Arsenal face West Ham United at home on Sunday, as the world reels from the news that it will be Arsene Wenger’s penultimate Premier League match in North London.

Overview

Until last weekend, Arsenal were starting to put together a pretty good run of games. The team managed six wins in a row, then a draw against CSKA Moscow which felt more like a win given the circumstances.

Of course, when a Premier League away game came around, it all went wrong again. In that case, Newcastle emerged victorious 2-1.

This time around, Arsenal are back at home, where their results are much better. Nonetheless, this wasn’t a game that would’ve drawn much attention until Arsene Wenger revealed he was stepping down from his managerial role this summer.

Now, suddenly everyone wants a ticket, and the team have massive motivation to put in a performance. Of course, they can’t quite go all our with their first-choice players, because there’s a Europa League semi-final coming up on Thursday to think about.

So how will Wenger set up his side for the weekend, to try and find the balance between resting players for Thursday and still putting out a side that can win the match?

Let’s try and work it out…

Next: Goalkeeper, Defence, Midfield, Attack and full XI

Goalkeeper

David Ospina is back and available for the team, but Petr Cech will keep his place as this is a Premier League fixture.

The goalkeeper hasn’t won much praise in the last couple of weeks after being caught out at his near post in two league matches in a row. Although he could probably share the blame with Shkodran Mustafi, who was arguably just as much at fault for letting players get a run on him over and over again.

Cech still only has the one clean sheet this calendar year, and required a penalty save to achieve it. Hopefully he can improve on that here.

Next: Defence, Midfield, Attack and full XI

Defence

Arsenal’s strongest line-up of Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal will all presumably play on Thursday. Under normal circumstances you might therefore expect some rotation for West Ham, similar to how Bellerin and Koscielny didn’t start against Newcastle last week.

In this case, Arsene Wenger talked about the need to get momentum going for the final Europa League matches. So I doubt we’ll see many defensive changes.

In fact, my prediction is that the manager goes full strength, then gives rests to the players that need them between the two Atletico matches.

Bellerin made his 40th start of the season last week, so you can count on him to play twice in a few days if necessary. Koscielny is the only real risk. If Wenger decides he doesn’t want to take that risk, perhaps Rob Holding will come in again.

Next: Midfield, Attack and full XI

Midfield

Last week, Joe Willock got his Premier League debut against Newcastle, but he won’t get a second game on Sunday. He played the full 90 minutes of the Arsenal u23s title-winning victory over West Ham on Friday.

Jack Wilshere is back in training, but I really don’t see the need to rush him back into the starting eleven. Especially as he wasn’t playing particularly well before the injury anyway.

The midfield therefore pretty much picks itself. Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny will play as the deepest midfielders with Aaron Ramsey ahead of them. It’s pretty much the only option.

Next: Attack and full XI

Attack

If Henrikh Mkhitaryan were available for this match, I’d be pretty sure Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would be dropped to the bench. Not because he hasn’t been excellent since joining, but simply because Arsenal need to focus on the players who can play in the Europa League for now.

Unfortunately, Mkhitaryan isn’t available quite yet. Therefore the position on the left could go to Aubameyang, Welbeck or Iwobi.

I have a strong feeling Welbeck will start, but I’m going to go with Aubameyang for the team anyway. Simply because it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to play both of your available strikers days before a massive match.

In the middle, Alexandre Lacazette should start, to build on his four goals in 289 minutes since returning from injury (one every 72 minutes on average). On the right, Mesut Özil will probably come back into the team.

Final starting XI

Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Xhaka, Elneny, Ramsey; Aubameyang, Ozil; Lacazette.