Arsenal face Huddersfield Town on Saturday, with a good chance to move back into the top four after Wednesday’s draw at Old Trafford.
Chelsea and Tottenham could well drop points over the weekend, with Maurizio Sarri’s side taking on Manchester City whilst Spurs have to travel to Leicester, who haven’t lost since their game against Arsenal in mid-October.
As a result, Unai Emery’s side have to see their game against Huddersfield as an opportunity to make ground on their top four rivals. Chelsea are currently only ahead of Arsenal on goal difference, whereas Tottenham have a two-point lead.
With a throwaway game against Qarabag on Thursday, Emery can afford to play his strongest side available for this one. Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash:
Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs
In goal, we expect Bernd Leno to keep his place. The goalkeeper remains first-choice for Unai Emery over Petr Cech, as it stands.
The Arsenal head coach appears to be committed to his three-at-the-back formation right now, having utilised it in each of the last three games. However, the injury to Rob Holding has caused problems in that regard.
Emery has suggested that Laurent Koscielny’s first senior involvement won’t be until the game against Qarabag next week.
Nacho Monreal is an option at centre-back, having just returned from injury. He’s in a similar situation to Koscielny though, having not played a competitive fixture in months. Konstantinos Mavropanos and Julio Pleguezuelo are both still out injured for the time being.
As a result, the most likely back three is the same one that finished the match against Manchester United: Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shkodran Mustafi and Stephan Lichtsteiner.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Wing-Backs, Forwards and the Full Predicted XI
Midfield and Wing-Backs
After serving his yellow-card suspension against Manchester United, Granit Xhaka is available again to face Huddersfield this weekend. He’s likely to start alongside Lucas Torreira as usual, with Matteo Guendouzi dropping back to the bench for now.
In the wing-back positions, there aren’t really many options. If Nacho Monreal does start the match, it will most likely be at centre-back, so Sead Kolasinac is pretty much nailed-on to keep his place on the left. He’ll be glad of the opportunity to redeem himself after a mistake against United led to Jesse Lingard’s equaliser.
On the right, Hector Bellerin will keep his place, as always. He’s having a very underrated season so far, and as mentioned previously, Lichtsteiner will probably start at centre-back.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the Full Predicted XI
Forwards
Arsenal still have a couple of injuries to deal with limiting their forward options at the moment. Aaron Ramsey started the match against Manchester United in the front three, but after he had to come off at half-time in that one, it seems unlikely he’ll start against Huddersfield three days later.
Meanwhile, Mesut Özil is still out with the back injury that forced him to miss the last three games. Officially, Arsenal say he’s “being assessed” ahead of the Huddersfield game, but the rumours in the media suggest he’s still not ready for a return.
That leaves Alex Iwobi, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan fighting for three positions. Playing both Lacazette and Aubameyang only seems to be working when they play as a strike partnership, as against Spurs, so Emery is likely to drop one of them if he sticks with the same formation he used against United.
It’s hard to see Aubameyang missing out, given he’s still the league’s top scorer and he’s had no trouble scoring against non-big six teams since joining in January. Therefore he’ll start alongside Iwobi and Mkhitaryan, with Lacazette ready as an impact substitute again.
Click ‘Next’ for the Full Predicted XI
Predicted XI
