Arsenal face high-flying Watford on Saturday, looking for a seventh consecutive win in a row in all competitions.
The Gunners are currently on a longer run of wins than any of the other big six clubs, and adding another victory this weekend would bring the team up to fifth place in the table, minimum.
That’s because they’re facing fourth-placed Watford, one point ahead of them. Clearly it’s not going to be an easy match. The Hornets were so unlucky to lose in their mid-week League Cup tie against Spurs, and already beat Mauricio Pochettino’s side in the league. Even their defeat to Manchester United was a close game.
Emery is likely to name a much-changed side from the mid-week League Cup game. Let’s have a look at our team predictions for the match.
1Goalkeeper and Defence
Petr Cech was Arsenal’s man of the match against Everton last weekend, and helped the team to their first clean sheet of the season. He’ll come back in the team for Bernd Leno, who didn’t do too badly against Brentford, but is clearly still yet to convince Unai Emery he should be starting.
Hector Bellerin will come back into the team for Stephan Lichtsteiner, as the Swiss international is still yet to completely find his feet in the Arsenal team. Sokratis Papastathopoulos is back from injury, and should return to the team.
I’d very much like to see Rob Holding alongside him, but unfortunately that seems unlikely. Shkodran Mustafi will probably start instead.
Sead Kolasinac made the bench in midweek, and could play a part in this match at some stage. Nacho Monreal looks to be set to continue his run of starts for now though.