Though Chelsea haven’t been at their best so far this season, Arsenal are still likely to face the toughest of tests this weekend in what is sure to be an epic London derby.
The Gunners need the points in order to remain joint top of the Premier League, or perhaps they’ll end the weekend as outright leaders.
From the Blues point of view, they could jump from 11th to seventh if results elsewhere go their way, so there’s everything to play for, for Mauricio Pochettino and his staff.
With the international break having taken precedence over the past fortnight, it’s presented Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, with a huge headache ahead of the Saturday evening contest.
The Spaniard and his backroom team are now going to have to assess the suitability of 14 players for the fixture according to football.london.
All of Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Thomas Partey, Gabriel, Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Eddie Nketiah, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jakub Kiwior, Karl Hein and Mohamed Elneny will all have to be given the once over before they can be signed off.
David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale will need to be looked at too, though neither custodian played a minute for Spain and England.
Clearly, Arteta will hope that all or most of his first-teamers will report back to training without a scratch and it will be a simple box ticking exercise before moving onto the next player.
There may be one or two niggles that need to be ironed out at the 11th hour too, so that Arteta can at least turn up at Stamford Bridge with all of his players in the best of health.
They are all fine. A midfield of ODEGAAD; PARTEY; RICE. will do a great job.