Arsenal face Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, after heaping pressure on themselves with defeat to West Ham United last time out.
Had Arsenal managed a victory at the London Stadium last weekend, they would’ve come into this match with the chance to catch up with Chelsea and the top four, at least on points.
As it is, Unai Emery’s side need a win just to stay in touch, whilst defeat would likely leave them nine points off the Champions League places (depending on Spurs’ result). What’s more, a game against Manchester City at the Etihad in two weeks time will cause even further trouble. It’s suddenly crucial that Arsenal win against Chelsea.
After a week of rest and with another six days before the following game against Manchester United, there’s no need to rotate. Emery needs to pick his strongest team and try and get a result.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the fixture:
2Midfield and Wing-Backs
Hector Bellerin made his return from injury from the bench against West Ham, but he should be involved from the start this time. Arsenal have really missed the right-back during his spell on the sidelines with injury, and it’s a boost to have him back at last.
On the other side, it’s hard to see Emery dropping Sead Kolasinac for Nacho Monreal. Kolasinac has been performing really well, whilst Monreal has struggled to stay fit for more than a few games this season. It’s a risk to start him and end up needing to waste a substitution on another injury in such a big game.
In the middle, Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira are hopefully the only options that Emery is considering. Whilst the Swiss international did make a mistake in last week’s match, Matteo Guendouzi really struggled throughout the entire 90 minutes.
Plus, Arsenal created absolutely nothing for the final 20 minutes against West Ham without Xhaka, despite being a goal down. The team just doesn’t function without him right now, even with his mistakes.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI