Arsenal must shut out the noise against Chelsea or risk suffering fatal blow in race for top four

Given this week's headlines, Arsenal's match against Chelsea this evening almost feels as though it has been relegated to sideshow status. In reality, it is anything but

An abject loss to London rivals West Ham. Yet more boardroom upheaval. A fresh round of Mesut Ozil speculation. And now, to round off the week from hell, a grudge match against Chelsea that could potentially make or break this most inconsistent of seasons. The honeymoon period is officially over, just in case there was any lingering doubt. Unai Emery now knows the full scale of what he is up against at Arsenal.

Last weekend’s defeat was bad enough. A desperately limp performance completely lacking in intensity or identity — with Lucas Torreira left on the bench and Ozil in the wilderness — saw Arsenal slip six points behind Chelsea, and just one ahead of a resurgent Manchester United, the top four fast fading from view.

Yet just a few days later, Arsenal’s sluggish form suddenly seemed like the least of their problems. Sven Mislintat’s decision to flee north London after just 15 months as the club’s head of recruitment came as a genuine shock to fans, although tensions have been steadily rising behind the scenes for a while now.

Mislintat’s impending exit is evidently a blow. But worse is the muddled boardroom thinking and lack of cohesion which caused him to consider his position untenable. Ivan Gazidis, the architect of this mess, had originally envisaged Mislintat as the most central figure in his boardroom revolution, a ready-made technical director for when Arsene Wenger was finally shuffled through the door. But Gazidis then left. And promises were quickly broken.

It is not a good look for Arsenal, particularly only a week after Emery admitted at his weekly press conference that the club have no funds available to sign any new players this transfer window — something that extends to the Under-23 and academy teams. Factor in the never-ending Ozil soap opera, which has continued to hum away monotonously in the background, and it has been a week to forget for Arsenal.

Given all of the drama, Arsenal’s match against Chelsea on Saturday evening almost feels as though it has been relegated to sideshow status. In reality, it is anything but. Lose, as they did in the reverse fixture on just the second weekend of the season, and Arsenal will find themselves potentially nine points adrift of the top four, with a trip to Manchester City beckoning. Lose, and even Emery reckons the gap will be too big.

“I think so, yes,” he conceded at London Colney when asked whether a nine point gap, at this stage of the season, would prove fatal to Arsenal’s Champions League ambitions. “After our loss to West Ham, it is a big difference to be six points behind Chelsea, instead of three. But against Chelsea we have the opportunity to win and be closer to them. We will do all we can.”

It is a huge admission from Emery, given what is at stake. Arsenal know that, like City under Pep Guardiola and Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, it will take time for Emery’s long-term project to bear fruit. This is a marathon rather than a sprint. But the fact remains: if Arsenal are to maintain their reputation as a ‘big club’, they cannot afford too many more seasons out of the Champions League.

“Being in the Europa League and not the Champions League has an impact across the club,” managing director Vinai Venkatesham commented earlier this season. “We do have a self-sustaining business model so the more years you spend out of the Champions League the bigger strain in puts on the business model.” This leaves Arsenal in a challenging position. Fail to spend and the risk of failing to finish in the top four increases. But should they spend big only to fail, their careful business model will come under considerable strain.

That Chelsea also appointed a new manager in the summer, and have also blown hot and cold this season, adds another edge to the fixture. Like Arsenal, Chelsea enjoyed a long undefeated run throughout the opening months of the season before faltering over the festive period, with costly defeats against Wolves and Leicester causing them to — albeit briefly — lose pace with Spurs.

The honeymoon period is over for Unai Emery (Rex Features) (Rex)

Unlike Arsenal, they can afford to lose on Saturday evening and yet remain in the hunt for fourth.

And while they have been struggling for goals in recent weeks, Eden Hazard will surely be licking his lips at the thought of twisting Arsenal’s ailing defence inside out. Yet Emery — who must decide whether to retain the back three he deployed against West Ham, or revert to the trusty 4-2-3-1 Arsenal started the season with — has said that there is no specific plan in place to stop the little Belgian. Chelsea are too dangerous for all of Arsenal’s attention to be focused on one player.

“[Hazard] has been the difference in a lot of matches,” Emery said. “But we need to concentrate on all of their players and not allow them to play against us with their personality. In the attacking half they have players with big determination to give them the victory. Hazard above all, but also Willian and Pedro.

“And then they have other players who can get into the box, like Barkley and Kante. Their build-up is very important, with their centre-backs and goalkeeper, and also with Jorginho. So it will be competitive all over the pitch. Above all, in the attacking half it is very important we stop those players with big determination, like Hazard. Defensively we need to do very well.”

Arsenal must work out how to stop Eden Hazard (Getty)

Should that defence buckle, like it did at West Ham, then Arsenal will find themselves with nothing short of a mountain to climb and a second successive week of searching questions. That illusory 22-match unbeaten run stretching from mid-August to mid-December already seems so very long ago. Back then, anything seemed possible. Now, depressingly familiar woes have afflicted the club once again.