Noni Madueke has rebuffed claims now is the perfect time to face Arsenal - but insists he wants to earn the bragging rights ahead of next week's camp with England.
The Blues winger, who has started nine of Chelsea's 10 Premier League matches so far this season under Enzo Maresca, is cautious that there is little margin for error in the race for Champions League football following last weekend's draw at Manchester United.
But even though the Gunners have lost three of their past six games in all competitions, having suffered back-to-back defeats at Newcastle and Inter Milan, Madueke still believes Mikel Arteta's side remain a force to be reckoned with.
He said: "They're still a great team and they've challenged for the title for the last couple of years. But in terms of us, we are just going to prepare for this as we do any other match.
"There's always a little bit of bragging rights with the boys but I'm going into Sunday trying to win for sure, so are my team-mates.
"It's just like any other Premier League fixture but there's always that added rivalry when you play with them for the national team as well.
"Whenever we don't win, we are always frustrated and Manchester United was exactly the same - we have to try and win those games. We also dropped points against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace."
Madueke is also relishing the chance to do battle with Bukayo Saka once again as he bids to send England interim boss Lee Carsley a timely reminder of his quality.
The former PSV attacker is in the same year group as his Arsenal rival and spent much of his youth career going up against the Gunners star for both Crystal Palace and Tottenham.
He continued: "Evan as an academy player, the north London derbies were always super competitive.
"Bukayo was always a great player. He was a goal threat, fast, strong and always made the right decisions - just like he does now.
"Everyone has a different path. My path was probably less conventional going to Holland but even his path, I'm sure he had to work super, super, super hard to get to where he is as well.
"It just goes to show that there are different routes to the top but the mainstay is that you just have to work as hard as you can and believe in yourself and that's what I've done and I'm sure he did that as well."
Madueke also paid tribute to boss Maresca and the Stamford Bridge hierarchy for making Chelsea, who thumped FC Noah 8-0 in the Conference League on Thursday, competitive again this season.
The 22-year-old added: "Enzo has been great with me since he came in, he's a great manager and has helped me a lot.
"I've been okay so far but I can be a lot, lot better and have still got levels to go but I'm satisfied with our position as a team and as a collective.
"The manager has brought in stability, I think he's done well to manage our squad, all the names and all the talent in the team so that's credit to him.
"But also credit to the club because it's years of planning and we're finally starting to see the fruits of the labour that they've been doing so long may it continue. We're just trying to get better and better every game."