The Premier League gameweek 11 undercard leads up to the main event at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, when Chelsea and Arsenal tussle in a titanic London derby.
Enzo Maresca’s side are keeping the Gunners out of the Champions League places by virtue of a superior goal difference, and it was the hosts who coincidentally flexed their attacking muscles in midweek.
Squaring up a team founded five years after their maiden Champions League victory in 2012, Chelsea subjected Armenian minnows FC Noah to the rudest of rude awakenings on Thursday evening, hitting them for an extraordinary eight goals in the English capital.
One of six teams in the Conference League to have won each of their opening three games, Chelsea’s astonishing 8-0 triumph on November 7 unsurprisingly leaves them sitting pretty at the summit on goal difference as they chase the continental crown that has consistently eluded their upcoming visitors.
From rude awakenings to Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Blues needed a touch of Ecuadorian inspiration to avoid losing to the Dutchman’s Manchester United side at Old Trafford last weekend, where a Bruno Fernandes penalty came just four minutes before Moises Caicedo’s exquisite volley.
One of three teams boasting 18 points from a potential 30 – alongside Arsenal and Aston Villa – the fourth-placed Blues could end the weekend in the top three if they better Nottingham Forest’s result against Newcastle United, and Maresca’s men now have an eight-game unbeaten home run to protect in all tournaments.
However, the Blues are still yet to keep a Premier League clean sheet at Stamford Bridge this season – going six without one since shutting out West Ham United in May – but Arsenal have hardly pulled up trees on the attacking front in the early period of November.
Whether it was St James’ Park or San Siro, the outcome was the same for Arsenal; a 1-0 defeat with little to no offensive inspiration. After succumbing to a brilliant Alexander Isak header versus Newcastle United, it was a controversial Hakan Calhanoglu penalty that made the difference on Wednesday evening.
In some ways, Arsenal’s loss to Inter Milan could be described as a game of noughts and crosses; Mikel Arteta’s men attempted an astounding 46 crosses at San Siro, but all of them were for nought, as they slumped to their first continental loss of the 2024-25 campaign.
Also reeling from the shock resignation of much-admired sporting director Edu, the Halloween period has indeed been one big horror show for Arteta and co, as a three-game winless run in the Premier League has the Gunners fifth in the table and seven points below leaders Liverpool.
However, not since the 1994-95 season – when most of Arsenal’s players were not even born – have the Gunners lost three straight Premier League away games without scoring, and capital clashes are where they excel, as they have won their last six London derbies by an aggregate score of 22-3.
That sequence includes a 5-0 dismantling of Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea in the second half of last season, albeit after they were held to a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, although that four-goal stalemate made it five games without defeat at the Blues’ West London home for Arteta’s charges.