It’s Super Sunday up ahead in the Premier when four of he traditional ‘Big 6’ clubs clash with each other when London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal face each other at Stamford Bridge, while another stadium in London hosts Tottenham Hotspur versus Liverpool. These teams face each other with similar metrics being that one of the two in both clashes is either coming straight from a league win or a league defeat.
Chelsea are looking to bounce back from a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Brighton, while Arsenal are coming on the back of a 5-0 win against Nottingham Forrest. It will prove very difficult for Graham Potter’s Blues to stop the rolling Arsenal train, who are unbeaten in every Premier League game they’ve played since a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester United on the 4th of September. Chelsea’s defeat against Brighton was the first that new head coach, Graham Potter, has suffered since taking charge of Chelsea’s first team. Chelsea have scored less goals and conceded more goals than Arteta’s men who sit atop of the league with 31 points from 12 games (10W, 1D, 1L), while Chelsea are 6th with 21 points from 12 games (6W, 3D, 3L).
Chelsea haven’t won in their last 3 Premier League games after getting draws and a defeat in their 3 most recent games, 0-0 vs Brentford, 1-1 vs Manchester United and a 4-1 loss vs Brighton. The London Blues will be desperate to get back to winning ways under new coach Graham Potter and this is expected to be his toughest test as Chelsea head coach, just overlooking his defeat against his former club. Chelsea last won the Premier League in 2017 and have been struggling to threaten any title contenders since, while Arsenal last won the league in 2003, nearly 2 decades ago.
Before the 2 teams meet on Sunday, they both play their respective European fixtures, with Chelsea facing Dinamo Zagreb having already qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League, while Arsenal have to face FC Zurich in their final Europa League group stage game. The last time these rivals met each other in the Premier League it was Arsenal who won the match by 4 goals to Chelsea’s 2 at Stamford Bridge, and this was in April 2022. The clubs also met again in pre-season with Arsenal emerging victorious 4-0, and causing then Chelsea manager to question the players’ abilities saying, “we have the same problems because we have the same players”. I can expect Arsenal to topple yet another Premier League opponent in this match.
Later in the day, Tottenham will be hosting a Liverpool side that has been struggling for form this season, a Liverpool sitting untraditionally 9th on the table. Tottenham are sitting high on 3rd on the league standings after 12 games, having won 8, drawn 2 and lost 3 of their games so far this season in the Premier League. The North London club recovered from a near-scare at the hands of Bournemouth in their recent outing, but were able to come from 2-0 down to win the match 2-3, an impressive feat for the Lilywhites to maintain their position in 3rd, 3 points behind City who’ve played a game less (12).
Liverpool have managed only 2 wins in their last 5 games in the Premier League (against Man City & West Ham). The Reds have been struggling for form throughout this season, and have won 4, drawn 4, lost 4 of the 12 games they’ve played so far this season in the Premier League. Their last game in the league was against Leeds United in which they lost 2-1, to register their 4th league loss this season. Both these clubs were the conjurers of late drama in their respective Champions League, Liverpool grabbing 2 late goals from Mo Salah (85′) and Darwin Nunez (90+8′) to defeat competition top scorers Napoli 2-0 at Anfield, and ended up finishing 2nd in the group below Napoli. The Merseyside club were able to halt Napoli’s 21-game unbeaten run. While Spurs were on the brink of Champions League elimination when they were trailing Marseille at half-time by 1-0, and an equaliser by Lenglet and a dramatic late winner by Hojbjerg (90+5′) ensured that Spurs secured passage to the Round of 16 after finishing top of the Group D.
The last Premier League meeting between these 2 clubs ended in a 1-1 draw with goals by Son for Spurs and Luis Diaz scoring for Liverpool. Previous meetings between these 2 clubs have always been a platform for entertainment and no less is expected in this upcoming clash between these two, Tottenham will be looking to feed off the atmosphere of their home fans at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, while Liverpool’s unpredictable form this season proves it difficult to predict the outcome of this one. However, goals can be expected to be scored by both sides in the match.
