Arsenal v Chelsea Betting Tips

These two sides will both be clamouring for at least a top four finish come the end of the season and are probably both quietly confident that they can challenge for the title. They currently sit in fourth (Arsenal) and fifth (Chelsea) respectively so whoever wins this will boost themselves right into the tag of early season title contenders.

Arsenal have won their last three league fixtures and all in rather convincing fashion, scoring a total of nine goals in the process. OK these victories were against vastly inferior opposition but they have shown their title rivals that they mean business.

There is clearly a great confidence running throughout the club as the Gunners thrashed Championship side Nottingham Forest in the League Cup, despite playing a very weakened side. One of the star performers in that match was summer signing Lucas Perez.

Arsene Wenger has been accused of panic buying in the past and that accusation lay at his feet once again when he spent £17m on a 28-year-old striker without any real experience in big competitions or at a big club. In the early stages of the former Karpaty Lviv striker’s Arsenal career, those who questioned his arrival were seemingly proved right as the Spaniard put in a rather drab performance on his debut (and birthday) against Southampton – although it must be said that he provided the assist for fellow birthday boy Laurent Koscielny in that win.

However, he put in a proper performance on Tuesday night which will perhaps make people sit up and take notice. Of course it was only against Championship opposition in Forest but goals breed confidence and Perez will hopefully feel more assured of himself when he plays in the Premier League.

Chelsea had looked like serious contenders at the start of the season as they got their Premier League campaign off to a brilliant start by recording three consecutive wins. It was not just the wins but the manner of them with two of them coming through last minute winners – showing the drive and determination that new manager Antonio Conte has instilled into last season’s lacklustre squad.

However, their 2-2 draw away at Swansea City a couple of weeks ago has thrown the Blues off course a bit. Since then they have lost to Liverpool whilst it took extra time for them to get passed a slightly weakened Leicester City team in Tuesday night’s EFL Cup tie. This was despite having a number of well-established Champions League players in their line-up.

After those two negative results in the league, it will be interesting to see how Conte approaches this match against Arsenal. Will he go with his Italian nature – look to shut up shop and look for a lucky break or try and out power the Gunners?

The same question can be asked of Arsene Wenger, although of course the pressure is more on him with Arsenal being at home. Will he look to play Chelsea off the park with his team’s slick passing and moving or be more pragmatic and look for chances on the counter.

Those two issues make this game incredibly hard to predict and I am not sure we will be able to have a proper prediction for the winner of this match until we see the two teams on Saturday evening.

I think the first half especially will be a bit of a ‘tactical battle’ – a more positive/interesting way of saying it will be pretty boring – and neither side will come out their shell with perhaps just the one goal being scored (if that). Come the second half, though, I think both managers will look to take something from the game and we will likely see them express themselves.

It is also worth mentioning that these teams have a bit of a ‘preference’ for scoring in the second half. Arsenal have scored six of their 12 goals this season in the second 45 whilst Chelsea have scored a huge 70% of their goals in the second half.

With this in mind I would advise the second half of this match to be highest scoring one at 21/20.

I think another good bet to look at would be Diego Costa to score anytime. After his lukewarm campaign last season, the Spain international is now back firing on all cylinders and is the Premier League’s top marksman with five goals. These big matches are the sort of games that the former Atletico Madrid man craves and he often flourishes in such circumstances.

Arsenal are also a team that seem to get wound up easily; again perfect for Costa. With this in mind the big centre-forward should enjoy Saturday evening.

See more Premier League tips here.