How should Chelsea line up against Arsenal to keep nailing down third place in the Premier League?

While we were busy reaching another cup final and engineering trophy opportunity for ourselves, some of our closest rivals in the Premier League were falling head first over their own feet and improving our own position in the table without even playing!

Both Spurs and Arsenal lost over the weekend, to Brighton and Southampton, respectively, which means that we have a five-point lead over Spurs in fourth with two (2!) games in-hand and an eight-point lead over Arsenal in sixth, with one game in-hand. (Manchester United are also eight points behind, having also played two more games already.)

Basically, we need 10 points from our final eight games — against mostly mid-table opposition — to guarantee third. It’s certainly not a bad place to be, though obviously we still have to collect those points. And three particularly shiny ones are on offer Wednesday night as Arsenal come to town.

It’s a short turnaround for us from Sunday, which certainly could prompt some squad rotation despite the good run of form over the past ten days, with at least one enforced thanks to Mateo Kovačić’s potentially serious ankle injury. Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi remain out as well.

Choose wisely.

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