Overview
The 2026-2027 Premier League season has only gone through two rounds, but Arsenal and Chelsea have early created a highly anticipated confrontation at the Emirates when they both won.
Arsenal started their journey to defend the championship with two victories against Coventry City and Aston Villa, and have not conceded a goal. This is a start showing the certainty of the team led by Mikel Arteta, especially in the ability to control and limit opportunities of the opponent.
Chelsea also has a similar record, although the way they win is completely different. Under Xabi Alonso, the London team successively surpassed Fulham and Brighton in 2 entertaining matches. The Blues also defeated Luton Town in the Carabao Cup, thereby maintaining a winning streak since the beginning of the season.
The last time Chelsea won all 4 opening matches was in the 2016-2017 season, when Antonio Conte led the team. They also won all 3 opening matches of the 2018-2019 Premier League season under Maurizio Sarri. Alonso will aim to continue this streak with a victory over Arsenal, thereby affirming Chelsea's ambition.
If the confrontation with Arsenal continues to be open, Chelsea could become the first team since Arsenal in the 1988-1989 season to go through all 3 Premier League opening matches with at least 5 goals.
However, Chelsea will have to show the best attacking efficiency to penetrate Arsenal's very solid defense.
After two rounds, Arsenal is the team that has had the fewest shots taken by the opponent in the Premier League with only 11 times. They also have to face the fewest shots on target, only once, and at the same time let the opponent create the lowest total xG of the league, at 0.54.
Arsenal's defensive ability is also shown through another outstanding statistic. Since the beginning of the 2022-2023 season, they have had 16 matches in the Premier League where the opponent did not even have a single shot on target. This achievement is double that of Liverpool, the team ranked second with 8 matches.
In the victory against Aston Villa, David Raya had his 50th clean sheet in the Premier League for Arsenal after 109 appearances. Only Petr Cech, Pepe Reina, Ederson and Peter Schmeichel have reached a similar milestone faster for a club in the history of the league.
Since the beginning of March, Arsenal has had 8 clean sheets in the Premier League, more than any other team and 3 more than the team behind them. In the five top European leagues, only Juventus has a better record with 9 clean sheets.
Not only solid in defense, Arsenal also possesses attacking spearheads capable of causing difficulties for Chelsea. Bukayo Saka is having an impressive start when scoring in the last 2 Premier League matches. The last time he scored in many consecutive matches was in January and February 2024, when the English striker scored in 5 consecutive matches.
Head-to-head record
Arsenal is clearly dominant in recent encounters with Chelsea. The "Gunners" are unbeaten in the last 9 matches against The Blues in the Premier League, including 6 wins and 3 draws.
This is Arsenal's longest unbeaten streak against Chelsea since the 19-match winless period in the period 1995-2005.
Score prediction: Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea
The match between Arsenal and Chelsea takes place at 10:30 PM on September 6th (Vietnam time).
