Last weekend the Blues reclaimed fourth place in the Premier League with a second successive top-flight win and clean sheet, while the Gunners remain second despite dropping points at Manchester United.

On Wednesday, Mikel Arteta was able to rest some likely starters on Sunday for a Champions League tie with PSV already won in the first leg.

Chelsea’s pursuit of a return to UEFA’s leading competition would be greatly assisted by a third win in six visits to the Emirates Stadium, following Thursday’s progress to a UEFA Conference League quarter-final tie with Legia Warsaw.

With an international break to come and no further FA Cup involvement, this is the Blues’ last action until another huge league derby against Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge 18 days later.

Chelsea are in better form over the past four games than Arsenal, but are nevertheless looking to end a run of three successive league defeats on the road.

The two teams split the points at the Bridge in November, Pedro Neto’s first league goal for the Blues cancelling out Gabriel Martinelli’s hour-mark opener in a 1-1 draw.

Team news

Several players could come back into the starting line-up for this Premier League fixture after sitting out the midweek UEFA Conference League win over Copenhagen, with Reece James, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella, Christopher Nkunku and Cole Palmer among the substitutes on Thursday evening.

Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia, who are not part of our European squad, are also available to face Arsenal, although Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson are not expected back until after next week's international break, with Marc Guiu also still sidelined.

Enzo Maresca has already confirmed one player who will be returning to the starting XI after missing Copenhagen, though, with Robert Sanchez set to replace Filip Jorgensen between the posts at the Emirates Stadium

‘It will be Robert playing against Arsenal,’ said Maresca. ‘I’ve said many times we are happy with both goalkeepers. But sometimes, you have to be flexible.

‘Since we started, the idea wasn’t to change the goalkeeper but you have to be flexible; we do this with the game plan, the way we want to attack and defend, but we also have to be flexible with players.’

The history

Statistically Arsenal are Chelsea’s sixth-toughest hosts to beat among current Premier League clubs, with just over a quarter of league fixtures there going in our favour. The Gunners are unbeaten in their last six Premier League games against Chelsea (W4 D2), their longest such run since 1995 to 2005.

The first ever meeting, this month in 1908, ended in stalemate at Plumstead, and the Pensioners’ first win there was a 1-0 in October 1912, the season the Gunners finished bottom and were relegated.

Chelsea’s most fruitful period in north London was bookended by a 4-1 win in April 1960 and 3-0 victory in January 1970. In between, the Blues came a cropper only once at Highbury.

Our most recent victory, at the Emirates early in the 2021/22 season, was pretty much settled on 35 minutes when Reece James added to Romelu Lukaku’s opener – our fifth successive London derby success. The Belgian’s first goal for the Blues had come a mere nine years and 360 days after his debut, and this was our biggest win since November 2009.

The 3-0 win that day was all about Didier Drogba terrorising Arsenal once more. The Ivorian scored twice (a deft touch then trademark free-kick) and forced Thomas Vermaelen into an own goal. Those were his ninth and 10th goals in 11 games against the north Londoners, although Arsene Wenger suggested afterwards the Chelsea legend ‘doesn’t do a lot’.

Know this...

Last weekend’s penalty against Leicester was the first to be awarded to Chelsea in the league since 8 December.

Moises Caicedo has regained possession more times than any other player in the top flight this season (167). The Ecuadorean has also recorded the second-most tackles and interceptions by a midfielder in this campaign.

The Blues have lost just one of our past eight Premier League derbies on the road (five wins, two draws), though it was last season’s corresponding fixture at the Emirates.

Arsenal’s most recent league game at the Emirates Stadium was the derby clash with West Ham United, their first home league defeat of the season. Chelsea could inflict a second-successive derby defeat on the Gunners for the first time at their current home.