please log in to view this image Saturday 21st April Kick off - 12:45 The Emirates Good evening men and welcome to the 3rd match thread of the week! . We now face Arsenal at the Emirates after an absolutely fantastic few days, first annihilating our bitter rivals 5-1 in an enthralling FA Cup semi final at Wembley and then beating Barcelona on our own turf 1-0 in our toughest match of the season after being written off completely by rivals and most media. After the unfortunate result at the Bridge earlier in the season, we look to capitalise on Arsenal and seek revenge by putting ourselves 4th at the expense of Spurs and Newcastle in the early kick off, if our men can perform with the mental strength they have been doing of late, I am sure we can do it! Mertesacker and Arteta are both out for the game on Saturday but Arsenal's Koscielny returns from a two match suspension. We have our own injury/suspension issues with Ivanovic missing the game serving his 2nd out of 3 match ban for violent conduct. David Luiz remains a doubt after picking up a hamstring injury against Spurs on Saturday leaving Terry and Cahill the obvious choices again after a sterling effort against Barca. Form - Arsenal Aston Villa 3-0 - W QPR 2-1 - L Man City 1-0 - W Wolves 0-3 - W Wigan 1-2 - L Chelsea Benfica 2-1 - W Wigan 2-1 - W Fulham 1-1 - D Tottenham 1-5 - W Barcelona 1-0 - W Arsenal undoubtedly have an advantage over us, with them playing at home aswell as we having just played 3 days before and having to play again 3 days later. Arsenal will be looking to exploit our tiredness. Predicted Line Ups Arsenal please log in to view this image On behalf of Omar Chelsea please log in to view this image With Mata having played two crucial games in such a short space of time I can't see him playing, Malouda could play ahead of Meireles. My prediction is a 1-1 draw, we'll have an eye on Tuesday's game and we've been defending really well recently. I'd love Didier to play this as he usually pulls their pants down but I think he's needed more against Barca! KTBFFH! COME ON CHELSEA please log in to view this image
Would rather see Paulo in there instead of Bosingwa and I don't know how much more of Kalou I can take but there aren't many alternatives. I've a horrible feeling we'll see Malouda starting!
should be happy with a point but would love revenge for the defeat at the bridge, will be an interesting game considering barca are 3 days later, will they have one eye on that or will they go for it
Paolo usually struggles for people who beat him for pace, no matter how good you are a right back it's no good if you're slow and facing Gervinho or Chamberlain! Malouda and Torres are an awful pair when on the same field, don't think I've ever seen Malouda pass to Torres!
I know Drogs but Bosingwa struggles against players with or without pace & Paulo did keep Bale quiet - once! Todd Kane's our answer!
I wouldn't want Bertrand up against Walcott's pace. I'd opt for this: please log in to view this image
I wouldn't mind seeing Essien and Malouda start this one to be honest. Would like to have Ramires and one of either Mikel or Meireles rested for Barca.
Amer , what do you reckon the line up will be? I'll change it to your one. I just took a wild guess tbh.
We do but if he gets injured we have no chance against Barca so all our hard work in the first leg will of been in vein. Had we drawn 1-1 with them I wouldn't care as I know we'd be out but at 1-0 there is always the outside chance we could make the final. Our entire gameplan is based around Ramires
Just play a blind man and his dog on the left hand side, whoever it is will have no problem vs Bosingwa
Please be nice and gift us the 3 points. Would be much appreciated. You can have the CL with pleasure but we need to finish to 3rd. Thanks.
I go along with this selection , with one exception! I think this is too important to let Bertrand loose on Arsenal--and I'm sure the back in form Ashley would relish a game against his old club!
I can't wait for the game. Managed to get our tickets 5 minutes before they sold out. It will be a great atmosphere with our fans buzzing after the week we have had. Time to exact revenge after the humiliating loss at the Bridge earlier on in the season. I hope we still put out a decent team because if we win then we will only be 4 points behind them with a game in hand. We have a huge and exciting rest of the season ahead of us. Who would have thought we would be in this situation 2 months ago?
We will be alright tomorrow at Le-Arse cos that Welsh Wuffian Jonah will be going I'm saying 3-1 Chelsea.
