Arsenal at Chelsea match thread: top two tangle

Arsenal travel to West London to take on Chelsea in a clash of the top two sides in the Premier League table. As if Chelsea-Arsenal needed anymore juice, today’s match could stretch the Gunners’ lead in the table to a daunting 9 points or drag them back towards the pack, only 3 ahead of the Blues. This is a big one, folks.

Today’s testing match comes at the end of a particularly tough stretch for Arsenal — a North London Derby at the Emirates then a visit from Bayern Munich in the Champions League. It doesn’t get too much easier, either. The Gunners host Brentford midweek and travel to Aston Villa next weekend. We’ve hit that portion of the schedule, folks — three matches a week.

Chelsea beat Barcelona 3-0 at Stamford Bridge midweek, greatly helped by a 44th minute Ronald Araujo red card. They’ve got trips to Leeds and Bournemouth next week before a critical Champions League match at Atalanta. The Blues are tied with five clubs on 10 points — some of that bunch will finish in the critical top 8 and some will be forced into the play-in round.

Even with tricky fixtures ahead, neither club will overlook today’s contest. It’s far too early in the season to call it a title-decider but it’s a high-leverage match. I wouldn’t be surprised if the title chances were set to swing by 3-5 percentage points based on the result.

Arsenal are unbeaten in their last seven Premier League matches against Chelsea, 5 wins and 2 draws. Mikel Arteta is unbeaten in six trips to Stamford Bridge as manager of Arsenal, 3 wins and 3 draws. Chelsea have kept three consecutive Premier League clean sheets. Oddly enough, Chelsea, despite being second, have not won consecutive home matches in the PL this season — they beat Wolves at home on November 8th.

One more fun fact for y’all: Arsenal are unbeaten the last nine times today’s referee, Anthony Taylor, has been in the center circle but have drawn five of the last seven of those matches.

There may be some surprise injury news for the Gunners today — both Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus “traveled” with the team and might make the squad. Leandro Trossard, who left the midweek match after he “felt something” muscular, is in contention, too. Kai Havertz is close to a return as well, but it looks as if he will not be available today. Gabriel is out until late December / early January.

The big Chelsea injury news is that Cole Palmer has made a surprising leap forward in his recovery from a groin injury and fractured toe and is reportedly available to start today. Estevao was forced off against Barcelona with a knock but should be ready to go. Romeo Lavia is out until sometime in December. Dario Essugo has returned to training after thigh surgery. Levi Colwill is out until at least May and more likely for the season with a torn ACL.

Lineups will be posted when available.

WHAT: Arsenal at ChelseaWHERE: Stamford BridgeWHEN: Sunday, November 30th 8:30 am PT | 11:30 am ET | 4:30 pm GMTUS TV: USA and Telemundo. Streaming on NBCSports.com.

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