Chelsea Don’t Have to Do Anything at Arsenal

Chelsea visit Arsenal on Sunday in a Premier League game, where Jose Mourinho’s side might not attack at all.

Sitting at the top of the Premier League table with a ten-point lead, Chelsea need only two victories from the last six games to secure this year’s title. Occupying this really comfortable position, Jose Mourinho doesn’t have to mobilize too much energy to bolster his teams attacking play, he can rely on the solid defense, as he usually does, waiting for catching Arsenal on the break. But only if he wants to perform a sliding goal celebration in front of Arsene Wenger, a man he knowingly dislikes…

Wenger never won against Mourinho
Draw OK for Chelsea
No pressure on Arsenal

Arsenal on the other hand must attack, or at least they must score, because they need a victory to postpone Chelsea’s apparent title celebration as late as possible. This is Arsenal’s thing, possessing the ball, dominate the game in the opposition’s half, building long chains of passes with a lot of movement trying to unlock the defense, which won’t be easy at all according to online sportsbooks in the UK.

Wenger has never beaten Mourinho

The problem is that this is the best defending unit in the Premier League conceding 26 goals in 32 games only. Okay, Southampton allowed just 24 in 33 games, so they are even better in this regard, but they are in a desperate fight for the Champions League qualification, online betting news report, not for the title. Arsenal’s manager faced Mourinho’s Chelsea 12 times in the Premier League so far and his side won none of those matches. This causes obviously some frustration for the Frenchman that can lead to a quarrel and even a bit of cockfight-like pushing at the sidelines as anyone who bet on sports in the UK remembers from last year.

However, Arsenal is doing so well at the moment that their form resembles to their invincible 2003-04 season. They are currently on a winning run lasting nine games in all competition, swapping a fight for the fourth place to a shot at the Premier League title. As Wenger recently stated that this year’s championship is only Chelsea’s to lose, there is hardly any pressure on his team. They can try to use this clash to get some experience for next season when they will expectedly fight for the title in deed.

Mourinho never loses against top sides

The only must for Arsenal is securing the silver medal in the league and winning the FA Cup against Aston Villa on the penultimate day of May and they can go to their summer holidays happily. In this regard it is not hard to see why the two sides are expected to settle for a draw on Sunday. Since Jose Mourinho returned to London in 2013, he never lost a match against Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City. One point from these games usually satisfies him, and a draw on this Sunday would very much do it for Chelsea this time as well. Especially as the Blues have problems regarding their strikers as Diego Costa, Loic Remy and Didier Drogba aren’t 100% percent fit either.

Goalless draws are hard to come by in this fixture, however two of their last three outings in the league resulted in a 0-0 score line at the Emirates with one of those coming in last season. Chelsea won their last two games against Arsenal, defeating them 2-0 in October with goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa, while their clash thirteen months ago ended in a 6-0 thrashing. In that match Chelsea was ahead by three in the seventeenth minute, and Arsenal down to ten men as Andre Marriner notably sent off Kieran Gibbs instead of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

These games were played at Stamford Bridge though, where Chelsea won their last three outings against Arsenal. At the Emirates they are undefeated in their last three matches too, achieving two goalless draws and a 2-1 victory, with Arsenal succeeding there last time in 2010. The last victory from the Gunners against Chelsea came at the Stamford Bridge in 2011 when they beat their city rivals 5-3 with two late goals from Robin van Persie. Anyone from the mobile betting audience predicting something similar ahead of this Sunday’s derby must be a really brave man indeed.