Key events
Mikel Arteta makes two changes to the side that drew at Old Trafford last time out: Myles Lewis-Skelly returns at left-back – though of course he also played in midweek – replacing Riccardo Calafiori – while on the right wing, it’s Gabriel Martinelli, not Ethan Nwaneri.
I’ll write these down, then we’ll look at them in greater detail.
Teams!
Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Martinelli, Merino, Trossard. Subs: Neto, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Calafiori, Butler-Oyedeji, Nwaneri.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sanchez; Fofana, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Enzo, Nkunku, Sancho; Neto. Subs: Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Tosin, Chalobah, Gusto, Acheampong, Lavia, Dewsbury-Hall, George.
Preamble
There are few emotions more acute than disappointment. Though, on the face of things, it is more benign than its more intense relations – devastation, wrecked and so on – it is that exact benignity that makes it so powerfully consuming, a sense that things haven’t gone as the cosmos planned for them to go, leaving a lingering, nagging, feeble sense of entitlement, powerlessness and injustice.
Arsenal weren’t meant to sit 15 points off the top of the table with 10 games to go. After the surprise challenge of two seasons ago, they got closer still the following year and, fortified by those experiences, were expected – expected themselves – to have another serious tilt at the title.
Not so, and if that weren’t enough, the champions this time will be not a state-funded front under investigation by the football authorities and managed by the foremost football genius of the generation. After pushing Manchester City so hard and even injuring the man who makes them tick, it is Liverpool set to benefit from the subsequent drop-off. And because it’s happened slowly, without drama, there’s no sense of rebuild and repair, rather the constant irritation of opportunity spurned, with no guarantee it will return to a team now three years into a cycle.
However there’s a however: Bukayo Saka is nearing full fitness and might be available when, early next month, Arsenal meet an unconvincing Real Madrid in the last eight of the Champions League. Immortality is still not beyond them.
In the meantime, though, they must secure their spot in next season’s competition, with today’s visitors, Chelsea, keen to do the same. After a decent period early in the season, in recent times they’ve found it harder to hit a consistent level as Enzo Maresca seeks the best deployment of his frankly ludicrous resources. But they have the talent to give anyone a game and if they win today will be just three points behind their London rivals, bringing the various teams behind them back into the equation, which is to say disappointment may morph into devastation yet.
Kick-off: 1.30pm GMT