Arsenal without summer signing for Chelsea clash as Mikel Arteta faces anxious wait on injuries

Arsenal take on Chelsea this weekend knowing that their title hopes could be defined by the result. A defeat might see the Gunners fall ten points off the lead and see other sides have the chance to move above them in the table.

Team selection has been a point of contention for Mikel Arteta, with many scrutinising his choices. Ahead of the game with their London rivals, Arsenal do have some issues and potential restrictions to their squad.

Of course, Riccardo Calafiori is out, expected to return after the international break, but it is another summer signing who will miss the game but not through injury. Raheem Sterling is ineligible to face his former club this weekend and therefore will vacate a place on the Gunners bench.

Declan Rice missed the game with Inter Milan on Wednesday night with what is thought to be a minor foot problem. Arteta told media: "Declan unfortunately picked an injury against Newcastle.

"He was able to finish and he wasn’t feeling good the last few days. We’ll have to assess him on Thursday and see if he’s ready for Chelsea."

The good news is that Martin Odegaard will be back after making a small cameo against Inter, coming on in stoppage time as a substitute. However, Kai Havertz suffered a nasty bang of heads at the end of the game.

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“Kai Havertz had a big cut and hopefully he will be OK for the weekend,” Arteta said post-match. Yet another big player facing an anxious wait to be cleared to feature in such an important fixture.

Arteta is confident that if they perform how he feels they did in Italy they have a good opportunity to claim a vital win. He said: “If we play the way we play, we‘ll have a big chance to win against Chelsea.

"That‘s the way we have to go. I told them that I’m proud of them. I haven‘t seen them play in Europe in the manner that we have today. We are disappointed because we didn’t get what we wanted out of the game, that’s for sure.”