Kalidou Koulibaly made his Chelsea return on Wednesday night after what he described as 'ten tough days'. The defender was absent for the Blues' games against Manchester United, RB Salzburg and Brighton with a knee injury picked up against Brentford.
The Senegal international warmed his way back into the game, survived an injury scare during the first half and ultimately put in a decent performance in Chelsea's final Champions League group game against Dinamo Zagreb. Graham Potter made it clear that he wanted to finish this stage of the competition with a win and Koulibaly was pleased to help his side bounce back from defeat against the Seagulls.
Koulibaly said following the win: "It felt good. It was a tough game today as we knew we wanted to finish first. I think we played well even though we took this goal (against us). We played well and it prepared the game well for Sunday.
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"Yes, Saturday can happen to have a loss but this is what’s good that you can give a positive answer and we did that. We now have to think about Sunday as it will be a tough game against a nice team."
Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League and 10 points clear of Chelsea, with just one defeat to their name. The Blues welcome Mikel Arteta's side looking to narrow that gap, and looking to improve on the 4-2 defeat they suffered towards the end of last term.
Koulibaly only returned to full training with the first-team squad on Monday, and featured for 64 minutes in the Champions League. Whether he is fit enough to play a second game in a row, is a decision Koulibaly is happy for Potter to take but the former Napoli star believes he is ready.
He is under no illusion of the quality he will face against Arsenal however.
He said: "We will see if the coach chooses this. Me, at the moment, I am feeling better. I personally had ten tough days [to come back], but I am feeling better and ready to be on the pitch.
"[Arsenal] is a nice team, a tough team, they are winning. We know they have a lot of talents. They played together for years now. You can see it on the pitch. We will try to do our best on Sunday to win this game but it will be tough. We have home advantage and to be here with our supporters will be great. We will do our best to win this game."
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