Arsenal have 4 players in top 25 in key category and Chelsea will struggle to cope | OneFootball

Chelsea take on Arsenal today and all the focus is on how the Blues are going to cope with the Gunners’ aerial bombardment.

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The London is Blue podcast took a look this week at this afternoon’s Chelsea – Arsenal game and their analyst CFC Sam pointed to the potential difficulties in coping with the Gunners’ main strength – their aerial ability.

“We probably don’t have the aerial profiles or headers of the ball. Arsenal have four players in the top 25 in the Premier League for aerial duels won, which includes both their central defenders and both their central midfielders. So it is genuinely difficult to try and exploit them aerially,” Sam explained.

He did note that it’s possible to put these guys off even without actually competing in the air.

“[Brentford striker] Thiago went up against Gabriel and gave him quite a difficult time, even though in the end it was quite comfortable. Just hassling them and giving them individual issues worked out really, really well for Brentford.”

You can see them speaking in the clip embedded here:

Chelsea have some players who can “hassle” Arsenal back line

Liam Delap breaks the Hull back line. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

We do have good players for hassling – Joao Pedro can put himself about, Liam Delap can do the same when he comes on. Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez are small but scrappy. Defensively we do worry about potential Arsenal dominance at corners, and suspect Liam Rosenior may pick Tosin to add some height.

In other news…

Chelsea have been working on their set piece defending in the last two weeks, with the Blues apparently making a “concerted effort” to improve in those areas.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: