Chelsea vs Arsenal: Blues Will Rebound with Gunners' Beatdown

Chelsea welcome their less-than-friendly neighbors, Arsenal, to Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The Blues are battered with stars forced to watch from the stands, but it will hardly matter. 

Chelsea and Arsenal will battle for more than mere points on Saturday. This will be about pride, prestige and form. Both sides could use a great deal of all three. 

Arsenal have finally come into form lately, dealing a great deal of consistency on the pitch after a slow start. The stars added at the deadline have become a part of a free flowing attack, just as Arsene Wenger would like. 

Chelsea, on the other hand, have been all over the place recently. After doling out some spirited results, they laid a big egg against QPR. Because of that match, the Blues have lost ground in the hunt for the top of the table, and they will be hard pressed in this rivalry clash as well. 

Cards received last week will directly affect this match. I have no delusions that Chelsea will be as stout as if they had their full complement of stars. 

Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa will have to take a seat against Arsenal due to suspensions. While both players are pivotal to the Blues, I see no reason to think Chelsea will hold serve at Stamford Bridge. 

It would have been hard for me to say this in the past, but I have grown increasingly confident in Fernando Torres to deliver in the attack. The addition of Juan Mata has allowed glimpses of the Torres of old. 

When you consider how inconsistent the back line of Arsenal has been, you can see confidence is still running high for Chelsea. 

With Nicolas Anelka providing depth, I still peg Chelsea to come away with three points on Saturday's EPL match of giants. 

Chelsea need this match more than ever after a shocking loss last week. This will be a raucous affair with two sides hitting each other with their best shots. I still find Chelsea to be the better side, even if they are two studs down.