Before the current Premier League season kicked off there was a lot of debate and disagreement about which clubs might be set to win it and most expected it be quite different from Leicester City’s surprise victory last season. Quite a few people thought Arsenal had blown our best chance and would find things much harder this time around with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United, Pep Guardiola at Man City, Antonio Conte joining Chelsea and both Klopp and Pochettino being more settled at Liverpool and Tottenham.
So far, though, no club has taken the league by storm and even though Arsenal slipped up at the weekend by failing to beat Middlesborough, we still find ourselves on the same points as top club Man City. In fact there is just a single point separating the top five teams so it really is shaping up to be an extremely tight race for the title.
As such, any little advantage could be crucial so the Gunners will surely be pleased to be playing our next EPL game before all of our rivals, and despite playing away we should still expect to beat the bottom club Sunderland who are yet to win and have just two points from their nine games.
So as well as needing to win to get back on track, Arsenal can put pressure on our rivals by beating the Black Cats in Saturday’s early kick-off. Assuming we do win, do you think any of the other clubs at the top will slip up?
Bob.
I hope Giroud is back for it, that might not be the ideal game on paper for Giroud but it is always better to have more options. I think Perez should have got a start in one of our last two games, Arsene needs to make changes quicker when we look out of ideas in attack. We are still joint top so it could have been worse. Liv are a worry though, when we play in Europe and then find things difficult at the weekend, a bit like with Midd, these are the moments Liv could be rubbing their hands together. We’ve had a nice run of fixtures so we need to get straight back on track against Sun. I expect to see a much improved performance.
Play 4-4-2 vs Reading with Giroud and Perez up top.
At the weekend since we were sending in longballs at the end we should have had a midfielder drop deep and have Koscielny go into the box looking for the solitary goal.
He has the best heading ability in the team that started at the weekend.
Also to add, we will run into the same kind of problems vs Sunderland away this weekend.
………………Martinez
Jenkinson..Holding..Gabs..Gibbs
…………Coquelin….Eleney
……Ox……..Zelalem…….Perez
……………….Giroud
If Jenkinson not fit, then Willock for him. If Bielik is fit, then Bielik next to El Neny.
Martinez
Jenkinson (willock), Holding, GP5, Gibbs
Bielik, El Neny
Ox Jeff Lucas
Giroud
I fear we underrate Reading too much.
Ospina : Jenkinson,Holding,Gabriel,Gibbs : Elneny-Coq : Ox-Adelaide- Iwobi : Perez