2) Squad rotation has had different effects
Both teams rotated for their midweek Champions League games, with very different results. Chelsea injected some youth into their side by including Kurt Zouma, Baba Rahman and the excellent Ruben Loftus-Cheek. With a 4-0 win sure to inspire confidence and get that winning feeling back at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho will now hope to build a fresh side without ageing stars like John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic, who have arguably been the main culprits in Chelsea’s poor start to the season.
Arsenal, meanwhile, disrupted any momentum they looked like gaining by making too many unnecessary changes to their side for the Dinamo Zagreb match. Losing 2-1, the likes of David Ospina, Kieran Gibbs and Mikel Arteta were brought back into the first-team, but all performed poorly, putting even more pressure on Wenger’s side for this weekend’s clash.