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.
3Forwards
There’s still a suspicion that Arsenal haven’t quite found their best front three just yet, despite the obvious wealth of attacking talent in the squad. Alexandre Lacazette certainly looks difficult to drop or shift from the centre-forward position, especially after his massive goal against Liverpool last weekend.
However, the left and right wide positions are a bit more difficult to call. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started well against Liverpool but really fell away as the game went on, and wasn’t too much more effective against Sporting. Henrikh Mkhitaryan wasn’t any better, particularly in the Liverpool game.
Nonetheless, we don’t expect Emery to drop both, so Aubameyang will probably keep his place on the left, with Alex Iwobi coming in on the right. It’s not ideal, considering the Nigerian international is much better on the left himself, but there aren’t many options on the other side.
Aaron Ramsey is another option to potentially play on the right. He’s played there before, but we’ll see if it’s a risk Emery is willing to take at any point in the future. Probably not on this occasion, after a fairly average 90 minutes against Sporting.
Click ‘Next’ for our full predicted starting XI