Mikel Arteta has decided to hand Hector Bellerin his first Premier League start since December 5 against Brighton & Hove Albion and name him captain for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
Other than that the Spaniard has named an unchanged side with Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Bukayo Saka completing the back four who will play ahead of Bernd Leno.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has excelled under Arteta at right-back but with Arsenal boss repeatedly stating that he doesn't see the 22-year-old as a full-back. With this, it will be interesting to see the role the Spaniard wants Bellerin to fulfil as Maitland-Niles has been used more as an inverted full-back.
In midfield, Lucas Torreira partners Granit Xhaka as Mesut Ozil makes his first start away to a top six side since the second game of last season against Chelsea under Unai Emery.
"The demands that we have to put on him (Ozil) are to make the difference every single game," Arteta explained when talking about Ozil . "To do that he needs the right structure and players around him to help him to do that.
"I think he could have had more assists and probably more goals in the games he has played under me which has been a little bit unlucky but overall I think that his performance has improved a lot."
The front three remains as it was against Sheffield United as Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel Martinelli take the wings as Alexandre Lacazette starts up front.
With Bellerin's return coming surprisingly quickly, Arsenal fans have voiced their opinions on him starting and how he could fare against the Blues.
After an impressive first 30 minutes against Chelsea in December, Arsenal fell to a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates.
Ahead of this meeting, Arteta has addressed how he will approach the trip to Stamford Bridge .
"Sometimes (it's) the game plan and sometimes (it's) what actually happened and a good example is when we played against them (Chelsea in December) the way that I wanted to play the first 35-40 minutes and then top teams sometimes take their game plan to the skip and makes you play a different game.
"We are where we are and have the players we have and we have a different style to those teams. We will adjust things to try to make it difficult for them and don’t be naive. But the way we want to play is very clear."
