Arsenal vs Chelsea 02/08/20

02 August 2020

Arsenal and Chelsea will face off against each other at Wembley Stadium this weekend in an all-London FA Cup final. It will be Arsenal’s last opportunity to seal Europa League qualification after finishing eighth in the Premier League.

The ‘Gunners’ have endured mixed fortunes in the build-up to this clash (W3, L2), with four of those results (wins/losses) yielding a single-goal margin, whist all but one saw the winner on the day lead at HT. Also, just one of Arsenal’s 12 competitive matches since the resumption of football in June has ended in a draw (W7, L4). Notably, seven of those results saw the winning side open the scoring in the first half and score over 1.5 goals in total. In turn, far more aggressive in the first half, Mikel Arteta’s men have notched 81.82% (nine) of their last 11 competitive goals before the break. But, Arsenal face a daunting prospect of outplaying a Chelsea side they’ve beaten only once in their previous five H2Hs across various competitions (D1, L3).

Meanwhile, the ‘Blues’ come off a comfortable 2-0 home triumph over Wolves on the final Premier Leauge matchday, which now means none of their 11 competitive fixtures since the restart have produced a stalemate (W8, L3). Notably, five of Chelsea’s eight wins post restart have come via a narrow one-goal margin, whilst four yielded a clean sheet. Yet, four of their last five competitive outings have produced a full-time margin of at least two goals and saw the winner on the day break the deadlock in the first half of play (W3, L2). Curiously, Frank Lampard’s men have scored at least once in the stoppage time of the first half in each of their last four outings.