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Arsenal need to improve in defence if they’re to defy the odds against Chelsea

By on August 20, 2021

pablo mari arsenal

Arsenal welcome Chelsea to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday for our first home game of the 2021/22 season but all signs point to another difficult afternoon for the Gunners.

Mikel Arteta’s side are under pressure to respond following last week’s hugely disappointing defeat to Brentford that saw us slump to a 2-0 loss to the newly-promoted side away from home.

Arsenal were forced to field a weakened side as star strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, along with attacker Willian, tested positive for Covid in the build-up to the match. Bukayo Saka was only fit enough for a place on the bench after arriving back late to pre-season training while the likes of Thomas Partey and Gabriel are on the sidelines with injury issues.

Therefore, Arsenal started with one of our youngest ever Premier League sides with teenager Folarin Balogun making his full league debut up front and the inexperience showed as we were bullied by Brentford at times.

Coming off the back of a humiliating defeat, it’s no wonder that Arsenal aren’t backed to beat Chelsea this weekend. Betting sites like http://pay-n-play-casino.net/ are tipping the Blues to take all three points away from the Emirates Stadium with bettors able to get best odds of around 3/4 on the away side ahead of kick-off.

Arsenal can be backed at around 15/4 – which are huge odds for the home side – but not many will be putting their hard earned money on the Gunners other than a few optimistic fans given our shocking result at Brentford on Friday night.

Defensive problems

Arsenal improved in defence during last season and splashed out £50m on centre-back Ben White this summer so we were expecting a solid display at the back during our opening game of the season. Unfortunately, old habits returned as we were woeful at times and gifted the hosts a couple of cheap goals thanks to some shocking defending.

Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari looked particularly poor at times with the duo badly at fault for the second goal. Admittedly, White struggled on his debut as well with the former Brighton man given a tough time by the physical Brentford attack. Gabriel is still injured but Rob Holding could be recalled by Arteta if he’s deemed fit. Arsenal also have options at right-back with Hector Bellerin and Cedric Soares available so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Chambers dropping out.

Chelsea will arrive at the Emirates with a new £97m striker to show off and Romelu Lukaku must be licking his lips at the prospect of playing against Arsenal on Sunday. The Belgian powerhouse is expected to give the likes of White and Mari all sorts of problems so they’re going to have to put in a much-improved display if Arsenal are to defy the odds and get a positive result.