Champions League winner explains why Chelsea want a win more than Arsenal today | OneFootball

Former Blues defender Gary Cahill is doing Chelsea’s game against Arsenal for Sky Sports today, and he is in no doubts about who the game matters more for:

“It’s vitally important for Chelsea this season that they finish in the Champions League positions, the top 5, so I’d say it’s slightly more important for Chelsea. Arsenal fans aren’t going to want to hear this, but I think the league is finished, it’s done. And their Champions League position is obviously safe. So Chelsea, just.”

His fellow pundit Izzy Christiansen agreed – Arsenal are in the Champions League quarter-finals and will have most of their focus on that now that Liverpool are so far clear at the top of the league.

“Their ambitions lie in Europe,” as she pointed out.

The Gunners will be desperate to win today, of course, but they’re also well aware that they’ve got other priorities now.

You can see the pair give their thoughts on the game in the clip embedded here:

Strange line-ups could mean an unusual and tense game at the Emirates

It’s going to be a pretty odd game. Both teams are in the top 4 and will prioritise not losing over pushing for a win. The international break to come after this game is also a major staging post that both sides will have their eyes on.

Arsenal are without a host of their key attacking options, and have struggled to score in recent games. Meanwhile Chelsea were already without Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke, two of their more dangerous goal threats, and have now lost Cole Palmer too.

That’s led Enzo Maresca to pick a pretty defensive team, without much attacking threat on the bench to bring on to shake things up either. Because of that, if we had to pick a score now, we would go for 0-0.

But as we know, in football anything can happen, and one early goal could open things up hugely.