Two contrasting but respectful assessments have set the scene for the London derby as Arsenal and Chelsea prepare to meet. On their return to domestic action, Chelsea will look to close a six-point gap to an Arsenal side widely hailed as the leading contenders to win the Premier League title.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s ambitions for the 2025\u201326 season are not believed to be so lofty\u2014publicly, at least. The Blues are aiming to consolidate their spot in the Premier League\u2019s top four, rather than establish themselves as immediate contenders, and Enzo Maresca was keen to temper expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too early in any case if we win or don\u2019t win [against Arsenal],\u201d Maresca responded when asked about Chelsea\u2019s title hopes. \u201cIt\u2019s November, there\u2019s five or six months to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important where we are [in the table] in February and March and we\u2019ll see if we can achieve something important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca added perspective on the run of fixtures and mood at the club. \u201cIt\u2019s another big game. We finished the one against Bar\u00e7a with a good feeling. If it\u2019s bigger than the last one, I don\u2019t know. For me they\u2019re all important.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice feeling but it\u2019s three points. Then we have Leeds which is three points in the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mindset and mood are very good. We are doing good in the Premier League and Champions League. It\u2019s a good feeling that we can see we\u2019re improving and growing. We need that environment, the fans the way they were [against Barcelona]. It\u2019s always nice to share that kind of moment at the end of the game with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta, by contrast, was complimentary about Chelsea\u2019s progress and construction. \u201cI think we are all there, and they are there because they fully deserve what they have done in the last few years,\u201d Arteta reflected. \u201cI think the squad that they assembled, the numbers that they have, the quality that they have, the number of coaches they have, it makes sense that what is happening there is very, very positive and they deserve to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Arsenal beat Chelsea 1\u20130 when these two sides met in March, Arteta named Maresca\u2019s side as \u201cthe best attacking team in the league,\u201d and he remains impressed by Sunday\u2019s opponents. \u201cThey were [the best last season], the sample now this season is early so it\u2019s difficult to say,\u201d Arteta said when asked if he stands by his statement. \u201cBut it is one of the teams that I enjoy the most watching and they have a lot of fluidity, they have a lot of threat, they have a lot of individual talent. They are very clear what they want to do and that\u2019s why they are very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta and Maresca traded cautious comments before the London derby and on the season ahead. 2025-26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190,172],"tags":[1047,1089,1019],"class_list":["post-4759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4759","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=4759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}