After progressing to the last-16 of the Europa League in midweek, Arsenal return to Premier League action on Sunday, hosting Southampton at the Emirates Stadium.
Thanks to that victory over BATE Borisov, Arsenal don’t have to put all their eggs in the Premier League basket just yet. The Europa League still provides a route to Champions League qualification, but Unai Emery will surely push for a top-four domestic finish in case that doesn’t work out.
With Manchester United playing Liverpool and Chelsea taking the weekend off for the League Cup final, Arsenal have a fantastic opportunity to get themselves back into fourth against the Saints. They’ll be wary of their opponents after losing the reverse fixture 3-2, though.
The Gunners have a game every weekend and midweek from now until the international break at the end of March, so Emery is likely to rotate a bit from game to game. Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for this one.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Petr Cech played Arsenal’s last two matches in the Europa League, and he did a decent enough job, even if he wasn’t tested particularly often. However, it seems Emery still considers Bernd Leno his Premier League goalkeeper, so the German international should come back in for this match.
In defence, Emery should go with a back four, after it worked so much better on Thursday than the recent back three attempts. Plus, with Laurent Koscielny a doubt with a minor injury, Arsenal are running low on centre-backs anyway.
The full-back positions pretty much take care of themselves as a result. Whilst Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are clearly preferred as wing-backs, Emery appears to trust Nacho Monreal and Stephan Lichtsteiner more as full-backs. Factoring in Maitland-Niles’ illness as well, the latter pair seem most likely to start.
As mentioned, it appears Koscielny will miss out on this one with his injury, meaning a return to the starting eleven for Sokratis Papastathopoulos. He should start alongside Shkodran Mustafi. Konstantinos Mavropanos is available, but he’ll probably make another substitute appearance or two before he gets starts.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Midfield
There are a couple of tough choices for Unai Emery to make in midfield. Assuming the head coach goes with a sitting midfield pair and a number 10, as he did against Borisov, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Granit Xhaka are all available to play the two deeper midfield roles.
Torreira was left out of the starting eleven on Thursday, so it seems pretty likely he’ll come in to give one of the other two players a rest. Guendouzi only played 60 minutes in midweek, so he’s most likely to take up the other spot, particularly as Xhaka has only recently returned from injury.
Emery has a similar dilemma in the number 10 position, with both Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Özil available. It did seem pretty telling that Ramsey wasn’t brought on at any point in the Borisov tie though, particularly after he recently announced his summer departure from the club.
Even though Özil just played 90 minutes on Thursday, we predict he’ll be given another chance to prove himself this weekend.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Forwards
As mentioned at the start of this piece, Emery is going to have to rotate in certain positions over the coming weeks, and one of these positions is centre-forward.
Alexandre Lacazette is suspended for the upcoming last-16 matches against Stade Rennais FC, so it seems pretty likely Arsenal will use him in the league games against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang taking the Europa League clashes.
There’s no point playing a system with two strikers now just to have to switch to a new formation in the key European clashes. In preparation for that, and in view of the fact Aubameyang played 90 minutes on Thursday, Lacazette should start on Sunday. Then Aubameyang can take the Bournemouth game, Lacazette the Spurs game, and so on.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was taken off early against Borisov, probably with a view to starting him this weekend too. On the other side, Alex Iwobi and Denis Suarez are fighting for one spot, but the Nigerian’s strong performances recently should give him the edge.
Click ‘Next’ for the full Predicted Starting XI
Predicted Starting XI
