Arsenal are looking to bounce back from their FA Cup exit against Manchester United with victory over Cardiff City in the Premier League on Tuesday.

Arsenal are now out of both cup competitions, but they’re still fighting on two important fronts. The Europa League trophy and a top-four league finish are both up for grabs, but Unai Emery’s side really need to step up their game to have any chance in either case.

Even with a game against Manchester City at the weekend, Arsenal need to start as strong as they can and get the three points against Cardiff first. Let’s have a look at our predicted Arsenal lineup for the match.

Goalkeeper and Defence

Arsenal suffered three key injuries in two games, losing Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

There’s no chance Bellerin returns for a while yet, after he tore his cruciate ligament, and Koscielny appears to have suffered a broken jaw, so he’s out too. Sokratis could be back before long, but he’s still likely to miss out on this one.

As a result, with Rob Holding already missing, the only remaining senior centre-backs at the club are Shkodran Mustafi and Konstantinos Mavropanos.

Mavropanos hasn’t played senior football for a while, but he’s been back in training for a few weeks and started for the u23s last Monday. He should be ready for a first-team game now, and we expect him to make the lineup. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that Nacho Monreal, Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichtsteiner can all fill in too.

At left-back, Sead Kolasinac is likely to keep his place, as the only fit member of Arsenal’s first-choice back four. On the right, Ainsley Maitland-Niles seems to be the preferred choice.

In goal, Bernd Leno will come in for Petr Cech, who wasn’t too impressive on Friday.

Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI

Midfield

Matteo Guendouzi dropped to the bench against Manchester United, but he’s started eight of Arsenal’s last nine league games, and this one is unlikely to be any different. Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira will also probably keep their places, as Emery tries to recapture the team’s performance against Chelsea.

Mohamed Elneny continues to be unlikely to get a look in, having still played less than 90 league minutes for the entire season so far. There are few alternative options available in the current squad for a midfield trio, which is why Arsenal are out trying to secure deals for the likes of Denis Suarez and Christopher Nkunku.

Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI

Forwards

Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will presumably both keep their places for this one. Aubameyang is still by far the top scorer at the club, whilst Lacazette is the top assister, so it’s hard to leave either of them out when you need to guarantee the three points.

Behind them, Aaron Ramsey has started the last couple of games, forcing Mesut Özil to the bench. However, against the likes of Cardiff, rather than Chelsea and Manchester United, the German will surely be preferred.

Arsenal will spend much less time pressing their opposition into mistakes and more trying to break down the opposition defence. That’s exactly the kind of game you have Özil in the squad for.

Alex Iwobi will also drop to the bench, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan still not fully back fit after his injury.

Click ‘Next’ for the full Predicted Starting XI

Predicted Starting XI