Arsenal are scheduled to face Leicester City on the road in Sunday’s early league kick-off at the King Power Stadium. The Gunners have lost their grasp on the top-four spot with three losses in the past four games, and they are now dependent on other teams in order to cement a Champions League place through the league.
For the weekend, the north London side face another tricky away test against the Foxes, but they can’t afford to slip-up any further. A victory could put the pressure on fourth-placed Chelsea, who are just a point ahead, and face a challenging trip to face Manchester United in the late kick-off on Sunday.
Formation: 3-4-1-2
Predicted Lineup:
Bernd Leno has conceded six goals in the past two meetings but just one of those against Wolves can be blamed on him. Other than that, he has not been helped by the defence, which has been poor from set-pieces. He should expect to feature in goal.
At the back, Unai Emery should resort to a three-man central defence which has worked to good effect in the backend of the season. Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis and Nacho Monreal are very much the frontline choices for the roles.
Similarly, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac should take up the right and left wing-back roles respectively as they have done over the past few months while Granit Xhaka should partner Lucas Torreira at the heart of the midfield.
In the attack, both Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have lacked the final by-produce to their gameplay and this may witness Emery stick with Mesut Ozil in the number 10 role, though the German has struggled on the road this term.
Upfront, we are anticipating the two-striker partnership of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. The former missed the previous game with a minor sinus procedure, but the Gunners can’t risk missing him for the second game on the bounce at a critical stage of the league campaign.
Predicted Lineup: Leno; Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal; Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Torreira, Kolasinac; Ozil; Lacazette, Aubameyang
