Here we go again! After another chance of a trophy evaporated on the South Coast on Saturday evening, Arsenal’s focus has now been narrowed to two competitions with the Champions League up next as Arsenal travel to Lisbon for the first leg of the Quarter Final tie.
To say Arsenal could do with a result is the understatement of the century, so hopefully the real Arsenal show up and we can get back on track!
Areas of encouragement
Max Dowman? After the Southampton result I struggle to think of many other things that give me encouragement when I sit down to watch Arsenal at the moment. The return of David Raya!! There, I found one!
Areas of concern
Everything else! If I had to narrow it down, I would say I’m really concerned that Arsenal will turn up and put in a performance similar to what we saw on Saturday – from an attitude perspective. There was so little fight in them. Let’s hope that’s the last performance of that nature that we see for a very long time.
What I’d love to see
Fast, free flowing confident football, with a rediscovered defence solidity. Too much to ask?
What I’d hate to see
Southampton away performance – copy and paste.
Lineup and Team News
Mikel Arteta should have a few more options to choose from with the return to training of Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard and the apparent revival of Gabriel, which is a massive relief. Declan Rice will also certainly come straight back into the starting lineup, as will Gabriel, despite his withdrawal on Saturday. If Gabriel is fit, he generally plays and if he’s fit enough for training, he must start this one.
Welcome back…David Raya!!! After two games of Kepa, I for one am absolutely thrilled to see the inevitable return of our undisputed number one. We’ve missed everything that he offers. His passing, his calm, his ability to claim crosses and of course his shot stopping. Raya is nailed on to start this one.
Ahead of Raya, Jurrien Timber is still not fit to return so Ben White will continue at right back (with hopefully a better performance than the weekend!!) and William Saliba should again be fit to start and should partner Gabriel in the heart of defence. Similar to the right back situation, the lack of Piero Hincapie, dictates that Riccardo Calafiori will start this one ahead of Lewis-Skelly.
Into midfield and Martin Zubimendi, who was only fit enough for the bench at Southampton will take up his place next to another return giant for us in Declan Rice. How we missed these two in the FA Cup. Martin Odegaard is another who returned at the weekend and looked so-so, but with no Eberchi Eze, he must start here. Not sure how many times we’ve seen that midfield together, what you would have said at the start of the season is our strongest midfield, but it can’t have been many!! Let’s see what we’ve been missing…
Viktor Gyokeres will surely start up top against his former team, eager to prove a point and then the interesting decisions come as to who should flank him. Max Dowman was our only bright spot in the Cup and on form should really start here, but we need to give him a breather given his age. It would be too much to ask him to start again so soon after playing what I believe is his first full professional game on Saturday, so the youngster will have to settle for a place on the bench, with Noni Madueke taking his place.
Over to the left hand side, the temptation to the returning play Leandro Trossard will be massive for Arteta, but Gabriel Martinelli’s Champions League record should be just enough to see him start over the Belgian.
Kai Havertz isn’t long back from injury so I see him appearing from the bench in the second half rather than starting, as we seek to bring back his best form to the team when we really need it most.
Predicted lineup:
Raya
White
Saliba
Gabriel
Calafiori
Zubimendi
Rice
Odegaard (c)
Madueke
Gyokeres
Martinelli
Substitutes:
Arrizabalaga
Setford
Lewis-Skelly
Salmon
Mosquera
Norgaard
Trossard
Dowman
Havertz
Jesus
Harriman-Annous
PREDICTION
Let’s be positive and say we nick it – 1-0 to The Arsenal.