da luck： Chelsea will face title-chasing Arsenal in a hugely tricky encounter at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday Evening.
da bwin： The Blues arrive in north London in perhaps the club’s most challenging and demoralising circumstances since the turn of the century.
The Blues are winless in their last six top-flight outings and have only scored once in their previous five fixtures.
In recent games, caretaker manager Frank Lampard has opted for heavily defensive setups that have only seen one recognised attacker start the match.
For example, in Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Brentford, the 44-year-old deployed N’Golo Kante and Conor Gallagher as the support to Raheem Sterling, but this frontline lacked any threat or cohesiveness.
This approach was quickly abandoned at half-time when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mykhailo Mudryk were introduced to afford the Blues some more momentum.
Although it didn’t come to fruition in that second half, Lampard should persist with the Ukrainian, who still has much to offer.
Should Mykhailo Mudryk start vs Arsenal?
It has been revealed that several Chelsea players are looking to leave the club in the summer transfer window. Therefore, the reins should be handed over to the club’s newest signings, who have committed their long-term future to the club.
The winger began his career in England with an extremely promising cameo when he came after 55 minutes against Liverpool back in January.
The 22-year-old terrorised veteran James Milner with his electric pace and completed two successful dribbles. Then-manager Graham Potter praised the youngster’s debut and said: “I think you can see his quality. I thought he had a good impact on the game.”
This vibrant display of impudent dribbling contributes to a wider and impressive picture that places the former Shakhtar Donetsk star in the top 1% in Europe’s top five leagues among his positional peers for progressive carries, as well as the top 4% for successful take-ons.
In recent games, Lampard’s decision to start Gallagher, who lacks attacking impetus, pace, and dynamism has been a bizarre decision when such an explosive force is available on the bench.
With the futures of other attackers including Aubameyang, Hakim Ziyech, and Christian Pulisic hugely uncertain, it would be logical to give a player intended to be Chelsea’s future a substantial portion of game time.
Although it has been an extremely underwhelming start for the £100k-per-week star in west London, he has still shown glimpses of his world-class talent, with the "frightening" attacker – as per Josh Bunting – potentially set to haunt a side who he so famously wanted to join in January.
Therefore, a big performance in a derby to derail a rival’s title charge would endear the nine-cap international to the Blues faithful.