Arsenal vs Anderlecht Preview, line up and predicted score by KJ
Arsenal have finally hit some decent form now with 3 wins on the bounce including that amazing turn around against Anderlecht in the dying minutes. They come now to the Emirates and it’s a must win game for the Gunners if they’re to usurp Dortmund for the top spot.
Since we’re at home, you’d expect Anderlecht to sit back but they can’t really afford to considering the state of the group. They need to win and that means the game could be fairly open. This will probably benefit us as Galatasaray decided to play an open game at the Emirates and got absolutely destroyed. I expect something similar this time round as well.
With a lot of players back from injury in offence and midfield, we should have a lot more control than we did in Belgium and should be able to cause Anderlecht numerous problems from the off. You expect Arteta and Ramsey to be relentless with their midfield passing, Sanchez will no doubt create something out of nothing with his pressing/trickery and we also will probably see Theo come on if we’re winning comfortably (which we should be).
Line up:
Szczesny
Chambers – Mertesacker – Monreal – Gibbs
Arteta – Ramsey
Oxlade-Chamberlain – Sanchez – Cazorla
Welbeck
I think Wenger is slowly reverting back to the 4-2-3-1 and has finally realised that this team isn’t capable of adapting to the 4-1-4-1 or that it isn’t needed against the smaller teams.
Monreal has been very composed in the centre back position and I don’t expect him to really struggle much against Anderlecht. Swansea away might be a different proposition on the weekend with Bony leading the line.
Chamberlain was slightly better on the weekend but will need to improve significantly if he’s going to retain his position with Walcott’s return to the starting line up on the horizon.
Cazorla is fortunate that there isn’t any real pressure for his position because he’s been sloppy and has lost his end product at the moment. He needs a goal or a good assist to regain his confidence, hopefully he’ll get that against Anderlecht.
This should be a fairly easy game for us, 3 – 0 to Arsenal.