This weekend will see Arsene Wenger’s fragile stars travel to Stamford Bridge, the scene for one of their most brutal losses in recent memory.
The six-goal demolition that Jose Mourinho’s team inflicted on the Gunners last season contained nearly everything; suspect refereeing decisions, red cards and four first-half goals, all of which occured on Wenger’s 1000th game in charge.
Earlier last season Arsenal were already been shown up by the rampaging attacks of Manchester City and Liverpool, though so had many others who were far more defensively resilient than the Gunners. But it was this collapse against Chelsea that really exposed the frailty inherent in Wenger’s team which eventually made their ambitions of a Premier League title that season seem impossible.
A 3-0 defeat to Everton followed the Chelsea loss which consequently lead to another fourth-place finish.
The season ended and Wenger conducted his transfer business questionably, while Chelsea were the complete opposite. adding some proven players. In goal Thibaut Courtois returned from Atletico Madrid, followed by Filipe Luis who replaced Ashley Cole. Their striker woes were also solved with the addition of Diego Costa, who has since scored eight goals in six games in the league, and Loic Remy.
But the master move that Mourinho produced was luring former Gunner Cesc Fabregas away from North London. The Spaniard has flourished on his return to England, and as Aaron Ramsay again lies on top of the heap of injured Arsenal bodies, Fabregas gives the impression of being everything that Wenger values in an attacking midfielder, but with one additional virtue, durability.
Chelsea eventually overcame Sporting Lisbon in Europe after controlling the match but found it difficult, lacking crucial incisiveness until late in the game. What’s important here is that Diego Costa played the whole match with his questionable hamstring injury, which plays into Arsenal’s hands
Mourinho has spoken of Costa’s condition, he has not been discrete about his lack of involvement at training and how he is incapable of playing three games a week for the West London side.
A ruptured muscle would be disastrous for Mourinho, such is his team’s reliance upon the Spaniard’s goals. So one has to assume that such threatening assessments are, at least in part, for show, because why would he risk such an injury?
In the lead up to Chelsea’s win over Everton, Costa was all but ruled out, only to take the field and score twice. Mourinho is a master of the subversive comments, so this may well be another one of his off-putting verbal offerings.
On the other hand there’s nothing secretive about Wenger’s own talk of his team’s wounded plight.
The north London derby left his team even more damaged with injury, with Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsay joining the list. As a result Wenger faces the prospect of having the injury-prone Abou Diaby as his starting holding midfielder due to Mathieu Flamini’s recent poor form.
With his defence still barely living up to the high level of the league, if he does start, Diaby will need to adjust and play at the highest of standards.
“I don’t know,” said the Frenchman about the injuries his team sustained against Tottenham.
“There’s no logic. We have to analyse what happened. I don’t understand.”
The loss of Arteta and Ramsay is very damaging for Wenger, particularly Ramsay, who is the lynchpin for Arsenal as they turn defence into attack. The Welshman, even when he plays under-par, is still an active participant in his team’s best moments.
Both he and Arteta are charged with the vital role of collecting the ball from the centre backs and turning, often under pressure.
Flamini and Diaby are nowhere near as capable of this and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian will ensure whatever time the Arsenal midfielders do have with the ball is stripped away while Nemanja Matic will be relishing the opportunity to bully Mesut Ozil into submission.
The timing is awful for Arsenal. The same week that Galatasaray visit the Emirates, Chelsea loom dauntingly just a few days later.
Wenger’s squad is decimated, with a bulk of his first-team players sidelined, while his new signings are yet to fully adapt.
Chelsea, having played and won in Europe a day before Arsenal, are top of the table, with an ex-Wenger prodigy at their heart. It would be cruel of them to subject Arsenal to another 6-0 scoreline, or one similar.
Disturbingly for Wenger, the very thought of such a merciless footballing act simply makes Jose Mourinho crack a slow, curling grin.
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