Chelsea and Arsenal meet in the Premier League at the weekend in the rare position of both seeking to rebound from defeats in the previous round.
Although the London rivals rallied with midweek wins in the Champions League, both want to restore confidence in the race for the domestic title.
Defending champion Chelsea lost 1-0 to Manchester City but Arsenal's 3-2 home defeat against newly promoted West Bromwich Albion could be far more damaging.
Chelsea will still lead the standings even if it loses, but, with third-place Manchester United at Sunderland on Saturday and City hosting Newcastle the following day, Arsenal could slip out of the top four if it loses on Sunday.
Lukasz Fabianski replaced Manuel Almunia for Tuesday's 3-1 win at Partizan Belgrade after the goalkeeper's mistakes against West Brom. Fabianski saved a penalty and is keen to continue his good form against Chelsea.
“There was a big shock on Saturday when we lost, but I think you could see against Partizan that we had learned some things from Saturday,” Fabianski said. “The performance was much better so we are looking forward to the Chelsea game.
“It is going to be an exciting one to watch, and we are in good condition.”
But Arsenal missed the injured Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner the past two matches, with the absence of that sort of quality potentially damaging against the Blues.
Fabregas has been out with a hamstring injury since Sept. 18 and manager Arsene Wenger is prepared to select a team still missing its captain.
“It looks a 50:50 but a 50:50 balancing on the negative side,” Wenger said. “I will find out on Saturday morning.”
Chelsea has five wins from its six matches and has scored 21 goals.
Didier Drogba is in form with five of those goals and has a great record against the Gunners, scoring four goals in two matches last season to take his tally to 12 goals in 10 appearances against Arsenal.
“It's a team I've done well against in certain games,” Drogba said. “I hope this match resembles the last one we had against them.”
Drogba insisted that his teammates were unconcerned by the defeat to a City side that has spent heavily in an effort to at least qualify for the Champions League.
“We were disappointed because we lost, but we knew it would happen at one time or another,” Drogba said. “It's true that the press built us up, but we're conscious of what we have to do to if we want to keep the title and it's no problem losing one match.”
Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti will return to England on Sunday in time for the match following the death of his father. Chelsea said Ancelotti was with his 87-year-old father, Giuseppe Ancelotti, when he died in Italy on Wednesday.
United, which won 1-0 in the Champions League at Valencia, is also seeking to overcome a disappointing Premier League performance following a 2-2 draw at Bolton.
United has not lost to Sunderland in the league since 1997 but will again be without striker Wayne Rooney because of injury.
Also Saturday, Tottenham tries to attain some consistency when it hosts Aston Villa. Spurs beat FC Twente 4-1 in the Champions League despite playing a half hour with 10 men but has only one win from its last four Premier League matches.
Everton is at Birmingham, Blackburn is at Stoke, Bolton is at West Brom, Fulham is at West Ham and Woverhampton Wanderers is at Wigan.
Liverpool hosts Blackpool in Sunday's other game.
In the second-tier League Championship, leader Queens Park Rangers hosts third-place Norwich, while second-place Cardiff hosts Bristol City and Watford is at Portsmouth.
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