On Sunday, Arsenal travel to Craven Cottage, on the hunt for a ninth straight victory in all competitions.
Arsenal kept their winning run going in Azerbaijan on Thursday, defeating Qarabag 3-0. Confidence is certainly high at the club right now, even if the performances are yet to prove as impressive as the results.
This weekend they take on Fulham, in their final Premier League match before yet another international break. Let’s have a look at our predicted team for the clash.
Defence and Goalkeeper
There aren’t likely to be many exciting surprises in this area. Petr Cech will miss out with injury, so Bernd Leno will keep his place after another clean sheet on Thursday. Sokratis Papastathopoulos marked his return from injury with a goal against Qarabag, and should return to the Premier League starting eleven on Sunday.
Alongside him, Shkodran Mustafi will start, as he was rested in mid-week. Rob Holding has played well recently, but he’s also played a lot, so this is likely when he’ll get his rest.
Emery looks very likely to stick with Nacho Monreal at left-back and Hector Bellerin at right-back. Monreal only played 45 minutes in Arsenal’s Europa League clash and Bellerin didn’t take part at all. Sead Kolasinac is only just back from injury, so it’s best not to overplay him.
Midfield
My feeling is that Aaron Ramsey will drop to the bench, for multiple reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, his contract situation is hanging over the team a bit at the moment. It might be better to keep him out of the spotlight, at least until after the international break.
Also, he hasn’t actually been playing very well in the number 10 role. Mesut Özil is a much better fit. Then there’s the fact Ramsey missed out on the trip to Baku and the training sessions there due to his wife’s pregnancy, although he is back with the squad now.
All that might be overlooked in favour of Emery publicly showing faith in the midfielder. I wouldn’t recommend that approach though.
Assuming Özil starts in the middle, he’ll have Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira behind him, as usual. Matteo Guendouzi and Mohamed Elneny started in mid-week, Ainsley Maitland-Niles isn’t quite back yet.
Forwards
Alexandre Lacazette got another assist on Thursday, making it six direct goal contributions in six games (four starts) for the striker.
Add in the penalty he should’ve had against Watford, the own goals he forced against the Hornets and West Ham, the shot that rebounded out for Özil to score against Newcastle, and you’re looking at one of the Premier League’s in-form players. There’s no reason he shouldn’t start on Sunday.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is back from illness and in training. Like Ramsey and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, he missed the trip to Azerbaijan, but there aren’t really any alternative options. Alex Iwobi is one, and he’s in great form, but he did start on Thursday too. Aubameyang will probably keep his Premier League spot for this one.
Mkhitaryan couldn’t start on Thursday, as he and Arsenal decided it wasn’t safe for him to make the trip, with the political situation regarding Armenia. He should be rested and ready to start against Fulham, allowing Özil to move into the middle.
Click ‘Next’ for the full starting eleven
Full predicted starting eleven
