Arsenal could be without star attacking duo when Chelsea visit the Emirates

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Arsenal could be without attacking duo Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette when Chelsea visit the Emirates in a huge London derby on Sunday.

Just hours before the Gunners were set to kick off their Premier League campaign away to Brentford on Friday, news broke that the forward du0 had been suffering from illness, which saw them be ruled out for their 2-0 opening day defeat.

It came as a major blow to Mikel Arteta, as he was without not only both senior strikers in the squad but his main source of goals. In the absence of Eddie Nketiah, he opted to play youngster Florian Balogun through the middle, but ultimately these weren’t ideal circumstances to hand him his first domestic senior start.

After the game, speculation surrounding the strikers’ relationship with Arteta was thrown into doubt as a result of his reluctance to speak on the situation, but almost a week later, it was put to bed when Arsenal confirmed that the illness was in fact Covid-19.

There were fears that their game at the Brentford Community Stadium would be called off, due to two other first-team players in Willian and Alex Runarsson also testing positive, however after some last-minute testing, the game went ahead.

The theme of having little options upfront looks set to continue, with Aubameyang and Lacazette both missing training again on Wednesday afternoon, as Arsenal ramped up their efforts in an attempt to avoid two defeats from as many games to start off the season.

Although the club captain is now coming back negative in the testing, it’s unlikely that he will recover in time to come straight back into the starting 11, whereas the Frenchman has already been ruled out by the club’s medical team.

In his post-match press conference, Arteta was quick to apologise for his side’s showing against the newly-promoted side and knows improvement is needed to pick up points with two tough games coming up.

“First of all, I want to thank them because the support that they’ve given to the team, all the travelling fans that were here, and after that apologise for the result. We know that we have to improve. We have two big games coming up and we need a different performance to get a different result.”

Despite the poor start to the campaign, Arsenal will be optimistic heading into the game against Chelsea as they’ve beaten them in their last three fixtures in all competitions, including a first league double over the Blues since 2003/04 last season.

However, one man who will be standing in their way of making it four in a row will be new signing Romelu Lukaku. The former Chelsea man made his return to Stamford Bridge after seven years away last week, in a £97.5 million move from Inter Milan, which saw him become the second most expensive signing in Premier League history after Jack Grealish’s transfer to Manchester City.

Expectations will be at an all-time high for the Belgian, with Thomas Tuchel’s men looking to kick on after their impressive Champions League triumph a couple of months ago, and if last season’s showing was anything to go by, Lukaku could be the missing piece of the puzzle to fire Chelsea to the title.

The West London club started as many expected them to against Crystal Palace and ran out 3-0 winners on the day, as youngster Trevoh Chalobah capped off a fine domestic debut with a goal, to help send a statement of intent to the rest of the league.

Tuchel could also be boosted by the return of N’Golo Kante and Hakim Ziyech into the first-team fold after they look to have progressed well from ankle and shoulder injuries respectively. The midfield duo have been key for the German coach in pre-season, therefore he will be pleased to have them at his disposal in the coming weeks.

However, Chelsea will be without American winger Christian Pulisic who scored on the opening day at Stamford Bridge, due to him testing positive for Covid-19. The 22-year-old is reportedly experiencing no symptoms of the virus and will complete his isolation period at home.

The hosts find themselves in somewhat of a crisis this early into the season, as a combination of the virus and injuries, could see up to seven first-team players miss out against their London rivals. Thomas Partey and Nketiah are both working their way back from ankle problems which they sustained in pre-season against this weekend’s opponents.

They are expected to be back within the next couple of weeks, but Arteta will be hoping to accelerate that process in order to have them available for the important fixture against Manchester City in just over seven days time.

Arsenal will also have central defender Gabriel Magalhaes missing from the matchday squad after he sustained a knee injury when away with the Brazilian Olympic squad. The 23-year-old is currently on course to return to training at the end of the month and therefore should be available following the international break.

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