The one Chelsea change Enzo Maresca will definitely make for Arsenal as Mikel Arteta point made

Enzo Maresca has confirmed Robert Sanchez will start in goal for Chelsea in their clash against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.

The Blues goalkeeper was dropped after a crucial mistake in the 3-1 defeat to Manchester City on January 25 with Filip Jorgensen taking his place in the side. Maresca confirmed shortly after that Jorgensen was his new No.1 for the time being, with the Danish goalkeeper playing the next four matches in the Premier League.

However, a costly error from Jorgensen late on against Aston Villa had people questioning his position as well. Sanchez was put back in against Leicester City at the weekend, in the Blues' last Premier League game and Jorgensen was back on Conference League duty for the victory over Copenhagen on Thursday evening. A trip to Arsenal is on the horizon for Chelsea and Maresca is planning to use Sanchez in goal for the London derby.

"It will be Robert playing against Arsenal," the Chelsea head coach told reporters on Thursday night. "Since we started, the idea was not to change goalkeepers, but sometimes you have to modify, you have to be flexible in your ideas.

"We do this in the game plan, with the way we want to attack, the way want to defend, but also we need to be flexible on players. I thought Robert needed some days off, to rest with his head, mentally. Now he is back and hopefully we are not going to change until the end. I said many times, we are quite happy with both goalkeepers."

A victory at Arsenal would see Chelsea move to within three points of the Gunners, who occupy second-place going into the next round of the Premier League fixtures. While the Blues are battling it out for a place in the Champions League between now and the end of the season, nobody has really questioned Arsenal's chances of qualifying, with Maresca insisting the gap between the two sides is still large.

That has a lot to do with how long Mikel Arteta has been in north London, Maresca thinks, with the Spaniard being appointed manager in December 2019. Arteta has had more than five years to work with his players and fully implement his ideology and style play into his players at the Emirates Stadium.

"It's quite big," said Maresca when asked about the gap between Arsenal and Chelsea. "The reason why is because they are working with the same manager for five years, so the difference is quite important.

"With the same players, they have already played some important games. Our target, our duty, is to close that gap between us and them. In this moment, the table says the difference is six points, so we are quite close, but we still have nine games to go."

If Chelsea can pick up three points against Arsenal on Sunday, it will be the first time Maresca has beaten any of the current top five this season. A two-week international break then follows before the final stretch of the 2024/25 campaign.