Arsenal v Chelsea: Pre-match Build-up

Arsenal vs Chelsea have always been feisty encounters, the last time they both met resulted in a goalless draw at the Emirates, and the last game that ended in a win went in the favour of Arsenal beating Chelsea 5-3.

The two sides face each other again as both teams go into the match unbeaten in the league so far, as Chelsea are top of the table and Arsenal sit four places below in 5th spot.

Arsenal’s last game was a 6-1 win against Coventry at home in the League Cup, with Olivier Giroud scoring his first goal for Arsenal but still waiting to score in the league. Meanwhile, Chelsea’s last game was a 6-0 hammering of Stale Solbakken’s Wolves at home also in the League Cup with Moses scoring his first goal for the club.

Arsenal’s defence have improved drastically this season as they have only conceded two goals in the league so far whilst putting 9 in the back of the net, and it seems that Vito Mannone will be playing more often than Wojciech Szczesny.

Also the departure of Robin Van Persie who was Arsenal’s top scorer last season led to everyone thinking Arsenal would struggle come the next season, but the critics have been proven wrong with summer signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla proving their price tag, unlike Olivier Giroud who is still struggling to get to grips with the new league.

At this point last season Arsenal had only won one game in the first five of the 11/12 season suffering a massive 8-2 to United at Old Trafford, RVP describing it as “the worst game of his life”.

Chelsea, who had a pretty dramatic last season finishing 6th but also being crowned the champions of Europe, beating teams such as Barcelona in the semis and Bayern Munich in the final in an emotional penalty shoot-out, becoming the first London team to win the Champions League.

Chelsea started the 11/12 season with manager Andre Villas Boas, who was later sacked after a disappointing first half of the season, then appointing caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo, who won the FA cup beating Liverpool (Capital One Cup holders) 2-1 at Wembley.

Fernando Torres also struggled last season after Chelsea signed him from Liverpool for a massive £50 million, only scoring 20 goals in total with the Blues so far and the 12/13 campaign is being claimed to be his now-or- never season.

Chelsea also signed Belgium starlet Eden Hazard from LOSC Lille, Oscar from SC Internacional, Victor Moses from Wigan, Marko Marin from, Werder Bremen and Cesar Azpilicueta from Marseille. Eden Hazard is proving his worth by getting 6 assists and 1 goal so far, while Oscar scored his first 2 goals for Chelsea vs. Juventus in the Champions League.

So both teams go into this game with great expectations as this game could ruin one teams unbeaten run or just add to it. Giroud is still searching for his first league goal , and Arsenal’s defence is looking to keep another clean sheet.

For Chelsea Oscar, Moses and Marin are still too looking for their first league goal.

It’s going to be a very good, exciting game.

Kick off: Saturday 29th September 2012 at 12:45pm (UK time).

Written by Dudi Iromlou