For the last hurrah of 2019 and the penultimate part of a low-mileage Christmas programme, Chelsea head to the Emirates aiming for three points for the first time since January 2016, when Diego Costa did the damage in a 1-0 win. Hosts Arsenal, under new and first-time management, were 11th in the table approaching the weekend, and closer to the relegation places than the fourth-place Blues.

The Blues have played the Gunners more times than any other club. This is the 199th meeting. The league fixture is also London’s longest running top-flight London derby, first played on 9 November 1907, Chelsea the 2-1 winners at Stamford Bridge thanks to ‘Gatling Gun’ George Hilsdon’s marksmanship. In our most recent meeting we thrashed the Gunners 4-1 to lift the Europa League trophy in Baku.

When it comes to final matches of a calendar year, as today’s is, we have lost only one of the past 16. That was to Aston Villa back in 2011. The other results were 11 wins and four draws.

Despite the midweek setback against the Saints, the festive programme could still be considered a success should Frank Lampard’s side complete the north London league ‘double’ for the first time since 2012/13 – when newly appointed coach Mikel Arteta was gracing Arsene Wenger’s midfield.

While Lampard grapples with the issues facing his team on home soil, he may even be grateful for two successive matches on the road.

Ahead of this round of fixtures the Blues were the third most effective away side in the Premier League, and have scored twice as many goals on opponents’ soil (22) than at the Bridge (11). Fourteen of those 22, almost two-thirds, have come in the first half.

Rivals stumble

Although Chelsea’s points tally is eight down on the halfway stage last season, the club are in fourth place thanks largely to the fact that many of last season’s top six now below us are experiencing the same – or worse.

From a lower base in 2018/19, Manchester United were four points worse off at the halfway stage, before yesterday’s win at Burnley, while Tottenham have lost 16 points year-on-year (and took a single point at Norwich on Saturday in their first game of the second half of the season). Arsenal have 14 points less. Both north London clubs changed their manager this season.

Wolves, though, are now four points better off than last season after Friday’s victory over Pep Guardiola’s ten men.

London is Blue?

Chelsea could be top of an all-London mini-league table after the last derby of the year today, if it is ordered on points gained per match. The Blues have averaged two points per game against rivals from the capital, and won at Spurs a week ago.

Chelsea have won a record 129 Premier League London derbies, one more than Arsenal. However, only six Chelsea managers have ever tasted victory in the first top-flight trip to Arsenal, most recently Guus Hiddink in May 2009 and Carlo Ancelotti in November 2009.

Lampard is hoping full-back Marcos Alonso will be fit to be in the squad for today’s game but Reece James is a bigger doubt. Alonso has netted three times against the Gunners.

FA Cup and Champions League catch-up

Next weekend’s FA Cup opponents Nottingham Forest, who ended a five-game winless run by winning at Hull on Boxing Day, are at home to bottom club Wigan today.

Chelsea’s 10-year UEFA club coefficient of 212 is the fifth highest in Europe behind Real Madrid (367), Barcelona (298), Round of 16 rivals Bayern (274) and Atletico (218) and therefore the best in England.

‘We’ve won it all’ this decade

As December takes its leave, we thought we would look at the tally of big trophies won by English clubs between 2010 to 2019. And it seems the anthem from the stands has it right: the Blues are the only team to have won each major piece of silverware at least once in the past decade.

Outside this proud nine, no English club won any major competition.

Coming up

New Year’s Day opponents Brighton beat Bournemouth 2-0 at home yesterday, their first three-pointer since their 2-1 at Arsenal on 5 December.

Star signing Sam Kerr may figure when unbeaten Chelsea Women return to WSL action next weekend, Sunday 5 January, at home to Reading. Tickets are £9, £1 concessions

The development squad’s home clash with Manchester City, one point behind in PL2, has been moved from Friday 10 to Saturday 11 January, a midday kick-off at Aldershot. The reverse fixture finished 2-2.

All change at the Emirates

The Arsenal team is under the stewardship of a third permanently appointed coach since May 2018 when Arsene Wenger was in charge before his departure. He had been at the helm for 21 years.

After Unai Emery (and Freddie Ljungberg who was given an interim role), the hat has now landed on the head of their elegant former midfielder Mikel Arteta, who has not experienced the role of head coach before.

As a player with Everton and Arsenal the club the Spaniard faced more times than any other was Chelsea. He played 17 times against the Blues in all competitions, winning five, drawing six and losing six – including a record 6-0 thrashing at the Bridge in March 2014 that was Wenger’s 1,000th in charge.

This is the second game in charge for Arteta, who cut a notably intense figure as assistant to Pep Guardiola on Man City’s bench. The indications from the first, a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, were that he switched the roles of the Gunners’ potent strike force in order to try to better accommodate Mesut Ozil. Only six clubs (including Chelsea’s next hosts, Brighton) have a worse home record than the north Londoners.

The hard-working Alexandre Lacazette played as centre-forward with Ozil behind, and the more mercurial Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang moved to a wide left starting point in a 4-2-3-1.

Defensively little changed for the team with the top-flight’s worst disciplinary record at the halfway stage of the season, and the Cherries regularly probed the visitors’ through the middle and on the flanks.

Mind the gap

Arsenal are eight points adrift of Chelsea and fourth place, and figures showing the disparate financial rewards for competing in the Champions League and Europa League, published by UEFA 10 days ago, exemplified why all clubs are determined to secure a top-four finish.

Europa League figures for 2018/19 showed competition winners Chelsea earned €46,378,913 and beaten finalists Arsenal €38,995,743. In contrast the Champions League campaign generated €93,254,000 for Man City and €93,469,000 for Man United, while runners-up Tottenham earned €101,622,000 and winners Liverpool €111,099,000.

Premier League results and fixtures

Saturday Brighton 2 Bournemouth 0Newcastle 1 Everton 2Southampton 1 Crystal Palace 1Watford 3 Aston Villa 0Norwich 2 Tottenham 2West Ham 1 Leicester 2Burnley 0 Manchester United 2

SundayArsenal v Chelsea 2pm (Sky Sports)Liverpool v Wolves 4.30pm (Sky Sports)Manchester City v Sheffield United 6pm

There is more build-up to today's game on The 5th Stand