Arsenal vs Chelsea: Two sides in need of a reboot in desperate bid to avoid becoming a Europa League team

No longer able to outspend Manchester City, United or Liverpool and with inferior squads, the two London sides meet this weekend in an effort to avoid another year in Europe’s second tier

Within both Chelsea and Arsenal of late, there’s been a bit of compromise, out of a lot of readjustment.

Chelsea are currently in negotiation with AC Milan and willing to bend their preference of signing players under 30, in Gonzalo Higuain, because Maurizio Sarri wants one of the few number nines who knows his system. That's, of course, because that system isn’t currently firing.

Arsenal are meanwhile in the process of entirely redirecting their own recruitment policy, and going back on an approach decided just a year ago through the appointment of Sven Mislintat, with the transfer guru set to leave amid some surprise and controversy after the big story of the week.

Both situations involve rather abrupt departures from the norm that you wouldn’t usually associate with either London club. Both however stem from the same core problem that seems to have recently become more pronounced as they meet on the same Emirates pitch this Saturday.

They are two clubs striving for a new identity, and that goes beyond the playing identities two new managers are struggling to instil.

That fits into the wider challenge for two clubs who have actually been the Premier League’s most frequent representatives in the Champions League over the last decade, but are now trying to change a foreseeable future where they might well end up as the most frequent representatives in the Europa League.

That is why Saturday’s game at Arsenal suddenly occupies so much more importance, especially with Manchester United now displaying the kind of surging attacking form both clubs would crave.

They might also crave United’s spending power, something that you wouldn’t have imagined being said about Chelsea for most of that decade.

Arsenal are meanwhile still adapting to a situation that was for so long impossible to imagine, but the departure of Arsene Wenger is not the reason for the current problems. The curiosity is that they had already made what were actually creditable plans to prepare for life after the legend by pre-emptively and consciously doing what United didn’t with Sir Alex Ferguson. They put in place a football structure to replace all the different facets of Wenger's all-powerful role without just replacing the man. The appointment of Mislintat had rightly been heralded as a major coup in this, and maybe the most important move.

It is ironic, then, that they appear to have still suffered the same kind of internal power plays as at United.

The managerial succession did go relatively smoothly, but the aftermath behind the scenes has not.

Sven Mislintat is on his way out of Arsenal after justa year in the job (Getty)

It should be stressed that Arsenal maintain there has been no breakdown in the relationships between Mislintat and Unai Emery and - in particular - head of football Raul Sanllehi, but sources from Germany paint a slightly different story.

Some close to Mislintat feel too many of his plans to change several things at Arsenal have been vetoed, and that he personally thinks his expertise has not been trusted. It does appear odd in that regard that an appointment everyone in the game praised is set to leave so soon. There has also been a paranoia - potentially misplaced - from some who know Mislintat that he could yet be made a scapegoat for Arsenal’s poor run of form.

Renowned as a hugely strong-willed character, the German has been mindful of similar difficulties he had with Thomas Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund and - in the words of one source - “won’t work under such circumstances for long”.

There is also a lament that Mislintat had a real backer in departed chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who successfully pitched the German’s long-term plan to Stan Kroenke. It helped that the plan was described as “very in tune with US sports”.

That plan is not currently being enacted, and the consequent controversy has reached a point where many supporters and critics are looking past the men in the main football jobs. More questions are now being asked about the minimal investment from the Kroenkes, and the situation that Gazidis left behind when he went to Milan.

There is also the actual team left behind.

While sources close to Mislintat have been very keen for the media to point out that some of the best recent signings - Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira - came as a result of his plan, the more pressing reality for Arsenal is that virtually every serious analysis in football puts the collective quality of their squad as only the fourth or fifth best squad in the Premier League.

Arsenal must decide what they want to do with Mesut Ozil (Action Images via Reuters)

Tottenham Hotspur’s is arguably inferior, but is enhanced by the effect of a superior manager in Mauricio Pochettino.

It is meanwhile only Eden Hazard that elevates Chelsea’s, especially given the ongoing difficulties surrounding Mesut Ozil.

It has got to the stage where Arsenal need to make a serious decision on the German, especially if an asset on such a huge wage is merely considered someone who plays at home against lower-half sides, but then Chelsea may need their own serious decision regarding Hazard.

The long-term Real Madrid interest has escalated. And after a spell where the European champions had been planning to only go for one of Hazard or Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen the summer, the fact both are out of contract in 2020 has caused a rethink at the Bernabeu. Madrid increasingly feel it is a unique opportunity to get two stars, and one they can exploit. They are likely to now go for both, and those close to Hazard say he is effectively waiting for a serious approach from the Bernabeu before he makes any decision on his future.

Others now think he’s likelier to leave.

If that is the case, it will mark a juncture moment for Chelsea, but one that has arguably been a long time coming.

Sarri's plan for Chelsea is not yet paying off (Action Images via Reuters)

It would represent the first time they will have lost a star player - who they didn’t want to sell - to one of the big Spanish two or a notionally more financially powerful club.

That is something most of the rest of the big six, and especially Arsenal, have been all too familiar with.

It is also something that would broadcast the erosion of the power of the Roman Abramovich regime, especially after Thibaut Courtois similarly left for Real Madrid last summer.

For their part, Chelsea sources are strident the club have proved “they can still do big business when required”. The signing of Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic, ahead of every big English club, is seen as more evidence of that. They would also sign another big name to properly replace Hazard, if the Belgian does leave. It would be a statement.

Signing Higuain represents a change in Chelsea's thinking (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

It’s still difficult not to feel that the club has slipped a tier among the super-clubs, as emphasised by the fact title talk is seen as fanciful, and this very battle with Arsenal to avoid the Europa League again.

Some who have worked with the club even argue they “need a reset”. The distinctive appointment of a coach like Sarri was supposed to help bring that, and a sense of reset would probably be better felt if the football wasn’t so staid and the application of his system had been quicker.

This is another slight irony. If these two clubs are now striving for new identities around the pitch, they now have clearer identities on it.

It’s at least obvious what both Emery and Sarri are trying to do. It’s just that they have had difficulties and delays fully implementing them.

It is also all the more pointed that both enjoyed unbeaten autumn runs, at the start of these new managerial regimes. Both of those have now been revealed as illusory.

Both clubs now need to harden up, to have something more concrete underneath and around it all.

Given the importance of Champions League money and status to that, it makes this match all the more important.

Both, however, are going to have to compromise and adjust to win it.