Saturday 4 February 2017 12:32, UK
Premier League leaders Chelsea will get revenge over Arsenal live on Sky Sports on Saturday, predicts Jamie Redknapp...
What a transformation it's been for Chelsea since their defeat to Arsenal in September.
After that 3-0 loss, they were at a crossroads. There were rumours Antonio Conte might be leaving, there were rumours he might be getting sacked. To see them now, in the form they're in and playing with the confidence they've got, it's amazing.
That's come from a combination of the formation change to 3-4-3, but also working extremely hard.
They're like a well-oiled machine. Every single player knows where they should be when they have got the ball and when they haven't.
I had the privilege of watching Chelsea train a while ago and you could just see how Conte has got them so well drilled for every eventuality. He's almost out there orchestrating every single move. He's the maestro, conducting everyone - when to sit, when to press, where the wing-backs should be…
Conte has got Chelsea so well drilled. He's out there orchestrating every single move on the training pitch. He's the maestro, conducting everyone - when to sit, when to press, where the wing-backs should be…
They've obviously got tremendous players because they won the league in 2014/15, but last season they looked like a team that weren't together, a bunch of individuals that didn't want to play for the last manager. Now they're looking like the best team in the Premier League for a long, long time.
N'Golo Kante has obviously played a big part in their improvement this season. After playing a key role in Leicester's title win he appears to be doing the same for Chelsea. Remarkably, he's lost just six Premier League games since the start of last season.
Arsene Wenger was asked about Kante on Friday and he said: "we tried to sign him twice". Well, for me, that's not good enough. Why did you nearly sign him? Why didn't you sign him?
Arsenal are in the Champions League, if they want to push the boat out they've got the money to compete. But that's a terrible indictment of where Arsenal are that they couldn't bring him in if they wanted to. He would have been the perfect fit for them.
They badly needed a player like him against Watford in midweek. That was such a terrible defeat for Arsenal. Probably the worst result of the season among the big teams. No disrespect to Watford but they're a poor team without pace, a mish-mash of players and I fancy them to get dragged into a relegation fight.
For them to go to Arsenal and win, it sums up Arsenal.
But, for all their problems and all the silly slip-ups, Arsenal do still have the firepower to cause Chelsea problems on Saturday.
It will be interesting to see whether Wenger goes with Olivier Giroud to lead the line. It may be he wants a presence up front - otherwise Chelsea could bully them.
The problem is, I'm still not sure what Arsenal's best XI is - and I don't think Wenger knows either.
In contrast, the Chelsea team is an easy one to name and, really, I can't see anything but a Chelsea win in this one. They're so strong and comfortable with what they're doing, while Arsenal - no matter what they say - will have found it very hard to pick themselves up after the Watford defeat.
This is the last fixture they'd want on the back of that result and they're really going to have to show some character to get a result - something they've been criticised for lacking in the last few years.
Don't get me wrong, I love the way Arsenal play and hopefully they can do something. Certainly the neutrals would like that, or the title race could be over before we know it!
