Joanne Rivers
With Arsenal’s Christmas and New Year fixture pile-up now behind them, their involvement in the Carabao Cup semi-finals means the games are still coming thick and fast.
That could be a blessing or a curse. A disastrous FA Cup exit away to a very young and managerless Nottingham Forest side, followed four matches over the festive period that only saw a solitary victory.
In mitigation, somehow the Gunners remained undefeated, but nevertheless, six points were dropped, and given two of the games were home fixtures against direct rivals for the Champions League qualifying spots, they could proved costly come May.
Arsene Wenger desperately needs a tonic, and although tonight’s match is in the competition he has cared least about in his 21 seasons in North London, a good result will go some way to halting the growing amount of criticism of the Arsenal manager. He will almost certainly field his strongest possible side, injuries allowing, given most of his first team had last weekend off, and that the next Premier League encounter does not take place until Sunday. The first leg of the semi has simply become more important than he would have liked it to be, so fielding a line-up typical of the earlier rounds of the competition is not an option.
At least Wenger does not have the added factor of Jose Mourinho in the Chelsea dugout. Antonio Conte has proved more respectful of his peers, with the exception of the aforementioned now Manchester United manager. The two have developed quite a history since Conte arrived in from Italy, and Arsene Wenger is probably privately thankful that Mourinho’s focus for personal abuse has now found new targets. The Arsenal manager’s current battle seems to be with the refereeing fraternity, hence he will have to watch the game tonight from the stands, due to a touchline ban for his critical comments towards Mike Dean after the match at West Brom on New Years' Eve.
Wenger and Conte do not seem to have developed any bad blood, and the Frenchman’s record against Chelsea since the Italian’s arrival has been respectable. In the league, the Gunners have lost once to the Stamford Bridge club, away last season. In the three other top flight encounters, Arsenal have won one and (this season) drawn two. Three other clashes have taken place, two won by Wenger’s team - The FA Cup Final and the Community Shield (albeit on a penalty shoot-out). Chelsea won the other, although it was only a pre-season friendly in China, against an Arsenal side that looked like it couldn’t wait to get the next flight back to the UK.
This is the first leg of a two-legged tie. Looking at the seats sold so far for the match on Arsenal’s ticketing website, one imagines the lower tier will sell out, with tickets costing a tenner for adults and £5 for kids and OAPs. The upper tier though, is currently fairly sparsely populated, and one imagines that is the second leg becomes academic after this evening’s game, it will remain so. And one suspects a good number of those who have invested in the cheaper seats might decide against using them.
There’s no question that Arsenal need a result this evening for a number of reasons, although the bookmakers do not fancy their chances. The best price for an Arsenal win is currently 9/2 (from Unibet), although a draw would be an excellent result, and you can get 31/10 on that (from BetVictor). Chelsea are odds on for the win, typically around 7/10. If you feel like backing Arsenal to get a result, you can choose a free bet no deposit to bet on Arsenal towards the upcoming game, which could turn you a healthy profit in the event they can better the 0-0 draw achieved at the same venue earlier this season. To qualify over the two legs, the bookies favour Conte’s team best priced 4/7, whereas you can get 6/4 on Arsenal being in the final at the end of February. On current form, those odds might be much longer by the end of this evening.
Betting odds will be the last thing on Arsene Wenger’s mind this evening, because a another humiliating defeat will pile even greater pressure on him, increasing the calls for him to depart a club that seems to be struggling to move forward under his guidance.
