After a narrow victory over Leicester on the opening day of the season last week, Arsenal will be looking for a more solid performance against Stoke on Saturday.
After going 1-0 ahead within two minutes through Alexandre Lacazette, Arsenal looked as if they were going to have a great evening against Leicester last Friday. However, minutes later, the Foxes came back and the game was a free-for-all from that point on.
It was the Gunners’ subs that made the difference.
Aaron Ramsey, who had missed out on the Community Shield due to a muscular injury, and Olivier Giroud who saved the day.
Arsenal were 2-3 down at home and it took the Welshman to bring the score equal with a stunning striker.
Just minutes later, Big Sexy put the Gunners ahead.
While I reckon that Arsene Wenger will start Giroud on the bench again in favour of Lacazette up front, I do think with Rambo fit he’ll go back to having him and Granit Xhaka in midfield. No offense to Mohamed Elneny but Rambo/Xhaka is the best midfield pairing we have available.
Here’s how I reckon Arsenal will line up against Stoke.
Goalkeeper
Although Petr Cech was far from his best against the Foxes, he’s still #1 and it would be a huge statement to bench him for David Ospina.
Centre-backs
Per Mertesacker should be back, as should Shkodran Mustafi. I reckon we’ll see a back three of Nacho Monreal, Mustafi and Hector Bellerin.
Wing-backs
Sead Kolasinac and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will most likely start.
Central midfield
As I previously mentioned, with Ramsey fit, I reckon he’ll start alongside Xhaka.
Wide forwards
Danny Welbecks and Mesut Ozil since Wenger has no reason to change this after Welbz scored. And Ozil will always start.
Striker
Alexandre Lacazette. While many will want Giroud to get the nod, Lacazette also scored against Leicester and was generally really impressive.
Full line-up
So the final predicted line-up is as follows (3-4-2-1): Cech, Monreal, Mustafi, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ox, Welbz, Ozil, Lacazette.