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.
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).