Sunday provides the first test for Mourinho and Chelsea in their endeavor to become EPL three-peat champions. If Man. U defeats Man. City in the Manchester derby on Saturday, the Red Devils will push their lead to 9 pts., albeit having played two extra games, for the time being.

If this is the case, Chelsea will find themselves in a situation they haven’t been in before in the past few years—a possibility of dropping points, and with Arsenal coming to Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the possibility is as real as it is ever going to be.

Of course, Arsenal comes into the match having played very poorly in a fixtured-pack string of games whereas Chelsea, very interestingly, was given a rest last weekend when their game against Newcastle was postponed.

Arsene Wenger not only has his water-Gunners to worry about, but the fact that Chelsea is more rested will be giving Wenger nightmares over the next couple of days. Having just witnessed one of the worst performances in recent Gunner history, Wenger’s justifications for the inconsistent form of his “young” and developing side are beginning to lose flavor and merit.

It will be hard for the Gunners to regain their confidence in such a short amount of time, and with the hunger of “The Drogba” to be English Striker Number One, it just might be one of those games where the Arsenal find themselves the butt end of a one-sided score line.

They were punished by Anelka and Bolton a few games ago, lost to Fulham, and were lucky in the mid-week to hang on for a draw against FC Porto in the Champions League. At the moment, it’s a team in disarray and with identity problems: everything you don’t want when you go up against the strength of the talented man mountains of Stamford Bridge.

While Chelsea is not winning any style points for their pure footballing performances, their outfit is built on strength, power, and efficiency unmatched in the English game. This spells trouble for the meek midfielders of Arsenal, who have struggled under the strong challenges of other hard, but very average, English teams.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Soccer World, England, Rick Wall (Head Editor). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.