Arsenal v Chelsea: Can the Blues close the gap on their London rivals?

League leaders Arsenal have lost just once this season and have a game in hand over all their title rivals signalling is a huge advantage for the north London side.

While Chelsea’s title defence has not gone to plan, the only defeat of the current campaign is the 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Arsenal in October.

Emma Hayes’ team will almost certainly be out for revenge against their London rivals and a win for the Blues will throw the title race wide open.

Team news

Gunners duo Dominique Bloodworth and Emma Mitchell had surgery over Christmas. The former played the full 90 minutes in the 4-2 win against West Ham while Mitchell was only fit for the bench, which will most likely be the case again on Sunday. Kim Little also returned from injury against West Ham and should feature against Chelsea.

Fran Kirby is back for Chelsea and played 20 minutes in the 3-0 win over Everton so she is likely to be involved against Arsenal.

Past meetings

Both sides have won two of their last five league meetings with the other match ending in a draw. Arsenal will be favourites to win on Sunday but Chelsea have been in fine form of late and won’t go down without a fight.

Prediction

There will be plenty of goals in this but I think the spoils will be shared between the two sides.

Chelsea are riding a six game winning streak – in which time they have not conceded a single goal – which will give them a huge boost of confidence entering the critical clash.

Arsenal meanwhile suffered a setback against Manchester City where they lost 2-0 in early December before bouncing back to dispatch of West Ham Ladies with an impressive 4-2 away win.

My prediction is Arsenal 2-2 Chelsea.

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