Chelsea and Arsenal are set to face each other in a major derby in London and there are a few surprises in the lineup for both teams.
The Blues are comfortably third in the league, but this match is of particular importance for Arsenal, who are looking for an important fourth place. Arsenal could level on points with arch-rivals Tottenham with a win at Stamford Bridge tonight, but they will have to overcome their misfortunes recently, having lost four of their last five matches.
Chelsea reintroduced Romelu Lukaku, who signed last summer, into the starting line-up tonight, along with Malang Sarr, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and N’Golo Kante from Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final win over Crystal Palace.
Your Chelsea team news tonight! ?# heads pic.twitter.com/q5y8IKHLiA
– Chelsea (ChelseaFC) April 20 2022
As for Arsenal, Mohamed Elneny got his chance tonight, having not played for Arsenal since January. Rob Holding and Emile Smith-Rowe were also included in Championship 11 after they were left out of the 1-0 defeat to Southampton at the weekend.
? Team news
?????? bitmap leading line
?? Elneny joins midfield
?????? Catch comes in the back line? Come to Arsenal# CHEEARS pic.twitter.com/IOfpc8Cx1q
Arsenal April 20 2022
This is a huge opportunity for Lukaku, who was stunning in the reverse fixture with the Emirates at the start of the season, and the Belgian needs to start turning things around at Chelsea or facing uncertainty over his future.
Mikel Arteta risked bringing in Eleni and excluding Gabriel Martinelli, who has plenty of weapons to hurt Chelsea. This is a huge game for the North London side, as they need to stop the slip they are currently in if they want to finish fourth in the top spots.
