With three games left this season in the Premier League, Chelsea enter Wednesday night’s match against Arsenal with a six-point cushion over fifth-place West Ham with a much superior goal difference as well, and a seven-point cushion over sixth-place Liverpool who do however have a match-in-hand.
A win against Arsenal would pretty much guarantee that we finish above the former, and just about ensure that we’d do the same for the latter. The exact placements might depend on how well Leicester City do in their tough run-in, but we control our own destiny and we do have a small margin for error as well thanks to our momentous win over Manchester City last time out.
With the FA Cup final coming up on Saturday and another game against Leicester, this time in the league, following just three days later, it’s a most grueling and busy and crucial stretch even amid the grueling and busy run-in for us. Tuchel rotated half the team on Saturday — and Mateo Kovačić may be back as well (though with Andreas Christensen heading the other way) — so we’ve got a few fresh legs for this rivalry game. But there are also much bigger fish to fry coming up next as well...