Arsenal face Huddersfield Town in a Premier League clash at the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday, as Unai Emery’s side try to get back into the top four.
Last time out, Arsenal had to travel to Manchester City, whilst Chelsea and Manchester United had comparatively straight-forward games against Huddersfield and Leicester. The roles are reversed this weekend, with Chelsea travelling to City and Arsenal taking on Huddersfield, though United have another easy game against Fulham.
As a result, Arsenal need to make sure they pick up all three points to bridge the gap to the Champions League places, and hope Manchester City are just as ruthless with Chelsea as they were last weekend.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash.
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Granit Xhaka is back in light training after a groin issue, and he’s reportedly ‘being assessed’ ahead of the weekend. For now, we’ll assume this match is going to come too soon for him.
It seems most likely Unai Emery will go for a 4-2-3-1, as he did in the second half against Cardiff. That was the only period of the last two games where Arsenal actually created chances effectively.
As a result, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira will reprise their roles in the sitting midfield two in Xhaka’s absence. Then Mesut Özil should return to the starting lineup ahead of them.
Unai Emery clearly doesn’t trust Özil in the big games where Arsenal have to spend large chunks of time without the ball, like Chelsea and Manchester City. However, it’s a different story against the sides lower in the table, with the German starting most of the time when fit. That was the case against Cardiff and should be the case again here.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI