Arsenal will look to continue their winning momentum when they host Everton at the Emirates Stadium today. The Gunners have been in excellent form, of late, securing victories in their last four matches in all competitions.
Their latest result was a morale-boosting 4:2 win over Vorskla Poltava and Emery will be keen to keep the sequence going.
Everton, on the other hand, have somewhat stuttered in the last couple of matches, notably slumping to a 3:1 defeat against West Ham United last weekend. Thus, the Toffees will be keen on redeeming themselves with a strong display against the new look north London team.
Team news
Arsenal are currently experiencing a sort of injury crisis with the likes of Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Konstantinos Mavrapanos all sidelined with their respective injuries. In addition, star midfielders in Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira have also been deemed doubtful to feature in this clash along with Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
However, Ramsey is expected to overcome fatigue while Torreira will be assessed after taking a knock in the midweek game against Vorskla.
With a host of defenders out injured, head coach Unai Emery has no option but to retain his four-man backline that started against Newcastle last weekend with Petr Cech starting in goal.
The backline will comprise of Hector Bellerin, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal. Bellerin and Monreal, in particular, have been decent this season with the latter, doing an excellent job shutting out Matt Ritchie in the Premier League fixture against Newcastle last week. He could play a similar role up against his former teammate Theo Walcott in a few hours time.
Sokratis and Mustafi will line up in central defence. But, Emery will be hoping that at least one of them can step up and lead the side from the back, something which has been missing in the absence of Koscielny.
Lucas Torreira is unlikely to be risked this weekend, meaning Emery could opt for Matteo Guendouzi in midfield alongside Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey at the base of Arsenal’s 4-3-3. Guendouzi has averaged the most number of tackles and interceptions amongst Arsenal player this season and it will be interesting to see how fares against an intensive Everton press.
The Arsenal attack will be led by Alexandre Lacazette with Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being deployed on the wings. Ozil, in particular, will look to improve on his 1.5 key passes per game statistic by the end of the week.
Stat courtesy: Whoscored
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