Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, is adamant that his side is ready for a big win at home to prove they are real title contenders this season.
Wenger admitted the pressure on his side is high after Arsenal’s 3-6 loss against Manchester City last week, but says his side must cope such kind of pressure to win their first Premier League title after nine ye
When asked if people were right to question Arsenal, Wenger said: "Yes - we haven't won the league for a long time, so that is why they question us.
“It is not (about nine seasons) without winning a trophy, it is without winning the Premier League.
“If you win the League Cup, it does not change anything.
“It is the Premier League that is the most important thing, and we haven’t won it for nine years.
“Of course it does not strengthen your belief, because if you win it every year, you go in there and (say) ’it is just ours’, so it makes the challenge (now) more interesting.”
Wenger then continued that particularly after his sides’ performance at the Etihad Stadium people question Arsenal, but he feels the game can even bring more belief.
“At the moment everybody still questions us, even more after our defeat at (Manchester) City.
“But I see the game at City the other way round, that we can have even more belief after the game at City.”
After Liverpool and City won over the weekend, Arsenal have dropped to third spot and could even drop to fourth if they would lose to Chelsea tonight.
The Gunners are also facing a busy festive period and follow tonight’s game v Chelsea with trips to West Ham and Newcastle before the turn of the year.
However, Wenger maintains his men can keep up with the pressure of those busy runs, but highlights Arsenal must win big games at home.
“It adds pressure, but you cannot play in the Premier League without pressure,” the Gunners boss said.
“There are periods where the pressure is a bit bigger and periods where it is smaller.
“People are only keeping in their mind the big matches that we lose, but we have won some big games.
“What is at stake is if you want to win the Premier League, you want to win the big games at home. It is as simple as that.”
Wenger also gave his backing to his £43m record signing, Mesut Ozil, who is criticised to have only show glimmers of his class so far. The Arsenal boss has every confidence Ozil will come good on a regular basis soon enough.
“I believe that he has a personality. He works quite hard and is adapting to the physical challenges of the Premier League at the moment,” said Wenger.
“Ozil looks to me like (Robert) Pires. It took a while for Pires to adapt to the physical side of the game.
“Once he had adapted he was absolutely amazing and Ozil is a similar type of player.”
Read all Arsenal v Chelsea pre-match information in our EPL Preview for GW 17.
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