Arsenal welcome Chelsea to the Emirates this weekend in what seems to be a massive task for Mikel Arteta and his men.

Emirates Stadium Chelsea s Ruben Loftus-Cheek left and Arsenal s Thomas Partey centre battle for the ball during The Mind Series match at Emirates Stadium, London. Picture date: Sunday August 1, 2021. rivalry.. Copyright: Aaron Chown
Emirates Stadium Chelsea s Ruben Loftus-Cheek left and Arsenal s Thomas Partey centre battle for the ball during The Mind Series match at Emirates Stadium, London. Picture date: Sunday August 1, 2021. rivalry.. Copyright: Aaron Chown

Arsenal got their 21/22 Premier League campaign off to the worst possible start last week on the opening weekend when they crashed 2-0 at Brentford. That being said, they certainly do have cause to point to exceptional circumstances, given the number of players who contracted Covid. The Premier League were not for cancelling their opening day extravaganza, however, and they got the result they were dreaming of at Arsenal’s expense.

While Arsenal were never going to be among the favourites to win the league this season, that defeat saw their odds rise from 50/1 to 100/1 according to Sports Betting Dime.

Contrast that with Sunday’s opponents, who are second favourites to win the title at 16/5 and you see the size of the task ahead of Arsenal this weekend.

That’s not to say they don’t have a chance. Arteta has done well against Chelsea in his short tenure as Arsenal manager, finding it harder to get past the so-called smaller teams.

Arteta has played Chelsea five times so far and has won three and only lost one. In fact, they are one of the sides he seems to enjoy playing. Whether that will be the same this weekend, it’s hard to say. Arteta also has a 1 out of 1 winning record against Thomas Tuchel after  Arsenal’s 1-0 win at the Bridge in May.

At the start of the season, Mikel Arteta was 16/1 to get sacked with most bookmakers. Those odds plummeted to 3/1 after the defeat to Brentford.

He really could do with another Christmas miracle, that’s for sure.