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Chelsea play their first match at home under Maurizio Sarri, and will be taking on their London rivals on Saturday. The Blues won their first match against Huddersfield Town last week by 3-0, one of which was scored by N'Golo Kante.
Sarri is looking to implement his style on this team as soon as he can. One major area of change is in the position of N'Golo Kante - he was moved from the base of the midfield to a more advanced position at the right of the midfield three.
Sarri also fielded his side with a back 4, with David Luiz back in the fold. He impressed with his passing and vision, helping the team play in the way Sarri wants them to. Eden Hazard played a few minutes against Huddersfield, and laid on an assist for Pedro. If included from the start here, he could hurt Arsenal with his quality in the final third.
Arsenal lost at home to Manchester City by two goals, and will need to be more compact defensively to get through this encounter with any kind of positive result. The second goal was classic Arsenal.
As soon as they went looking for a goal, they committed numbers to attack and got picked apart by City's swift counter-attack. Emery can try to mitigate this to a certain extent by including Lucas Torreira from the start.
Left back is another position Arsenal are short, Nacho Monreal could be set to start despite just returning to full training only a few days back.
Aubameyang could prove too fast for David Luiz, and that looks the most likely route for Arsenal to get a foothold in this game. Emery would want to avoid defeat at all costs, starting his tenure with two losses will be far from ideal for him.
Probable line-ups
Chelsea: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcos Alonso, David Luiz, Antonio Rudiger, César Azpilicueta, Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Willian, Eden Hazard, Alvaro Morata.
Arsenal: Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi , Sokratis, Nacho Monreal, Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Kickoff
18 August 2018
10 pm (IST)
Venue: Stamford Bridge
