Azpilicueta can’t wait for Arsenal away day as Chelsea bid to forget Stamford Bridge blues – The Sun

A LONDON derby away at one of your big rivals with barely 48 hours rest sounds like a nightmare scenario.

But for Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta, he will be relieved they have tomorrow’s trip to Arsenal.

The Blues have been flying away from home, as their 2-0 win at Tottenham last Sunday proved.

It is the home form that is the worry, with Azpilicueta admitting they are losing the fear factor at Stamford Bridge.

What was once the club’s fortress is now an easy target for visiting teams — and the effect is snowballing.

Azpilicueta believes that Southampton — 2-0 winners at the Bridge on Boxing Day — fed off the successes of Bournemouth and West Ham to become the latest team to win on Chelsea’s home patch.

The Spanish defender, 30, said: “It’s true that when teams see they can come here and they beat us, they come here with more confidence.

“They can see and analyse, watch videos and they can see that we lost the two games before with West Ham and Bournemouth, so they were confident. But it’s up to us.

“When you play here at home it is not about the rival, it is about yourself.

“It’s about moving the ball quickly to find the spaces, to create chances and give the fans a lift and get the fans into the right mood by winning games and playing good football, which obviously was not the case against Southampton.

“Forget tactics, everything is about recovering the respect at home, being solid, because it is not normal to lose so many games in your stadium with your fans.

“When the new year starts and in the next game, we have to be ready from the first second, to make sure we are ready to win.

“The pressure of playing at home should not be negative. It should be the opposite.

“If we are playing at home the fans want the same as us, which is obviously winning games.

“When the action does not work, or the game is not going in the right direction, they are as disappointed as we are on the pitch. But we have to turn it around straight away.

“We have the players, we have the quality to do it and the lesson has been very harsh — losing three games and scoring zero goals in those games is tough.”

Chelsea have now lost back-to-back Premier League home games for the first time since winter 2011 — when current boss Frank Lampard was playing for them.

Lampard dismisses the statistic but is concerned his players lack the bravery to take risks in home matches where the expectation is to win.

Azpilicueta said: “It’s an issue and it’s a reality that in the last four games at home we lost three and didn’t score.

“In our last game we were unable to create chances. It’s difficult to understand why this is happening, because, normally at home, you play in a way where you find teams a bit more defensive but we can enjoy more time on the ball and can create more chances.

“We have not been able to replicate the away form where we win in tough places — and especially after coming from last Sunday’s win at Tottenham where we did well.”

Now they visit the red side of North London to face the Gunners, who have a new manager in Mikel Arteta and a familiar face in former Blues defender David Luiz.

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