Arsenal vs Chelsea: the battle for London pride

An Arsenal fan will point to the club’s 13 league titles, 12 FA Cups and two European titles amongst other numerous trophies as proof to their claim of being the greatest club in London, while a Chelsea fan will tell you about how his club is the city’s most successful team due to the UEFA Champions league they won in 2013, making them the only London club to win the title and also the only British club to have won all three main UEFA club competitions.

Recently, the battle of the title of London’s most powerful club has been mainly between Arsenal and Chelsea and another chapter of that battle will be written this weekend at the magnificent Emirates stadium, home of the Arsenal. We will be previewing this London derby and taking a look at some other fixtures happening in Europe this weekend.

Arsene Wenger used to dominate this fixture as manager of Arsenal, but all that changed with the first arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004, with Arsenal racking up only five victories over Chelsea in 29 matches and suffering 17 losses since then.

These days there’s a new boss at the helm of affairs at Stamford Bridge in the form of Antonio Conte and Arsene Wenger will hope he gets a better deal with the Italian in terms of result as opposed to the sort of results he had with Mourinho. With only goal difference separating both sides at this point of the season, it is important for both managers to pick a win in this fixture as it will set down an early marker as to how the season might unfurl.
Arsenal didn’t start the league well, but have strung together a number of victories to try and steady their ship, while Chelsea started very well winning their first three games of the season, but seem to have hit a kerb as they have only gotten one point from a possible six in their last two matches.

Both managers have an almost complete team to choose their matchday squads from. John Terry is doubtful for this fixture and that is about the only potential absence for Chelsea, while for Arsenal, aside from the long term injury victims like Danny Welbeck and Per Mertesacker, the duo of Aaron Ramdey and Olivier Giroud are doubts for this fixture.

Arsenal have failed to score against Chelsea in their last six Premier League fixtures. The last time the gunners scored against Chelsea in the Premier league was three years ago when Theo Walcott scored in a 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge back in January 2013.

It will be tricky to pick out a winner in this tie, given the inconsistencies in both teams, but we can take a chance and predict that both teams will score and we might see over 2.5 goals in this fixture and that will get you some good odds on www.nairabet.com

In some other fixtures in England, Manchester United will be hoping to avoid a third straight league defeat when they host defending champions Leicester at Old Trafford, while Manchester City will travel to Wales to face Swansea for the second time in a week after beating the Swans 2-1 in an EFL Cup tie on Wednesday and Liverpool will be looking to get their third win on the bounce when Hull City come visiting at Anfield.

In Spain, Barcelona will be guests of Sporting Gijon, while Real Madrid will hope to get back to winning ways when they travel to Las Palmas and Atletic Bilbao will host second placed Sevilla. Hamburg have mustered only one point in four games this season in Germany and they don’t look likely to add to their tally this weekend when Bayern Munich come visiting, while the surprise teams of the season so far, Koln and Leipzig square off and Frankfurt will try to put some distance between themselves and Hertha Berlin on the table with a victory when they host the Capital side.

In Italy, Juventus, who still remain on top of the table despite last weekend’s loss to Inter, will travel to Palermo, while Inter will host Bologna and Fiorentina will battle Milan. Surprise French league leaders, Nice will be guests of Nancy, while Monaco will hope to bounce back from their 4-0 loss to Nice with a victory over Angers this weekend.

As usual, we will leave you guys with a list of 25 games to serve as a guide when you are about to place your bets on www.nairabet.com this weekend.

EPL(England)
Manchester United v Leicester (Double chance for Man Utd) Liverpool v Hull (Liverpool win) Swansea v Manchester City (Double chance for Man City)

Double Chance

LA LIGA (Spain)
Sporting Gijon v Barcelona (Barcelona win) Las Palmas v Real Madrid (Double chance for Real Madrid) Villareal v Osasuna (Double chance for Villareal)

SERIE A (Italy) Palermo v Juventus (Juventus win) Napoli v Chievo (Napoli win) Inter v Bologna (Double chance for Inter)

BUNDESLIGA (Germany)
Hamburg v Bayern Munich (Bayern win) Borussia Mönchengladbach v Ingolstadt (Double chance for Mönchengladbach) Augsburg v Darmstadt (Double chance for Augsburg)

LIGUE 1 (France)
Lorient v Lyon (Double chance for Lyon) Monaco v Angers (Over 1.5) Montpellier v Metz (Double chance for Montpellier)

EREDIVISIE (Netherlands)
Ajax v Zwolle (Ajax win) AZ Alkmaar v GA Eagles (AZ win) Excelsior v PSV (PSV win)

PRIMEIRA LIGA (Portugal)
Porto v Boavista (Porto win) Sporting v Estoril (Sporting win) Chaves v Benfica (Double chance for Benfica)

JUPILIER LIGA (Belgium) Double Chance
Gent v Truidense (Gent win) Anderlecht v Westerlo (Anderlecht win)

SPL (Scotland)
Celtic v Kilmarnock (Celtic win)

SUPER LIG (Turkey)
Fenerbahce v Gaziantepspor (Fenerbahce win)