Chelsea vs Arsenal: Blues Find New Motivation in Pivotal Match with Gunners

Chelsea has a lot going on at the moment.

They're coming off a thrilling 2-1 victory over Everton in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. They just lost an extremely important vote on whether or not to move forward with plans for a new 60,000-seat stadium (lost by 13.4 percent of what they needed to buy back the freehold of Stamford Bridge). They have a league match with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. And they have a UEFA Champions League match with Racing Genk in the Cristal Arena on November 1st.

Arsenal, meanwhile, are still trying to piece together their Barclay's Premier League campaign.

The Gunners, like the Blues, scored a victory in their Carling Cup fourth-round match with Bolton and have a Champions League match at the Emirates on November 1st with Marseille.

Sandwiched in between the outside tournaments is this pivotal league tie on October 29.

But the biggest difference, and the one thing that separates these clubs' busy schedules, is the one thing Chelsea is drawing on as motivation for the match.

A report from The Guardian quotes Chelsea chairman Bruce Beck after the vote was lost as saying:

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"I guess on behalf of Ron [Gourlay, chief executive], myself and Mr. Abramovich, obviously we are disappointed but we recognise and respect that the shareholders have spoken.

We will meet with Mr Abramovich and the rest of the board and decide what, if anything, we will do to take things forward. We are all Chelsea fans and I can only hope that, on Saturday, we all get together, support this club and beat the crap out of Arsenal."

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"Beat the crap out of Arsenal" is certainly going to stir up some feelings in North London.

Especially considering the Blues' last league match was an ugly 1-0 defeat with nine men at the hands of new-boys QPR.

The battle at Loftus Road got out of hand quickly and is even the center of a possible racism investigation.

In some ways, maybe this lost vote is exactly the type of kick Chelsea need to get motivated to dominate.

They currently sit tied for third in the league table with Newcastle, but both Manchester City and Manchester United look to be playing on a different pitch than everyone else.

What does that say for the seventh-place Gunners though? Not much.

Arsenal has certainly been better of late, winning three of their last four league matches, but they have a ways to go before they truly expect to compete with the top of the table.

Both clubs need the win this weekend, but it is Chelsea who have extra motivation to punish their opponent.

Their largest league win was a 5-1 drubbing of Bolton on October 2nd.

Chelsea is looking to close out the month in much the same fashion.