Venue: Stamford Bridge Date: Sunday, 20th January K/o: 13:30 Team News Chelsea will be without Oriol Romeu and Yossi Benayoun due to injury. While John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses are both on international duty with Nigeria for the African Cup of Nations. Chelsea will, however, be boosted by the return to fitness of Captain John Terry. The centre-back has been out since November 11th with a knee cruciate ligament injury. It is not certain whether he is fit enough to start, but Rafa Benitez knows his team have a serious lack of leadership at the back and the possible return of their captain to the starting line-up would be a huge boost. Arsenal are missing Mikel Arteta, Thomas Rosicky and Lukasz Fabianksi through injury. Gervinho is also missing as he is away representing Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations. Laurent Koscielny will return from suspension and is likely to go straight back into the starting line-up.
Match Preview
The fact that this match is taking place between the third and sixth placed clubs in the Premier League shows just how different the league is from the last time Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger came head-to-head. Back in the 2009/10 season Arsenal and Chelsea were still two of the top teams as Chelsea were crowned champions and Arsenal finished third. But now Arsenals place in the top four is under serious threat and Chelsea are more focused on securing a Champions League spot themselves than mounting a title challenge. A win would be invaluable for both these sides as fourth place Tottenham play Manchester United later on and will be likely to drop points. Arsenal are six points behind their rivals, with a game in hand, and a win would give them the ability to close down Spurs in the hunt for the coveted fourth place spot. Chelsea are only two points in front of Tottenham and a win would give them some breathing space. Chelsea have not been in good form at home since Rafa Benitez took over. They have only won one match at Stamford Bridge since then albeit a pretty convincing 8-0 victory over Aston Villa and have looked weak at the back. The possible return of John Terry could solve that but he is not guaranteed to start and Chelsea could struggle without him. Chelsea also have selection issues up front. With Demba Bas excellent recent form, Fernando Torres surely wont be picked ahead of him for this match. But the Spaniard could play a supporting role in the attacking midfield three behind Ba. In contrast, Arsenal have been in good form recently with Theo Walcott starting to shine as a striker and he will be likely to start up front again as the lone forward. Walcott was one of the scorers as Arsenal triumphed 5-2 in this fixture last year. Laurent Koscielnys return from suspension will mean Per Mertesacker will probably drop back to the bench. Wenger seems to favour the Koscielny-Vermaelen partnership in defence, although they will have their hands full no matter which attackers Chelsea choose to start with. This should be a very interesting match between two good teams. They both have reasons to win but Chelseas home advantage could prove to be more of a hindrance considering their bad form of late. Arsenal, on the other hand, seem to have hit that spell they have almost every season where everything clicks and they play very well. Although their last two matches didnt go quite so well, they will be looking to recapture their December form. And if they can do it then Arsenal will be likely to beat Chelsea.
Likely Line-Ups
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Wojciech Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny, Thomas Vermaelen, Kieran Gibbs, Abou Diaby, Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott.Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, Demba Ba source - bbc sport