Arsenal looking to avenge derby drubbing at Chelsea

Arsène Wenger says his players have not been scarred by Jose Mourinho's Chelsea following their 6-0 drubbing of Arsenal last season, but he claimed there is a desire to "put things right" when the teams reunite at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea face Arsenal tomorrow in the first match between the two sides since Wenger’s “nightmare” 1,000th game as manager in March. Wenger has a poor record against Mourinho and Arsenal have not beaten Chelsea since October 2011, losing three of their last four league matches against their London rivals.

However, the ill-feeling between the two managers appears to have eased since February, when Mourinho described the Frenchman as a “specialist in failure” after Wenger said his adversary was “afraid to fail”.

Asked if Arsenal’s players might think they could not beat Mourinho, Wenger said: “No, why? In life you must always think you are there to change what happened before, or you are fatalistic. A competitive guy wants to make history and change what happened before. We have an opportunity to do that.

Never forget

“It was not a bad day [the 6-0 defeat], it was a horrendous day for us. But we never forget that day and we have an opportunity to put it right. We, of course, are hugely determined and have a big hunger to put that right on Sunday.

“We have an opportunity to do it and I am confident that we will take the chance to do it.”

Nacho Monreal could return to the Arsenal squad after a back problem while Wenger's defence must cope with Chelsea's in-form striker Diego Costa, who he described as a "killer". Mourinho is not expecting Arsenal to roll over in similar fashion to last season.

“It’s not something that happens every day. Chelsea against Arsenal, normally the result is close. It happened once, in different circumstances: a bad day for them, an unbelievable day for us. It cannot happen many times,” he said.

Asked if he had apologised to Wenger for the “specialist in failure” remark, Mourinho said: “I didn’t get an apology. I don’t apologise ... My feeling is to forget it and to move forward without thinking about what happened, you don’t need to apologise. Intelligent football people don’t need that. Finish, move and let’s go for another match with big responsibility for both of us.”

Mourinho has also described Cesc Fabregas as a "perfect" addition to Chelsea's ranks and believes the Spaniard is relishing life in new surroundings as he prepares to confront his former club.

Fabregas made 306 appearances for the north London club after initially joining their academy from Barcelona as a 16-year-old. He eventually agitated successfully for a move back to Camp Nou, completed in 2011, before resuming his career in England this summer following a €38 million move to Chelsea, and his impact has been immediate.

The midfielder is already settled at his new club having moved into the enclave of Chelsea players living close to the club’s Cobham training ground.

Blue village

“He loves Chelsea already,” said the Portuguese. “He’s so happy: the way he plays, the way he’s a member of the squad, the way he lives in this little blue village. It is like he’s here for a long time. If you ask him now if he regrets the move, I’m sure he’d say no.

“If you ask him if he’d choose a different option [if given the chance], he’d say no. And if you ask him where he thinks he’ll be in five years’ time, he’d say he sees himself here in five years’ time. He is Chelsea.

“It’s not about him ‘replacing’ Arsenal in his heart. He’ll never lose that respect and connection with a club where he arrived as a kid and left as a top player. I wouldn’t be happy if he came here saying: ‘I don’t care about Arsenal; my life at Arsenal is over, I forget everything; now it’s just about Chelsea.’ I don’t like that approach. . .

"After Chelsea I worked for Internazionale and Real Madrid and I never stopped saying Chelsea were my club and that I wanted to come back one day. But I gave everything to Inter and Real. Fabregas doesn't forget Arsenal, the time he spent there, the contribution it made in his fantastic career, and that deserves a place in his memory and his heart. And the fact he's giving everything to Chelsea with such professionalism and enthusiasm is exactly what we want of him . .

“We knew he was perfect for us. We tried. We tried hard, and we succeeded.”

Guardian Service