Arsenal travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City on Sunday, needing a result to keep their top four hopes alive.
Consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace and Wolves should have killed Arsenal’s chances of finishing in the Champions League places already. Thankfully, Chelsea and Manchester United have been just as useless at picking up points, and now the two teams have to play against each other this weekend.
Anything other than a Chelsea win will put top four back in Arsenal’s hands, but only if they win all three of their final Premier League matches.
There’s no need to rotate heavily, as the following Europa League semi-final match against Valencia isn’t until Thursday, at home. The Brighton game next weekend is more likely to involve some changes, whilst Unai Emery should go as strong as he can against Leicester. Let’s have a look at team news and our predicted lineup.
Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs
Despite having a poor game against Wolves, Bernd Leno is still having a strong season in general for Arsenal. With so few matches left to play, we certainly wouldn’t expect Unai Emery to suddenly change his approach and start Petr Cech instead.
Playing four at the back went terribly against Wolves, as Arsenal’s defence seemed more exposed and the attack seemed to have less support from the full backs than they usually do from the wing backs. As a result, Unai Emery should revert to playing three centre-backs.
Nacho Monreal, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are the best available options. Shkodran Mustafi and Konstantinos Mavropanos haven’t been in great form in their last couple of appearances, so risking them in Arsenal’s toughest remaining league fixture feels like a mistake.
Midfield and Wing-Backs
As a result of the predicted formation change, Sead Kolasinac can come back into the team at wing-back. Ainsley Maitland-Niles has to keep his place on the other side, as Carl Jenkinson and Stephan Lichtsteiner simply haven’t shown enough to prove they can handle a game like this.
In the middle, everyone is performing as badly as each other lately. Granit Xhaka was the most effective central midfielder in the last couple of games but he ruined it by gifting Wolves a goal.
Mohamed Elneny provided decent defensive protection but nothing in possession. Lucas Torreira had an off game on Wednesday and Matteo Guendouzi hasn’t been particularly inspiring either. Joe Willock would be worth the risk if this weren’t such a pivotal game.
Torreira will probably be rested for Valencia, given recent injury worries, leaving Guendouzi and Xhaka to start the match.
Forwards
Arsenal haven’t confirmed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be available after his sinus procedure, but they also haven’t ruled him out. You’d think the striker will push to start if he can, for the sake of the team and his own personal ambition of winning the Golden Boot.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi had arguably their worst respective performances of the season against Wolves, offering nothing to Arsenal offensively. Even though Mesut Özil and Alexandre Lacazette weren’t much better, they still did enough that we expect those two to get the nod for this one.
Eddie Nketiah played well in his cameo against Wolves, and arguably he deserves a spot in the lineup. However, Unai Emery hasn’t given the youngster many chances so far this season, and this doesn’t seem like the time to start.
Predicted Starting XI
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Leicester City vs Arsenal Betting Tips
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is fighting for the Golden Boot and has goals in both of his last two league games. Bet on Aubameyang to score anytime with MustardBet at 2.165.
Both teams have scored in each of the last three clashes between the two sides. Bet on both teams to score with MustardBet at 1.540.
There have been at least four goals in each of the last three matches between Arsenal and Leicester City. Bet on over 3.00 goals with MustardBet at 2.079.
Prediction: Leicester City 1-2 Arsenal (9.797 with MustardBet).
All odds correct at time of writing.