and the 2.50 Ladbrokes is offering on that also looks good.
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