Speaker
Gents, a question I had was, for both of our sides, are we stronger or weaker than last year's equivalent fixture? So the one at Stamford Bridge, and I've intentionally ignored the one at the Emirates because that was 5-0 Arsenal, and I will erase that from my memory. But the one at the Bridge, which was October 2023, so pretty much exactly a year ago, Chelsea 2, Arsenal 2, which Jamie, you mentioned at the start. Palmer and Mudrick put Chelsea 2-0 up fairly early, and then Rice and Trossard scored in the final 15 minutes. Here was the starting 11. So we'll go first on the Arsenal side. David Rea, Ben White, Saliba, Gabriel Zinchenko. And then in midfield, you had Jorginho with Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, and then Gabriel Jesus up front. Now, knowing that XI, do you feel you're stronger or weaker with the XI you think you'll play on Sunday? I think in some areas we're stronger and some areas we're weaker. I think obviously in midfield, our older guard, we're definitely weaker. Creativity side, we haven't really got anybody. I think that's been hurting us in other games. But I think defensively, with Timber being back and Kharifuri probably starting as well, I think defensively we're probably a bit better, even though we've been leaking goals, but on paper, I think we're probably better defensively. Jamie? I think, yeah, I think when you obviously look at that starting XI and you compare it to now, yeah, I'd say that we, if Odegaard didn't get injured on international duty, I would say maybe, depending on the results as well, of course, that we have just maybe slightly, and I only mean very slightly, got better. My one area of concern for this weekend, and I touched on it during this week, actually, with JD and a few of the others, is Arsenal's left side. Now, against Newcastle, I've realised that Timber got really drawn out of his position quite quickly. And I think for Chelsea this weekend, that is going to be a position that they will try and target. Another potential area of concern could be Saka against Newcastle. They doubled up on him. If Chelsea do the exact same, that could cause Arsenal a small issue. But I just think if we could have Odegaard or maybe even Ethan Waniere, who we've said we'd like to see more game time from him, I think they would really, really kind of push you guys back a little bit more. But, and I do like Ethan Wynieri, great player. And I think it's good that we've really kind of integrated him quite nicely into the squad. We've not kind of thrown him in at the deep end of the pool. He's just dipping his toes in and he's just getting, he's just getting used to the feel of it. And for me, I think, yeah, you look at maybe a potential Arsenal squad this weekend, providing say, you know, we have an Odegaard that's fit to play and a Declan Rice that's fit to play. Don't see how we can't go wrong. And I think, you know, I think for the Newcastle game, you know, if we, if we, again, if we had Odegaard, I think like Josh kind of mentioned, we've, we've missed that creative flair. And I think Odegaard is that creative flair we've been missing. Yeah, no, it promises to be a good showdown. I think on the Chelsea side as well, looking at the Chelsea starting 11 from this game last season still Robert Sanchez in goal has he improved over the last year debatable our defence last year was Mauro Gusto Thiago Silva Levi Colwell and Mark Cucurea so obviously the notable there is Thiago Silva is no longer. So I would say defense-wise, I mean, Gusto, Colwell and Kukurea probably will all, well, are all still here and probably will play on Sunday, but definitely a huge loss losing Thiago Silva. Caicedo and Enzo Fernandes was our double pivot. It seems that Enzo Moresca has preferred over recent games a Caicedo with Romeo Lavia pivot, which personally I think works better and gives better balance. So even if Enzo comes off the bench, and even though he hasn't strictly left the club, I think we're better or stronger. To my question, are we stronger or weaker? I think we're stronger this year with Caicedo Lavia than Caicedo Enzo Fernandes.