Premiership Preview: Chelsea Vs Arsenal

In most weeks, this would be an interesting Premiership matchup but this isn't most weeks. This week has been the week where Chelsea have been involved in two high profile stories to ensure all eyes will be on this game. The first big news for Chelsea was concerning their visit to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In September 2009, FIFA had slapped a ban on Chelsea for the illegal poaching of Gaël Kakuta from the French side Racing Club de Lens. The punishment for Chelsea was a ban on all incoming transfers until 2011 which was overturned on Thursday. Although they were able to sign players while the appeal was ongoing, Chelsea decided to be inactive in January's transfer window as a sign of goodwill. The smart money is on a transfer bonanza this summer.





And if that wasn't big enough news, there was John Terry – captain of Chelsea and captain of the national side. Somehow John Terry always manages to hit the headlines although not always through his own doing. Early in 2009, his mother was arrested and cautioned for shoplifting; in November his father was filmed selling cocaine to an undercover reporter. 2009 wasn't the best year for Terry himself as an undercover reporter revealed he was giving guided tours around the Chelsea ground in exchange for a “cash donation”. But this week, things got worse. After a High Court “gagging order” was overturned, the press was free to report about his extra marital affair with the ex-girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, his Chelsea and England team mate. Then came the news that he was subletting his heavily discounted executive box at Wembley Stadium for England games in exchange for another “cash donation”. Terry was stripped of his England captaincy on Friday to put the icing on a horrendous week which shows no signs of slowing down as the Sunday press is linking him to a number of other women. It seems like Terry is going to be the Tiger Woods of the British press for the next few weeks. It sure seems a long time since he was crowned 2009 Dad of the Year.





And, after all that, there's the matter of the Arsenal game on Sunday. After being written off as title candidates a few weeks ago, a string of results netting 23 points from a possible 27 got Arsenal back in the running with a brief stay at the top of the league table. However, a 3-1 home loss to Manchester United in their last game brought them crashing - if not down to earth, then down to 3rd place. As impressive as Arsenal are, given their low budget team, they have only managed 3 points out of 12 against other “big four” teams this season and that was a win against the current Liverpool train wreck.

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Chelsea meanwhile are sitting pretty at the top and, despite their 1-1 midweek draw against the lowly Hull City, they must fancy their chances here. Chelsea have been dominant at home this season with 11 wins and a single draw, scoring an average of over 3 goals a game; their league best defense has only given up 0.66 goals per game. Ignore the drama, even ignore Wayne Bridges not speaking to John Terry for most of the week, this is Chelsea at home. Chelsea visited Arsenal a little over 2 months ago and came away 3-0 winners – take Chelsea -0.5 tomorrow, currently priced -118 at Pinnacle.