In many ways, it would have made more sense if Arsenal had appointed Maurizio Sarri and Chelsea had hired Unai Emery. The former banker with a reputation for winningly aesthetic football for the club with a reputation for stylish play and fiscally prudent idealism; the pragmatic serial trophy-winner for the club with a short-term culture and serious silverware habit.

That it ended up the other way around says a lot about where both clubs find themselves before today’s clash at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, after a disorienting decade on the hire-and-fire carousel and, latterly, two successful but myopic years under Antonio Conte, are looking for a sense of project, perhaps even of stylistic fulfilment. Arsenal, after 22 years of dogmatic monocracy under Arsène Wenger, are desperate