Arsenal face Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday, coming off the back of a league victory over Chelsea.
Arsenal’s form has been very inconsistent recently, with defeats to West Ham and Liverpool, but wins against Chelsea, Fulham and Blackpool. They looked very good beating Maurizio Sarri’s side last Saturday though, and they’ll be hoping to carry that momentum into the cup.
Meanwhile, Manchester United are on a run of seven straight wins under new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Many of those games were against opposition they’d expect to beat, like Reading, Cardiff and Huddersfield. However, they did also grind out a win away to Tottenham Hotspur, so Solskjaer has passed his first real test at the club.
As a result, Unai Emery will need to pick a strong side if he hopes to progress to the next round of the cup. To bet on the game, check out this list of trusted bookies.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Arsenal will certainly make one change in defence. Hector Bellerin’s unfortunate injury means he’ll have to miss out for either Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Carl Jenkinson or Stephan Lichtsteiner. All three played in the previous round against Blackpool, but we predict Maitland-Niles will be selected on this occasion.
The 21-year-old has appeared in Arsenal’s last 10 games, and he appears to be preferred over Lichtsteiner right now, who didn’t even make the squad that faced Chelsea.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Laurent Koscielny formed a formidable partnership against Chelsea, and it would be a surprise to see either of them drop out of the team on Friday. Shkodran Mustafi will likely have to settle for a spot on the bench again.
Similarly, Sead Kolasinac will probably keep his place on the left, as he continues to be Emery’s preferred choice, even now that Nacho Monreal is back from injury.
Bernd Leno will probably drop out of the team, as he’s usually only utilised in the league games. With Emi Martinez seemingly going out on loan to Reading, that leaves Petr Cech to start the match in goal.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Midfield
Matteo Guendouzi showed a lot of improvement in his performance against Chelsea, and he was also very impressive when Arsenal faced Manchester United at Old Trafford recently. He’ll likely keep his place in the team as a result.
Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira saw their partnership broken up for a few games at the start of the year, but Arsenal only kept their first Premier League clean sheet of 2019 with both back in the starting eleven. Presumably, they’ll keep their places again too.
Mohamed Elneny and Joe Willock both got chances in midfield against Blackpool in the last round, but it seems unlikely either of them will start now that Arsenal are facing top-six Premier League opposition. Aaron Ramsey also got a rare start deeper in midfield against The Seasiders, but he’ll probably feature further forward against United.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Forwards
There shouldn’t be any doubt over two of Arsenal’s front three, after Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s performances against Chelsea. Lacazette scored the opening goal for The Gunners, and Aubameyang put in a massive shift for the team throughout the 90 minutes, even if it’s a couple of games since his last goal.
The third spot is more difficult to predict. If Emery goes with one centre-forward and two wide players, one of those wide options could be Alex Iwobi, but that seems unlikely. Instead, the head coach will probably play Lacazette and Aubameyang as a strike partnership again, with a number 10 in behind.
Mesut Özil is still yet to make it back into the Arsenal team after his injury, and Ramsey put in such a good performance against Chelsea that he’ll probably get the nod again on this occasion. The Welshman also started against United last month, only failing to complete the match thanks to an injury.
Click ‘Next’ for the full Predicted Starting XI
Predicted Starting XI
