Arsenal vs Chelsea

Emirates Stadium is the venue as Arsenal and Chelsea go head-to-head in an all-London Premier League match-up.

A disappointing 2-0 defeat away to the Premier League debutants Brentford on Matchday 1 only deepened Arsenal’s crisis, with Mikel Arteta facing an uphill task of bringing his side back on track following back-to-back eighth-place finishes. A victory against bitter cross-town rivals would be a perfect place to start. However, Arsenal will have to defy their ‘Chelsea Sunday jinx’ to prevail at the Emirates, having failed to beat this opposition in any of their last ten Premier League encounters held on this day (D2, L8). Despite producing more shots (22) than any other side on the opening weekend, the ‘Gunners’ were one of just five Premier League sides to draw a blank on Matchday 1. That ties in well with their lacklustre attacking displays down the final stretch of 2020/21, which saw them net under 1.5 goals in five of their last seven league matches that campaign.

On the other hand, an overwhelming 3-0 home triumph over Crystal Palace on Matchday 1 gave Chelsea a perfect start to the new Premier League season. Thomas Tuchel hopes to lead his side to a fifth consecutive away victory in London derbies. The last time Chelsea won five such contests in a row was in 2006 under Jose Mourinho. With the €115m-signing Romelu Lukaku set to make his second Premier League debut for the reigning Champions League holders, the visitors will be keen to erase the traumatic memory of a 3-1 loss in this exact fixture back last season. However, the ‘Blues’ should not get overconfident as of yet, especially considering they’ve managed to beat Arsenal in just three of their previous 14 encounters across all competitions, losing the last three in a row.