After another international break draws to a close, Arsenal restart their club action with a match away to Bournemouth on Sunday, looking to get back to winning ways after three league draws.
Arsenal’s last Premier League win was a month ago now, a 3-1 victory against Leicester City. After that, the Gunners picked up a couple more victories against Sporting Lisbon and Blackpool. In the league though, they dropped points unexpectedly to Crystal Palace and Wolves, and perhaps just as unexpectedly managed to pick one up against Liverpool.
High-flying Bournemouth won’t prove easy opposition to turn things around against, but it’s crucial that Unai Emery’s side manage to do so, in their last league warm-up game before the North London derby.
Let’s have a look at who we expect to start on Sunday.
3Forwards
At the start of the international break, Arsenal were hit with the rather worrying news that Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had both picked up knocks. However, it seems the Gunners were just taking precautionary measures, and both are back in full training.
Nonetheless, after Aubameyang’s tweet on Wednesday revealed he’s still ‘trying to get fit’, we have to assume Emery isn’t going to take risks with the club’s leading goalscorer. It wouldn’t be worth another injury with the Tottenham and Manchester United games so near.
Instead, Lacazette can start up front, with Alex Iwobi returning to his favourite position on the left, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan starting after his goal against Wolves. Aubameyang will hopefully still be available from the bench, to add to his four league goals as a substitute this season.
In all honesty, that front three will probably give Arsenal a better balance in attack anyway, as they struggled to make good opportunities in their last game, and Aubameyang missed the best chance of the bunch.
Click ‘Next’ for the full Starting XI