A friendly match between Arsenal and Chelsea? Are you kidding me? The 2017-18 pre-season fixture between the English Premier League arch-rivals may read as a friendly match, but once it starts off, there will be nothing friendly in it for sure.
An exciting London Derby is scheduled for Saturday July 22 at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, China.
No Alexis Sanchez for Arsenal or Alvaro Morata for Chelsea in the match day, but that doesn't take away any excitement from the treat we are about to experience. The battle between Antonio Conte, Chelsea manager and Arsene Wenger, Arsenal manager, reignites.
"It's always difficult to predict, but [although] it's a friendly between Chelsea and Arsenal, it's not really a friendly because there's always some pride at stake and some London desire to have the superiority," said Wenger on the eve of the match.
Football fans absolutely cannot forget the FA Cup 2017 final in May, where Arsenal just about managed to edge past Chelsea 2-1, to set up another encounter in the FA Community Shield 2017, scheduled for August 6 at Wembley.
"It was a very interesting game in the final of the FA Cup, and we play against Chelsea in the Community Shield, and again very early in the season," continued Wenger.
"We know each other very well and it's difficult to know how prepared Chelsea are and how far we are with our preparations. Saturday will be a good indication of that and we were good against Bayern. This is another test for us before the season."
Pre-season 2017 results so far:
Arsenal
Sydney FC 0-2 Arsenal
Western Sydney Wanderers 1-3 Arsenal
Bayern Munich 1-1 Arsenal (the Gunners won 3-2 on penalties)
Chelsea
Chelsea 8-2 Fulham
Arsenal vs Chelsea: Match schedule
- Date: July 22
- Time: 12:40 pm BST (5:10 pm IST)
- Venue: Beijing National Stadium
Where to watch live
UK: TV - ITV. Live stream - ITV Hub
INDIA: No coverage
Live streams - Arsenal Player, Chelsea TV
Live score: Twitter
