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On Monday evening, the English Premier League will give an early Christmas present to the fans and football enthusiasts of this championship. The London derby between the Arsenal and Chelsea clubs will be played at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal - Chelsea Tournament: Premier League Stadium: Emirates, London Referee: Mike Dean Date and time: 2013-12-23, 22:00
The capital derby is one of the highlights of the festive Premier League marathon for a neutral spectator. These teams are neighbors not only geographically, but also at the top of the standings, where the battle for the top becomes even hotter.
The London Arsenal team, coached by Arsene Wenger, has recently hit a rough patch, so in order to compete for the highest goals, the "Gunners" need to recover and secure a victory, gaining important points in their account.
Leading the league table until this weekend, the capital footballers started December with a win against Everton, but a week later they had to admit the superiority of the Manchester City team. Moreover, the Arsenal team barely made it to the Champions League knockout stage after playing a match against Napoli and finishing second in the group.
Despite being overtaken by Liverpool and Manchester City from the fourth round, a victory against Chelsea would allow Wenger's pupils to regain the top spot in the league table.
In this derby, the Arsenal team will definitely be without the suspended midfielder Jack Wilshere, who will miss two matches, and the injured Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Abou Diaby, and forward Yaya Sanogo. It is likely that the injured center-back Laurent Koscielny, who missed the match against Man City, will not appear, while the recovered forward Lukas Podolski may take to the field.
The London Chelsea club cannot boast of stable performance either, but Jose Mourinho's pupils have not fallen far behind the teams at the top of the league table.
In the Champions League, the "Blues" finished first in their group, surpassing the Schalke team, while in the Premier League they have secured four victories in the last five matches and are currently in fourth place in the league table with 33 points. A victory would allow them to overtake the same Arsenal club.
However, Chelsea had to end their journey in the Capital One Cup. In the quarterfinal match, Chelsea had to admit defeat to the Sunderland players after extra time. The latter progressed to the semifinals of the tournament.
The fights between these teams are a battle for every inch of the pitch.
In the Chelsea ranks, defender Michael Essien will be unable to play due to disqualification, the young defender Marco Van Ginkel is recovering from an injury, and it is unclear whether left-back Ryan Bertrand will be able to help the team. Coach J. Mourinho revealed that Ashley Cole will not be seen in the starting lineup.
Arsenal and Chelsea have already met this season in the Capital One Cup. Back then, Mourinho's pupils celebrated victory at the Emirates Stadium after goals from Cesar Azpilicueta and Juan Mata.
However, Mourinho claims that those matches were different and he expects a more intense fight on Monday evening: "It's a different tournament with different goals, duties, and in some cases even footballers. But this is still the London derby. And it will feature the same Arsenal and Chelsea clubs."
Recent five meetings between the two teams:
Arsenal 0 - 2 Chelsea (Capital One Cup) Chelsea 2 - 1 Arsenal (Premier League) Arsenal 1 - 2 Chelsea (Premier League) Arsenal 0 - 0 Chelsea (Premier League) Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal (Premier League)
Predicted lineups:
Arsenal: Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs; Arteta, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott; Giroud.
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry, Azpilicueta, Mikel, Ramires, Oscar, Schurrle, Hazard; Torres.
