Arsenal’s Best Possible Starting Squad to Face Chelsea

Ronnie Macdonald – Flickr Creative Commons

Arsenal have an interesting match-up this weekend against league leader Chelsea. While a first versus second place match up this late in the season may, on paper, seem like a barn burner of a game, it has less of a glisten than you’d think. For one, Chelsea disposed of Manchester United last weekend, a game that Arsenal desperately needed the Red Devils to win. As such, Chelsea are now ten points up and level on games with only six matches yet to go. Granted, an Arsenal win puts us seven points back on level games, it’s still quite the hill to climb.

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But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be a stinker of a match. Arsenal want to win and as Cesc Fabregas not-so-kindly pointed out, so do they (via SkySports). Pride is the major thing, as neither team is a real big supporter of the other. Not only that, but the managers have a history of conflict, physical and verbal. Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have a well-documented past and it’s always fun when they match up.

A win puts pressure on Chelsea, and although their remaining schedule isn’t that tough, anything is possible. They’re struggling with the health of their striking force with Diego Costa and Didier Drogba both picking up injuries. Chelsea have indeed shown weakness this year when Costa has been out and it could be detrimental to their hopes at the Emirates.

Arsenal currently haven’t lost a Premier League match since February, and if they pull off a win here they’ll be four points clear of third place United. Four points is the smallest level of ultimate comfort, as it takes two matches to overcome that and no matter what Ivan Gazidis says, second place is a successful season.

Momentum is Arsenal’s biggest ally and they’ll be looking to keep it rolling to carry it on into next season. They could still make an unlikely title run but at this point it may be more realistic to set their sights on next year.

Mesut Ozil has a lot to prove this match as well. He was shown up by Cesc Fabregas in the reverse at Stamford Bridge and it’s there that he picked up the injury that kept him out and returned him as Superman. This new Ozil will surely be looking to return the favor to Fabregas and Chelsea.

The problem is that Chelsea don’t need to win and they may just park the bus from the get-go and protect the one point they want from the match.

Either way, Arsenal need the win, so they’ll be putting out their best possible starting XI, and here they are:

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