Chelsea Under-23 boss Adi Viveash has explained that his side are desperate to stop Arsenal from doing a double over them, ahead of the young Blues’ clash against the Gunners in a Premier League 2 game later in the day.
Arsenal, who returned to the division after a gap of three years, beat Chelsea 2-1 in the corresponding fixture at Stamford Bridge in September.
The north London club presently find themselves fifth in the league table with 22 points from 16 games, a place and three points adrift of Chelsea.
And Viveash, who admitted that Arsenal were the deserved winners at Stamford Bridge, has insisted that Chelsea are keen to prevent Arsenal from recording their second league win over his side this season.
However, the 47-year-old conceded that his side are expecting a tough encounter against their fierce local rivals at the Shenley Training Centre.
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“They are excellent going forward”, Viveash told Chelsea TV, when asked what his side are expecting from Arsenal.
“They have got some real individual outstanding ability in the front players and we could be facing a really, really tough game.
“It will be great for development, but we are expecting a really tough encounter.
“We missed playing Arsenal for three years as they couldn’t get into this league.
“They were excellent against us at Stamford Bridge and they fully deserved the win.
“Hopefully we can show them a little bit of Chelsea and turn the fixture around.
“But we really don’t want our rivals to do a double over us, that’s for sure.”
Chelsea will head into the Arsenal game on the back of a 4-3 loss to Manchester City last weekend.
