After getting back to winning ways last weekend against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Arsenal face a crunch week in their 2022/23 season. Mikel Arteta’s side face Zurich in the Europa League on Thursday with top spot on the line before travelling to Stamford Bridge on Sunday for a London derby against Chelsea. While the huge London derby is sure to be on the minds of Potter and Arteta, both teams have to focus on their respective European competitions with Chelsea also in mid-week action against Dinamo Zagreb tonight (November 2) in the Champions League. Both sides have secured qualification to the next round but Chelsea have also guaranteed top spot and with a crucial league fixture on the weekend, the chance to rest some of their first-team players,, but when speaking to reporters ahead of the game Potter suggested he would still name a strong team.
Graham Potter said: “We have to have respect for the competition and respect for the teams. We have to prepare to win. We’re at home, we want to finish the competition off well at this stage and we want to respond from the disappointment of the weekend. We’ll pick a team that we think can win with respect to the opponent and we’ll try our best.”
It perhaps also may have been a good opportunity to use some of the younger players in the Chelsea squad pushing for more first-team involvement such as Omari Hutchinson and summer signing Carney Chukwuemeka, but Potter again seemed to dismiss that as a possibility.
Graham Potter said: “As I said before I don’t think it’s a time to be using young players just for the sake of it. I think we have to be competitive and respectful of the competition. There are still teams looking for points for their own qualification. So from our perspective we have try and pick a team we think can win the game.”
Potter’s comments have been mirrored by his team selection with Mason Mount, Jorginho and Trevoh Chalobah among the names starting the fixture, with Denis Zakaria also making his Blues debut, while Potter has confirmed the Blues are lining up with a back four for the first time since he arrived at the club.
