Arsenal face Everton at Goodison Park on Sunday in the Premier League, as they continue to push for a top-four finish.

Thanks to various different fixture complications, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have already played their 32nd games of the Premier League season. As a result, Spurs sit one point ahead of the Gunners and Chelsea are only behind on goal difference, but they’ve both played a game more.

Arsenal now have the chance to retake the lead among the top four contenders and move back into third with a win over Everton. Admittedly, a draw would also be enough to achieve that goal. However, it would also certainly give a lot of encouragement to Tottenham, who would only be behind on goals scored in that scenario.

Let’s have a look at the team news in each position and our predicted Arsenal lineup for Sunday’s fixture.

Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs

As usual, Bernd Leno should be in goal for this one, having just kept his third clean sheet in five matches and won Arsenal’s Player of the Month award for March. It will be very interesting to see who gets the nod against Napoli the following Thursday.

In defence, thankfully, Sokratis Papastathopoulos avoided a yellow card against Newcastle, so he won’t miss this match with a suspension. However, he’s still at risk of a two-game ban if he gets a yellow this weekend, so he’ll have to be careful again.

The Greek international should start alongside Laurent Koscielny, who only missed the Newcastle match with a minor injury and will likely come back into the eleven.

It’s tough to call the third centre-back, as it really could be either of Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi. Mustafi had a good game defensively against Newcastle but made errors on the ball. Monreal was more solid all around, but perhaps Unai Emery will think twice about playing both of his available left-backs at once before the huge Napoli tie.

We’ll assume Emery won’t take that risk, and he’ll use Mustafi on this occasion.

Midfield and Wing-Backs

In the wing-back positions, there’s no real doubt over who will start. On the left, Sead Kolasinac, on the right, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, as usual.

Stephan Lichtsteiner looks to have completely fallen out of favour with Unai Emery, missing out on the last six matchday squads despite being fit enough to play 90 minutes with Switzerland. Carl Jenkinson is back in contention but limited to only the occasional start. Nacho Monreal seems to be more of an option at centre-back.

In midfield, Aaron Ramsey’s injury scare on Monday appears to have been nothing more than cramp. Meanwhile, Granit Xhaka should be available again after his injury on international duty. As a result, we expect both to start, with Lucas Torreira still suspended.

Forwards

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dropped out of the starting eleven against Newcastle after having a temperature for the prior couple of days. Nonetheless, he came off the bench and had a big impact with an assist and a few good runs, so it was clearly nothing too serious.

As a result, we expect him to return alongside Alexandre Lacazette in the starting eleven. The two were working well together in the previous matches against Manchester United and Rennes, particularly with Mesut Özil behind them. The 30-year-old will complete the forward trio.

Alex Iwobi, Denis Suarez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are having to be patient at the moment. Unfortunately for them, Unai Emery’s current preferred system doesn’t utilise wingers, as he gets width from the wing-backs. As a result, they’ll have to settle for making an impact from the bench again.

Full Predicted Starting XI

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Everton vs Arsenal Betting Tips

Alexandre Lacazette has six goals in his last nine league games, and he scored against Everton in the reverse fixture. Bet on Lacazette to score anytime with BetUK at 11/10.

Arsenal have scored in the second half in each of the last four meetings between the two sides. Bet on Arsenal to score in the second half with BetUK at 10/17.

Everton haven’t kept a clean sheet against Arsenal since 2014. Bet on the Gunners to score over 0.5 goals with BetUK at 4/21.

Prediction: Everton 1-2 Arsenal (27/4 with BetUK).