U21s preview: Chelsea v Arsenal | Pre-Match Report | News

Our young Gunners return from the international break to continue their Premier League 2 campaign, with a trip to Chelsea on Saturday October 25.

The match will take place at the Cherry Red Records Fans’ Stadium, with kick-off scheduled for 2pm (UK time).

Since the narrow 3-2 defeat to Fulham on the opening day of the 2025/26 season, Max Porter’s side have remained unbeaten in their last five domestic outings, with three wins and two draws, and sit ninth in the table.

In our most recent PL2 affair, Louie Copley’s captain’s stoppage-time header saved a point in a 2-2 draw against West Ham United, after Max Dowman had already brought us level earlier.

The opposition

The Blues have also had a good start to the campaign, with wins over Newcastle United and Aston Villa, and their latest 1-0 victory over Burnley leaves the west London side in sixth position with nine points.

Like us, our city rivals are also competing in the UEFA Youth League at under-19 level this season and have made a perfect start to the competition by triumphing over Bayern Munich and Benfica. The results put them fourth in the league stage and on course to qualify for the knockout stages.

We last met in November 2024, when Nathan Butler-Oyedeji gave us an early lead, before Chelsea overturned the tie in the second half to inflict a 2-1 defeat.

How to follow

Live updates will be available throughout the match on our academy’s official X account, while post-match coverage will include a report, interviews and highlights published on Arsenal.com.