How many home league games for Chelsea before Christmas? One, and this is it. The morning after a traditional night of celebration and pyrotechnics in the UK, supporters of the Blues and Arsenal will be hoping the fireworks spill over into London’s longest-running top-flight derby at Stamford Bridge.

Midday on a Sunday may not be a kick-off time to savour for one of capital’s grandest football occasions but the BT Sport slot has been shunted back from the regular 12.30 Saturday to allow the Gunners more recovery time after Thursday night’s 1-0 win against Zurich. This was previously the schedule for Mikel Arteta's team in September at Brentford and they led 2-0 after 30 minutes before winning 3-0.

Wednesday will mark the 115th anniversary of the first time this sparky fixture was played at Stamford Bridge on 9 November 1907. That one ended in a 2-1 Chelsea victory, and this is the 205th occasion across all competitions, making the former Plumstead outfit our most-played adversary.

• Watch Graham Potter preview the game

• Learn about Chelsea in the two World Wars in our history section

• Auba is facing his former club this weekend!

The Blues have finished above the Gunners in 16 of the past 18 seasons, but it is the north Londoners who arrive as league leaders, packing 11 points more than at the same stage last year.

Chelsea are the third of the other top-six teams Arsenal will have faced in the opening 13 matches, and the second on the road – their only league loss to date was the 3-1 at Old Trafford in September. Both Sunday’s combatants were involved in midweek European ties at home, the Blues 24 hours earlier than the visitors.

Chelsea team news

The Blues penultimate Premier League action before the World Cup break could be a showcase for attacking football, both sides effectively keeping four in attack in recent games.

On Wednesday against Dinamo, Graham Potter reverted to a hybrid back four, one full-back attacking, the other hanging back, with what looked a diamond midfield that appeared secure against the Croatians despite the new faces.

Denis Zakaria had a busy debut dovetailing Jorginho, covering ground with impressive pace, completing 97.5 per cent of his passes including all six long, incisive ones, looking tactically sound and netting with his only shot on the night. He was subbed but should be fit for this weekend.

The world champions have had a day extra to rest and prepare but injuries are piling up again. The winter curse on Chelsea’s wide defenders continued when in-form Ben Chilwell succumbed to a hamstring issue.

He and Reece James have started together just 11 times since August 2021, contributing to eight wins when they did. Last season Chilly was out from November to May and James missed January and February. Marc Cucurella is the natural solution on the left and if Wednesday’s back four is maintained, Cesar Azpilicueta could be the man for the right. Kalidou Koulibaly also returned successfully in midweek after three games out.

Leading goalscorer Raheem Sterling has hopefully hit a rich vein after breaking his eight-game drought in midweek. The north-west Londoner has notched eight times against Arsenal, managing more against just four clubs (including next weekend’s hosts Newcastle), and started the season well as the central forward or one of a pair.

Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, though, may have something to prove against the club he left acrimoniously in February while Edou Mendy, in for the injured Kepa, will target the clean sheet that would be his 50th for the Blues.

Combined goals and assists in all competitions 2022/23

Arteta’s early starters

There are no quicker starters than Arsenal, who have found the net 11 times in the opening 30 minutes (seven of those coming on the road) – and so far without reply. Chelsea, who have netted three goals and conceded four in the same time-frame, cannot afford to come out of the blocks as slowly as at Brighton.

The Gunners do, though, tend to ease off late on the road, conceding three and scoring one from 60 minutes on. The Blues have scored more league goals in the last quarter-hour than any rival – 35 per cent of our total.

Mikel Arteta’s side play on the front foot and commit bodies forward, aiming to find possession behind defences. Gabriel Jesus has proved a good target man, with Gabriel Martinelli down the left, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard linking just behind.

A potentially decisive battleground on Sunday will be midfield, where rehabilitated Granit Xhaka partners Thomas Partey, whose direct passes through midfield to Jesus have often undone teams (though recent opponents have developed strategies to limit that supply route). The Gunners can be harassed into errors in that area by diligent opponents and opened up by the right through-ball when they have committed to attack.

The high defensive line Arteta enforces is effective if players further forward press opponents fiercely. Part of their success so far has derived from a newly solid central defence. In wide areas, Takehiro Tomiyasu, a right-footer, has recently been preferred to Kieran Tierney on the left.

Saka was fit enough to come on against Zurich in the Europa League but fellow sub Tomiyasu came off injured, though the seriousness was unclear.

We have history

This fixture formed the first ever top-flight London derby, played before a Division One crowd of 55,000 at the Bridge on 9 November 1907, and hailed as ‘the greatest day in metropolitan football’ by the Daily Express. ‘Gatling gun’ George Hilsdon ensured the hosts took the honours by two goals to one, with Woolwich Arsenal’s Satterthwaite offering a consolation.

Twenty-four years ago on Friday, Gustavo Poyet inspired a 5-0 thrashing of the Gunners in the League Cup, both sides much-changed for the midweek competition.

The two sides have not met in the 11th month on the calendar since 2009, when Didier Drogba, as usual, left Arsene Wenger’s central defence in tatters. The Ivorian scored twice either side of pressuring Thomas Vermaelen into an own goal in a 3-0 victory for the table-topping Blues.

London pride

There are seven sides from the capital in the current top flight, meaning 42 derbies or 35 per cent of all Premier League games taking place in London.

Since 1992/93 Chelsea have claimed the most wins, points, and highest goal difference against our neighbours, though only Arsenal and Tottenham have also been ever-present over that period.

Premier League London derbies from 1992/93

Goalscoring debutants

Denis Zakaria has become the 90th Chelsea player to score on his debut and the first since Reece James against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup in September 2019. Until Wednesday, no other Switzerland international had figured for the Blues since Willi Steffen’s shuddering tackles wowed fans in the 1940s.

Hi-vis is here

The official Premier League matchball adopted its winter plumage last weekend and the all-conditions Nike Aerowsculpt will be used until the end of February.

Coefficiency

With Wednesday’s Champions League win Chelsea pocketed around €2.8m in prize money, €9.6m for reaching the Round of 16 and, importantly, two coefficient points to add to UEFA’s rankings. The five-year coefficient values can decide which pot a club occupies when UEFA’s group stage draws are made.

The final place on the 10-year table determines how much of a €600m pot each of this season’s 32 competing clubs will take. At the moment the Londoners are in fifth place, which would amount to €31.836m – the most of any Premier League club. With four straight victories the Blues have also overtaken Arsenal in Champions League wins (including qualifying rounds) by English sides.

English clubs – most Champions League wins

4th - Man Utd - 160
6th - Liverpool - 143
12th - Chelsea - 103
14th - Arsenal - 101
26th - Man City - 62
61st - Tottenham - 28

Remembering the fallen

Ahead of Sunday’s kick-off Chelsea will be marking Remembrance in a number of ways, including a trumpeter from the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment playing The Last Post and a minute’s silence.

Exactly 104 years ago this coming match day, on 6 November 1918, five days before the Armistice brought hostilities to a close, George Lake died of battlefield wounds near the Sambre-Oise canal, northern France. A private in the Hampshire Regiment, he was the only serving Chelsea FC first-teamer to perish in World War One, and one of the last professional footballers to be claimed by the conflict. George’s great nephew, Paul Lake, would later play for Manchester City.

Chelsea FC Roll of Honour

Serving and former Chelsea footballers who were lost during the World Wars.

First World War
Robert 'Bob' Atherton died 19 October 1917
George Kennedy died 16 November 1917
George Lake died 6 November 1918
Francis ‘Frank’ O’Hara died 12 July 1915
Philip Smith died 29 September 1918
Robert 'Pom-Pom' Whiting died 28 April 1917
Arthur Wileman died 28 April 1918
Thomas Wilson died 21 March 1918
Norman Wood died 28 July 1916

Second World War
Ken Baldwin died 28 March 1945
Alec Jackson died 15 November 1946

Matchweek 15 Premier League fixtures

Saturday 5 November Premier League fixtures

• Leeds v Bournemouth 3pm

• Man City v Fulham 3pm

• Nottingham Forest v Brentford 3pm

• Wolves v Brighton 3pm

• Everton v Leicester 5.30pm (Sky Sports)
  

Sunday 6 November Premier League fixtures

• Chelsea v Arsenal 12pm (BT Sport)

• Aston Villa v Man Utd 2pm

• Southampton v Newcastle 2pm (Sky Sports)

• West Ham v Crystal Palace 2pm

• Tottenham v Liverpool 4.30pm (Sky Sports)