Few Premier League fixtures carry the same edge as Arsenal against Chelsea, and their first meeting of the 2026\/27 season arrives with recent history still fresh.<\/p>\n
The last five encounters between the sides have produced a mix of narrow margins, discipline issues and decisive set pieces, with Arsenal holding the upper hand in several of those contests.<\/p>\n
In the 2024\/25 campaign, the second league meeting between the clubs offered little in the way of jeopardy in the wider title picture, but plenty in the battle for bragging rights. With Arsenal trailing Liverpool by 15 points and Chelsea well placed for a top-four finish, the stakes were more local than seasonal. The reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge ended goalless, but the game was settled by Mikel Merino, deployed as a makeshift striker in place of the injured Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, who scored the only goal in the first half.<\/p>\n
A year later, Chelsea\u2019s discipline again shaped the narrative. Mois\u00e9s Caicedo was sent off in the first half of Arsenal\u2019s visit, yet Enzo Maresca\u2019s side still recovered to earn a hard-fought point. Trevoh Chalobah headed Chelsea level after the interval before Merino struck again on the hour. Arsenal pressed for a winner, but Robert S\u00e1nchez helped keep Chelsea in the contest.<\/p>\n
The Carabao Cup semifinal first leg at Stamford Bridge brought more drama. S\u00e1nchez was at fault for two Arsenal goals, with Ben White and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres both punishing his errors. Alejandro Garnacho scored twice for Chelsea, but Mart\u00edn Zubimendi\u2019s finish gave Arsenal a narrow advantage.<\/p>\n
The second leg was far tighter. Liam Rosenior chose a 5-4-1 to protect Chelsea\u2019s position, but they managed only two shots on target. Kai Havertz settled it in the 97th minute, rounding S\u00e1nchez and finishing into an empty net.<\/p>\n
Arsenal then returned to league duty and beat Chelsea again with another set-piece-driven performance. William Saliba and Jurri\u00ebn Timber scored from corners, before Pedro Neto\u2019s two quick yellow cards reduced Chelsea to 10 men and left them unable to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal and Chelsea renew hostilities, with recent meetings decided by fine margins, set pieces and red cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190,172],"tags":[1836,1162,1066],"class_list":["post-19183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}