Five Chelsea Players Make the Cut
This weekend, the Premier League’s first-place team will face off against the second-place team at Stamford Bridge in what promises to be a thrilling matchup. Chelsea, fresh off a 3-0 victory over Spanish giants Barcelona in the Champions League, will take on Arsenal, who recently triumphed over Bayern Munich with a score of 3-1 at the Emirates. Though the Blues currently trail the league leaders by six points, a win on Sunday could firmly place Enzo Maresca’s team in the title race and send a strong message to Mikel Arteta’s squad.
Debates have been heating up on social media between Arsenal and Chelsea fans regarding which team’s players are superior in various positions. To put these rivalries to the test, we asked our Transfermarkt followers to vote on who they believe is better among the players expected to start for both teams this weekend. Here are the results, along with each player’s current market value in parentheses.
Fan-Chosen Combined XI for Chelsea & Arsenal
In goal, our users decisively voted for David Raya (€40m) over Robert Sánchez (€20m), with the former securing 80% of the votes. Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella (€45m) took the left-back position, surpassing Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori (€40m) with 69% of the votes. The first centre-back matchup featured Trevoh Chalobah (€32m) from Chelsea against Arsenal’s Piero Hincapié (€50m), where Hincapié narrowly claimed victory with 57%. The other centre-back pairing was heavily favored towards Arsenal, as William Saliba (€80m) garnered an impressive 89% of the votes against Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana (€25m).
The debate over the best right-back in the Premier League between Chelsea’s Reece James (€35m) and Arsenal’s Jurriën Timber (€60m) was reflected in the closely contested voting, with James narrowly winning at 52%. In the holding midfield role, Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo (€100m) achieved victory with a convincing 76% against Arsenal’s Martín Zubimendi (€70m). In the ‘no.8 role,’ Arsenal’s Declan Rice (€120m) came out on top, securing 72% of the votes against Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández (€80m).
In the attacking midfielder position, Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze (€65m) defeated Chelsea’s João Pedro (€65m), claiming 74% of the votes. For the left-wing position, Noni Madueke (€50m), a former Chelsea player, edged out the Blues’ new signing Alejandro Garnacho (€45m) with 54% of the votes. The right-wing position was the tightest contest, where Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (€140m) narrowly beat Chelsea’s Estêvão (€60m) with 51%. Upfront, Chelsea’s Pedro Neto (€55m) triumphed over Arsenal’s Mikel Merino (€35m) with 61% of the votes, rounding out the XI.
