Arsenal will host West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Sunday after being knocked-out of the Europe League in midweek.
The North London side lost 2-1 on aggregate to Villarreal after producing some disappointing performances over the two legs. With this defeat, the Emirates club are unlikely to play any European football next season.
As for the team news, Granit Xhaka missed out on the midweek game after complaining about a tight muscle in warm-up but the midfielder might feature as the issue is not thought to be serious.
David Luiz is likely to miss the game following the hamstring injury that he suffered last weekend against Newcastle United. Kieran Tierney and Alexandre Lacazette are back in contention to start the game after their involvement in midweek.
The Baggies will be without midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles who is ineligible to play against his parent club. The visitors don’t have any fresh injury concerns, but the trio of Ivanovic, Snodgrass and Gibbs will remain on the sidelines.
Mikel Arteta will be looking to make a few changes following a lackluster display against the Yellow Submarines. Lacazette could be back into the starting eleven after his brief involvement in the previous game.
The North Londoners are without a win in their last six home games and Arteta will be hoping his side will put an end to this poor run of form against Sam Allardyce’s men who are fighting relegation.
The Emirates club blew their only chance of qualifying for the Champions League and they will now be hoping to at least get into Europa League. However, albeit a miracle that also looks out of reach.
They currently sit in ninth place and are five points behind seventh-placed Liverpool who have an extra game in hand. Even if Arsenal win all the remaining games, their chances still look pretty bleak.
Irrespective of the overall permutations and combinations regarding qualification, they will have to first bounce back against the Baggies which doesn’t look too easy considering the form they are in.
