The first major Premier League meeting of the 2026\/27 campaign brings champions Arsenal and challengers Chelsea together, but both sides arrive with fitness concerns hanging over key players.<\/p>\n
Arsenal begin the season knowing William Saliba will miss the opening stretch. The centre back is recovering from a back issue he carried into the World Cup, where his semifinal ended early. He has been included in Arsenal\u2019s Champions League roster, so he is eligible for league phase matches, but a return date remains unclear. Mikel Arteta has described Saliba\u2019s progress as “positive” in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Jurri\u00ebn Timber is also working his way back. Since his ACL injury on debut, the defender has had more setbacks, and a groin problem disrupted the closing stages of 2025\/26. He did return for the Champions League final, but missed the World Cup and did not feature in preseason. Arteta says he is now in a “good place,” with a comeback expected before the first international break.<\/p>\n
Cristhian Mosquera has helped cover Saliba\u2019s absence, with Arsenal keeping clean sheets in both of their opening matches. Yet the Spanish international was forced off against Aston Villa and had been a doubt for Sunday\u2019s derby. Arteta eased concern and suggested he could still be involved, although he was not seen with the squad on the morning of the game.<\/p>\n
Bruno Guimar\u00e3es has had a slower start than Arsenal would have wanted. He missed the opening win over Coventry City, came off the bench at Aston Villa and then picked up a knock in training. Even so, he is believed to be on the matchday roster.<\/p>\n
Declan Rice is another late fitness watch. He was not spotted with the squad before the game, despite featuring in training during the week and being withdrawn late in the previous match.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have issues of their own. Mois\u00e9s Caicedo is set for a late test after a brief substitute appearance last weekend, while Jordan Henderson is still waiting for his debut after the injury he suffered while celebrating England\u2019s World Cup success at the Estadio Azteca. Marco Palestra, Chelsea\u2019s first signing under Alonso, is also yet to make his competitive bow, though Wednesday\u2019s Carabao Cup tie against Leeds United may come sooner than this derby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal and Chelsea meet with several fitness doubts, including Saliba, Rice, Caicedo and Henderson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190],"tags":[1836,1981,242],"class_list":["post-19193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-gameweek-1","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19193","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=19193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}