Fresh faces, old rivalry
Chelsea host Arsenal in biggest game of this week’s Premiership
There will be new faces in the dugout at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night when Chelsea host Arsenal in the English Premier League’s late kickoff.
The most successful sides in the capital come together again with the North London giants making the short trip over to West London in the weekend’s biggest game.
While reds take on blues in what is a familiar affair, this is a new-look rivalry on many levels.
New-look Blues
The recent managerial arrivals are the obvious starting point.
Maurizio Sarri is the new Chelsea boss, although he has brought club legend Gianfranco Zola along with him. The former Napoli boss, whose team finished runners-up in Serie A last season, has already tried to put his own stamp on the squad he inherited from fellow Italian Antonio Conte.
Jorginho has arrived along with him from Naples along with Athletic Bilbao keeper Kepa. Belgian goalie Thibaut Courtois has gone, as has Tiemoue Bakayoko on loan to Milan, while Danny Drinkwater has been rumored to have been told to find himself a new club.
Sarri’s side played some of the nicest soccer in Europe last season and the hope is he can do the same in West London freeing up the like of Willian who had struggled under Conte and Alvaro Morata, the striker who signed last summer after impressing in Serie A with Juventus and at Real Madrid in his native Spain. Sarri saw Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain thrive when he managed the striker at Napoli, while there is also hope for more from Ross Barkley and game time for youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Sarri’s best player Eden Hazard is still at the club, for now, despite the overtures of Real Madrid who have long been linked with the 28-year-old Belgian playmaker. Chelsea fans will worry that the World Cup third place winner will follow his international teammate and former Chelsea keeper Courtois to the Bernabeu, and with the Spanish club able to buy players from English clubs until the end of the month, that worry will not go away.
However, it all looked simple enough in their 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town on the opening weekend, with Hazard starring in a cameo and Jorginho getting off the mark.
Tough introduction
Meanwhile, new Arsenal boss Unai Emery could not have had a tougher introduction to the rigors of the Premier League: The champions and then a London derby. The former Sevilla and PSG manager has also been looking to freshen up his squad since replacing Arsene Wenger, after the veteran stepped down following more than two decades in charge of the club.
In have come five new faces across the field: Goalkeeper Bernd Leno, defenders Stephan Lichtsteiner and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and midfielders Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi.
Meanwhile, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla have left to mark the dismantling of the Wenger era midfield. Drawing a line from the man who oversaw the club’s most successful period on and off the pitch is no easy task and comparisons to David Moyes following Alex Ferguson at Manchester United are not misplaced.
Emery has won trophies though, something Moyes had not. Sarri has never won a trophy, his reputation built on years of success in Italy’s lower leagues before his recent exploits at Napoli. Emery meanwhile has developed a trademark of Europa League success at Sevilla where he brought three in a row to the Juan Antonio Pizzi stadium before winning the French league title last season. Expectations
No matter their past records, both of the new men will be expected to hit the ground running, implement their tactical blueprint and also finish the season with ideally a trophy and at the very least a return of Champions League soccer after both missed out last season. Conte winning the FA Cup was not enough to keep his job.
Emery’s ability to do that has been hampered because Arsenal are already hit with injury issues at fullback where Ainsley Maitland-Niles started against the champions following injuries to Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal. The youngster came off injured to be replaced by new signing Leichtensteiner. He’s also had to consider swapping in his new keeper for Cech, after the Czech was ridiculed on social media for almost scoring an own goal in the City game.
They also played the champions, perhaps the last game anyone would want to start a season that had begun to feel promising over the summer.
So far both sides have played Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Chelsea lost in the Community Shield at Wembley in the season curtain raiser.
They have also recently faced one another.
These teams met in preseason on August 1, when they played off in the Intercontinental Champions Cup. The game ended in a 1-1 draw, Arsenal winning on penalties thanks to the display of former Chelsea goalkeeper Cech.
He is a veteran of some of the classics played out between the teams and will be all too aware that the balance of power is with his former club.
Arsenal have not won at Stamford Bridge since the 2011-12 season and a famous 5-3 victory over the Blues. Cech may have switched sides but he is one of a handful of survivors from that era along with Aaron Ramsey and David Luiz. If everything clicks into place for the new faces, at least we could see a game played in the same spirit and a similar scoreline.