Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic believes that his side’s first real test of the season will be when his side travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal on Saturday, according to The Daily Mail.

Despite an impressive start to the campaign, in which the Blues currently top the Premier League table, Chelsea have yet to play any of the current top nine in the league. Therefore, the visit of Arsenal will play a definitive role in determining how impressive the European champions really are.

Ivanovic believes that London derby will be difficult for Chelsea, “We have the next game as a very great challenge for us in the Premier League – Arsenal away.” Ivanovic added, “This is the first actual big game for us this season.”

The 28-year-old was also full of praise for his defensive partner Ashley Cole, who scored the winning goal in Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Stoke City on Saturday, “For me, Ash is the best left-back in the world – for a long time.”

Ivanovic added, “He is really great, and always makes a lot of good things for the team.”

The Serbian international knows first-hand what it feels like for a defender to score important goals. Ivanovic scored arguably one of Chelsea’s most important goals of last season scoring the decider in their 4-1 victory over Napoli in the last-16 stage of the Champions League.

He said, “We’re really happy for him because, for defenders, it is always nice to score goals for the confidence. Ashley is really fantastic. He has the skill, he has the speed, he can run, he can go up front, he has the vision of the game, he defends well, he is quick. But I think all this is nothing new.”

Both teams Premier League positions perhaps belie their current form and confidence. Chelsea needed until the 85^th minute to defeat the Potters on Saturday. Additionally, the victory over Stoke saw Chelsea win their first game in four in all competitions. Admittedly, this statistic may be deceiving however, since two of the three winless games came against Europa League winners Atletico Madrid and Italian champions Juventus.

Meanwhile, fifth place Arsenal are one of the in-form teams in the Premier League this season. Following a 2-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield, Arsene Wenger’s side dismissed Southampton 6-1 , won their first game in Europe at Montpellier and earned a well fought point at the champions Manchester City yesterday.

The last encounter between the two sides came at the back end of last season. The game ended goalless in what was regarded as Arsenal had virtually guaranteed Champions League football for this season, and Chelsea had Champions League success on their agenda.