Charlie Nicholas believes Arsenal’s players will be ‘lifted’ after their promising performance against Bournemouth and has backed his former club to beat Chelsea this weekend.
Mikel Arteta sat in the dugout as Arsenal head coach for the first time on Boxing Day and the Spaniard took encouragement from a positive display despite his side only coming away from Dean Court with a point.
The Gunners have managed just one win from 14 in all competitions and Arteta will be desperate for his opening victory on Sunday afternoon in what represents his first home match in charge.
Chelsea have experienced a drastic dip of their own, suffering shock defeats at home to Bournemouth and Southampton over the last fortnight.
And while Nicholas concedes it will be a close match at the Emirates, he is hopeful his former club will come out on top.
Predicting a 3-2 victory for Arsenal, Nicholas told Sky Sports: ‘Chelsea are still up and down, with significant class and real quality.
‘I touched on it last week, but Willian has been class this season – he was left out and they lose at home to Southampton.
‘They are in a better shape organisationally. The movement of Willian, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Christian Pulisic will cause problems. They have nice pace and nice balance, while Jorginho and N’Golo Kante have been good when they have time on the ball.
‘What changes do Chelsea have to make? They are very limited to the changes they can make – the three at back worked at Tottenham but did not work against Southampton. There are too many mistakes within the defence.
He added: ‘Let’s switch it back to Arsenal. Granit Xhaka may be off, so he picked what he thought was the best balance in midfield.
‘As much as I like what Matteo Guendouzi has, he has been poor and struggled at times, but he will come good and may come back into the fold at some point. You see that he had to play Bukayo Saka at left-back, but he has done very well considering he is an attacker.
‘Alexandre Lacazette is back in the team, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is scoring, but Lacazette was sluggish – he needed that game.
‘Mesut Ozil was subbed but was not finding the space, so you can see why. I enjoyed the desire and a bit of fight from the Arsenal team I saw at Bournemouth.
‘This should lift the big players. He could make a few changes, but my heart is ruling my head here.’
Despite Chelsea’s poor run of form, Arteta expects his players to face a ‘really good test’ on Sunday afternoon.
‘I know they lost at home again but they are a terrific team,’ the new Arsenal boss said.
‘It will be a really good test for us.’
He added: ‘I think energy is everything, in life, in football and in sports. If we are able to generate this it will give us a lift.
‘I was really pleased with how the fans treated the players [against Bournemouth] and I was happy that the players went to see the fans after the game as well because we need that connection.
‘Slowly, we need to build that back to where it was. It’s going to be very powerful for us to use that. Hopefully we can change it.
‘First I need to convince the players and then, if I can convince the players, afterwards we can convince the fans.
‘I think it’s very, very important in my job. At the end of the day they’re expecting a lot from us.
‘We have to give them enjoyment, we have to make their lives better and, when we win, it will be better because they will be happier.
‘It’s our responsibility and we have to do everything we can to achieve that.’
from Football – Metro https://ift.tt/2ZtGsZl
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