As we prepare to kick off the busy festive period, let’s take a look at our Arsenal predicted lineup to face Norwich City on Boxing Day.
Arsenal have put together a run of wins since this month’s defeat to Everton, beating Southampton, West Ham, and Leeds United in the league before thrashing Sunderland to reach the semi-finals of the League Cup.
Things are really going to get busy now, with three Premier League games in less than a week leading into the two-legged League Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup trip to Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal’s next midweek off will be in mid-to-late January, and they’ll face this period with a diminished squad due to AFCON and the growing threat of Covid infections.
For now, however, most of Arsenal’s players are set to be available as Mikel Arteta’s side prepare to take on Norwich City this weekend.
We’re expecting Arteta to go as strong as possible, especially when you never know which games are going to be postponed. You may as well pick up the points while you have the chance and worry about the next game afterward.
Here’s our Arsenal predicted lineup for the clash.
Goalkeeper
Bernd Leno made his post-injury return to the side against Sunderland, but Aaron Ramsdale remains the clear first-choice option in goal.
Even though Leno didn’t do anything particularly wrong in the Sunderland match, you could see the difference in and out of possession when Ramsdale isn’t in the team.
Defence
Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White both featured for at least part of the Sunderland match, but neither completed the full match, so they should both be available to start this one.
Neither Kieran Tierney nor Takehiro Tomiyasu played any minutes on Tuesday, but there is the slight injury doubt around Tomiyasu after his early substitution in his last Premier League game.
At the time, Tomiyasu’s injury didn’t seem to be anything too serious, and we haven’t heard anything further about it, so we’ll assume he’s fit to start. If he isn’t, it will be Cedric Soares, given Calum Chambers’ Covid-19 absence.
Midfield
This will likely be the last chance for Thomas Partey to feature ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, so he should definitely start alongside Granit Xhaka. Martin Odegaard came off early against Sunderland, so he should be ready to complete the midfield.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been ill lately, and Albert Sambi Lokonga has had Covid-19, so neither of them have been available, and Mohamed Elneny played 90 minutes against Sunderland.
Arsenal don’t really have too many alternative options in midfield right now. They’ll have even fewer when Elneny and Partey head off.
Forwards
The front three pretty much picks itself at the moment, with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli nailed on for starts, and Alexandre Lacazette extremely likely to join them in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s probable absence.
Emile Smith Rowe is seemingly ready to start matches again after his injury, it’s just hard for him to displace a couple of Arsenal’s Player of the Month candidates in Martinelli and Odegaard.
Eddie Nketiah’s hat-trick may have him in contention for plenty more minutes in January when Aubameyang is at AFCON, but perhaps not immediately, given he’s just played 90 minutes.