Date: Sunday 30th
November 2025
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick-off: 16:30 GMT
Today’s
game brings Arsenal and their questionable taste in music to Stamford
Bridge—hopefully their anthem is the worst thing they bring with them!
Both
teams are riding high after midweek Champions League triumphs: we gave
Barcelona a lesson they won’t forget in a hurry (3-0, cheers), while Arsenal beat
Bayern 3-1. We start the day third in the table, thanks to City just about
scraping past Leeds yesterday, and we’ve bagged 9 wins in our last 11
games—someone put out the bunting!
Whilst
we beat Burley away in our last Premier League game, Stamford Bridge has been
more like a polite B&B for visiting teams this season—only 43.5% of our
Premier League points have come at home (statisticians are crying into their
calculators as we speak). Arsenal, by contrast, are on a roll: before
outplaying Bayern, they thrashed Sp*rs 4-1, which is frankly always amusing.
Here’s the catch—back-to-back home wins in the league still elude us (and beating Wolves last time out at home is hardly brag-worthy). To top it off, our last victory over Arsenal was so long ago it’s probably been archived. And let’s be honest, Arsenal have been swanning past defences stronger than ours all season, so if we’re handing out set-pieces like party favours and it bites us on the backside, don’t be surprised—it’s practically a Stamford Bridge tradition!
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Enzo Maresca, says “It’s another big game. We finished the one
against Barca with a good feeling. If it’s bigger than the last one, I don’t
know. For me, they’re all important. It’s a nice feeling, but it’s three
points. Then we have Leeds, which is three points in the same way.
For sure,
Arsenal defend fantastically. Any team against them struggles to score goals.
Not only to score goals but to create chances. So as a team, they defend very
well, and they have weapons when they attack. And they’re not just [a threat
from set-pieces] against one or two teams, they score goals from set-pieces
against any team. Against Bayern Munich, they scored their first goal from a
corner. They score goals against any team, they have a system in place that
works very well, and we will do our best to stop them.”
Arsenal
manager, Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, says “It’s a big game, it’s a big London
derby, we’re going to play a really good opponent, and they are in really good
form. We know the challenge, we know the opportunity that we have as well on
Sunday, so we are fully prepared for it. After beating Spurs at home, then we
have to make a statement against Bayern Munich, we’ve done that and now we have
to go to the next one. That’s where we are, we knew the importance of the week,
not only that, but what is coming after three days is going to be exactly the
same, nothing is going to change. But we are super motivated for the game.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Chelsea, Levi Colwill (ACL), and Romeo Lavia (thigh) remain out injured but Cole Palmer (toe) is finally available, along with Dario Essugo (thigh). Mykhaylo Mudryk is still suspended.
For Arsenal, Gabriel Magalhaes
(hamstring) and Gabriel Jesus (fitness) are thought to be out, Victor Gyokeres
(hamstring) and Kai Havertz (knee) will be assessed ahead of the game according
to Arteta. Whilst Leandro Trossard (muscular), who came off against Bayern, may
still be available.
TEAMS
CHELSEA
(Possible line-up): Sanchez;
James, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro,
Neto; Delap
ARSENAL (Possible
line-up): Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, Calafiori; Eze, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Merino,
Martinelli
LAST SEASON
Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal (10th
November 2024)
CURRENT FORM (PL)
CHELSEA: WWLWWW
ARSENAL: WWWWDW
OTHER STUFF
- Chelsea
have won just one of their last 11 Premier League games against Arsenal
- Chelsea
are without a win in seven against Arsenal
- Arsenal
are unbeaten in their last six visits to Stamford Bridge
- Since the start of 2022-23, Arsenal have
lost just three of their 40 London derby games in the Premier League
- Mikel
Arteta has the third highest Premier League win rate against Chelsea (58.3% –
7/12) of any manager to take charge of 10+ games against them
PREDICTION
Sportsmole: Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal
