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Arsenal welcomes Chelsea at Emirates with a place in the Capital One Cup quarterfinals up for grabs. A cracking encounter between two fine, in-form teams is expected.
Arsenal surpassed all expectations so far, their start of the season being just brilliant. The gunners are leading the Premier League, amassing a total of 7 wins and 1 draw after losing at home to Villa in the first match of the season. Arsenal is also doing well in Champions League. Much of this form can be attributed to the team`s cohesion under Wenger and to the arrival of Ozil. When they bought Ozil Arsenal basically got two world class players, because the german also reinvented Olivier Giroud, the frenchman having his best career season with Ozil providing balls for him.
Chelsea started the season a little slow, adjusting to life under Mourinho, but the team finally started to get going a few weeks ago and is currently on a run of 6 excellent games, including 5 wins in the last 5 outings in all competitions. Chelsea is currently 2nd in the Premier League, just 2 points behind today`s opponents, and the Blues are leading their Champions League group. Chelsea has an absolutely fantastic offense: three world class strikers are competing for the starting place: Torres, Ba, Eto`o, and 7 world class players are competing for the 3 attacking midfielder spots: Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar, Mata, Willian, De Bruyne, van Ginkel. Most of these guys are in fantastic form right now, especially Torres, Hazard, Scurrle, Oscar and Willian. Chelsea defeated Manchester City 2-1 on Sunday, a little lucky since the winning goal came in the 90th minute.
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Team news & lineups
Arsenal has the usual injury list: Sanogo, Podolski, Diaby, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain and Arteta are out, Flamini is doubtful. Mourinho can be very happy with his squad`s health, the only injury issue being van Ginkel. Both managers will mix things up a bit in the first 11 for this League Cup encounter, but not too much. Arsenal will probably rest Gibbs, Sagna and Ozil, while Chelsea will leave on the bench players like Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Oscar or Torres. Of course you can`t know for sure exactly what guys will Wenger and Mourinho choose to rest at game-time, but the list will be close to what I presented.
Arsenal: Szczesny – Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Monreal – Wilshere, Ramsey – Gnabry, Rosicky, Cazorla – Giroud
Chelsea: Cech – Azpilicueta, Cahill, Luiz, Bertrand – Mikel, Ramires – Willian, Mata, Hazard – Eto’o
This is a game between two excellent, offensive teams that are in blistering form, so you have to expect goals here. Chelsea has been devastating up front so far and they are on a run of 5 consecutive over 2,5 games. Chelsea will surely have its chances to break down a shaky Arsenal defense which will also miss Sagna or Gibbs. Arsenal has alternated high scoring games with lower scoring ones lately, but they are boosting great numbers in the goal difference department this year. Their defense might be good enough to hold off Crystal Palace but no way is it good enough to resist against Chelsea. Arsenal last failed to score in April, so this tells you a lot about their offensive strength. 4 of the last 6 meetings between these two teams had at least 3 goals.
Both teams will improvise at the wing-back positions and this could hurt them in that area. There are no real objective reasons to think that either team could fail to score today. Both sides will be hoping to win this in 90 minutes, nobody wants extra time, especially Chelsea, who just played Manchester City on Sunday. Chelsea and Arsenal are in great form, the quality up front is fantastic for each side, so we should see a fast-paced game with a lot of scoring chances, Premier League style (or League Cup in this case). All arguments point to a high-scoring League Cup encounter and we should see exactly that. I`m betting on goals here and my prediction is Arsenal – Chelsea 2-2.
Pick: over 2,5 goals
Odds: 1.73 @ Ladbrokes
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 6.57
Event date: 29 October
Editor Facts
- Rostick is 4 for 5 in tips involving Chelsea this season
