Arsenal host Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday, in the last game before the final international break of 2018.
A number of players will head off with their countries in mid-November, so this is Arsenal’s final chance to pick up some points ahead of a difficult end of the year, which includes matches against Manchester United, Liverpool and Spurs (twice).
As a result, we expect Unai Emery to go as strong as possible to leave the squad and the fans feeling good over the break.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash.
1Goalkeeper and Defence
Bernd Leno appears to be Unai Emery’s first choice Premier League goalkeeper at the moment, so he should retain his place in the side ahead of Petr Cech on Sunday.
The German came in for some criticism after his parry in the Liverpool match led to the opening goal, but closer inspection revealed that it was Rob Holding’s deflection that took the ball into the path of James Milner. Realistically, there wasn’t much either player could have done. It certainly wasn’t enough to lose his spot over.
Hector Bellerin will play at right-back after Stephan Lichtsteiner’s injury, and with Arsenal taking caution over Nacho Monreal’s fitness, Sead Kolasinac will start on the left of defence.
At centre-back, similar concerns about rushing Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Laurent Koscielny back to regular match action after injury should leave Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi to continue their Premier League run in the team together. Sokratis did start on Thursday, but there’s no reason to over-play him.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and our Full Predicted Starting XI