Showdown at Stamford Bridge

LONDON (AP):

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 champions 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 they lose but, with third-place Manchester United at Sunderland tomorrow and City hosting Newcastle the following day, Arsenal could slip out of the top four if they lose 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.

Hamstring injury

Fabregas has been out with a hamstring injury since September 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 have five wins from six matches and have 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, who 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 have not lost to Sunderland in the league since 1997 but will again be without striker Wayne Rooney because of injury.

Also tomorrow, Tottenham try to attain some consistency when they host Aston Villa. Spurs beat FC Twente 4-1 in the Champions League despite playing a half hour with 10 men but have only one win from their last four Premier League matches.