Chelsea vs. Arsenal, Premier League: Team news; How to watch; Intense tie-flipping

Welcome to the make or break!

The making of our season.  The breaking of our revived hopes.  A most glorious day.  The most tragic outcome.  A weekend ruined.  A season saved.  Controversy.  Tie-flipping.  Happiness.  Joy.  Tears.  Three points.  Zero points.  Football!

It's Mourinho vs. Wenger.  It's Chelsea vs. Arsenal.  It's exciting.  It's scary.  It's the return of Petr Cech.  It's football.

Date / Time: Saturday, September 19, 2015, 12:45 BST; 7:45am EDT; 5:15pm IST

Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6

Referee: Mike Dean — the all-time leader in Chelsea matches refereed, Mike Dean will take charge of a Blues fixture for the 59th time.  He's refereed this exact fixture three times, two 2-0 Chelsea wins (09-10, 10-11) and one 2-1 Chelsea loss (08-09) were the results.  His last Chelsea match was our 1-0 win over Manchester United in April.

Forecast: Dry, warm, and sunny.  Hope floats.

On TV: BT Sport 1 (UK); NBCSN, NBC Universo (USA); Star Sports 2 / HD 2 (India); elsewhere

Online: BT Sport (UK): NBC Sports Live Extra, NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra (USA); Star Sports (India)

Chelsea team news: Thibaut Courtois is not expected back until at least December following surgery to repair his meniscus.  Also missing, most likely, will be Falcao, Willian, and probably Pedro, too, with various knocks.  Oscar and Ramires both made their comebacks on Wednesday and should be good to go, barring any last-minute setbacks.

Mourinho remained very much a closed book when it came to the question of who might start for Chelsea.  Many would like some of the crucial squad players who flourished against Maccabi to get another shot in this one.  Chances are, however, that Mourinho will go back to the more trusty, more experienced veterans, given the magnitude of the game.  Or maybe he'll be bold.  Either way, if we lose, he will have done wrong, and if we win, he will have done right.  It's how it goes in a results-oriented business.

Arsenal team news: As is usually the case with the Gunners, there are several long-term absentees in their squad:  knee injuries for both Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky, and a calf problem for seemingly always injured Jack Wilshere.  Per Mertesacker might miss out as well as he recovers from some sort of illness.

Wenger rested several key players for their trip to Zagreb, a move that didn't pay dividends then but may yet help him today.  That said, Arsenal have won just twice in the last 11 years at the Bridge, the last one coming under AVB.  In fact, Arsenal have beaten Chelsea just 4 times in our last 28 meetings, though Wenger did manage to finally record a win over Mourinho after 13 failures in the Community Shield at the start of this season.

Arsenal enter the weekend sitting 4th (classic!) with 10 points from the opening 5 matches.  Surprisingly, they've scored just 5 goals so far.  For a more in-depth look at them, do check out our opposition analysis.

View from the enemy: The Short Fuse

Previously: Let's hope for another unmissable occasion.