London, May 1 (IANS) Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta believes that Chelsea will be “dangerous opponents” in Tuesday’s match despite sitting in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
Chelsea are currently in 12th place in the standings and have struggled to meet expectations this season while Arsenal are at the top of the league table at the moment but have not been at their best in recent weeks.
With a wealth of talent at Frank Lampard’s disposal and the excitement generated whenever the Gunners meet their London rivals, Arteta isn’t taking Chelsea lightly as the team aims to get back to winning ways.
“I don’t know what their approach will be. They are really dangerous because when you look at the individuals that they can put on that field, for sure they have huge threats so we need to be aware of that,” Arteta said in a pre-match press conference.
“They are going to try to come to the Emirates to beat us. They have a great manager and exceptional players, so it is very difficult to predict what they will do because they can play in various ways with different players and different qualities as well. We are going to prepare for the game to win it, that’s it.
“It is going to be a very different game. It is a London Derby and they have something to prove, and we have something to prove. The atmosphere is going to be incredible to play in that stadium and we are going to have to be at our best again.
Since Todd Boehly took charge of Chelsea, he has splashed out a reported £540 million over the past two transfer windows, bringing in the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Mark Cucarella, Wesley Fofana and Raheem Sterling, yet Chelsea are on track to record their first bottom-half finish since 1995/96.
However Mikel doesn’t feel they’ll struggle for much longer due to the quality within their squad, and that they have the potential to be back challenging for the title in 12 months’ time.
“Next season they may get 100 points — we don’t know. With all that exceptional talent, if they make that work they can do anything because they have the players, the infrastructure and the history to do it,” he said.
Chelsea lock horns with Arteta’s Arsenal in a crucial Premier League encounter at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
–IANS
bc/bsk
