Chelsea vs. Arsenal is on Saturday morning and even though it’s very early in the Premier League season, this is a huge game that can spell the immediate and maybe season long future for both teams. We told you why Chelsea needed to beat Arsenal earlier today but right now, here’s why Arsenal needs to beat Chelsea.
Arsenal has been having a quietly good season. They are 4th in the Premier League table and tied with Manchester United for 3rd with only goal differential separating them. Out of the teams they’re battling for a Champions League spot, they are three points ahead of Liverpool and six ahead of Chelsea. Even though Arsenal is five points behind Manchester City, it’s tough to match what Manchester City has done in their first five games, 5-0-0 and an 11-0 goal differential.
Arsenal needs to beat Chelsea so that Arsene Wenger can finally get one over on Jose Mourinho. Wenger beat Mourinho earlier this year for the first time in the Community Shield but we saw what Mourinho thought of that game and to be fair, it is pretty much a glorified friendly. This will be Wenger’s chance to beat Mourinho for the first time in a competitive game and quite frankly, this is his best chance yet. With Chelsea suffering a two game EPL losing streak and having issues at defense as well as their star goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois being injured, if Wenger cannot beat Mourinho this weekend, he may not be able to at any point.
In addition to Wenger needing to beat Mourinho, Petr Cech would probably want to beat Chelsea as well. For everything that has been said, I don’t really believe Cech hates his longtime former team. I do believe that he’s a competitor and there’s a part of him that wants to beat them to show Chelsea that maybe there’s still a little bit left in the tank.
Last, but probably most important, Arsenal needs to beat Chelsea to keep them down in the table. Let’s be honest with ourselves, Chelsea is not going to be in a relegation battle. At some point, Chelsea is going to get it together and they are going to be fighting for a Champions League spot against Arsenal. I don’t know if they will be necessarily fighting for the title, even this early in the season, but they will be going against Arsenal for one of the Champions League spots. While this is technically more of a “must win” for Chelsea, it probably wouldn’t hurt for Arsenal to get the win and be nine points up on Chelsea six games into the EPL season instead of Chelsea winning and being within three and being back in the hunt already.
