Arsenal will make the short trip across London for their Premier League clash with Chelsea, and should have most of their squad available for the clash.
In Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference, he admitted that David Luiz was the only confirmed absentee for the clash, with him needing to be assessed over the coming weeks to see if he could return before the end of the campaign.
The Spaniard added that while the remainder of his squad is ‘in contention’ others also needed to be assessed before a decision was made on their selection.
“We have to see today, there were some issues over the weekend again,” Arteta said (via Arsenal.com). “We are playing every three days and there is no time to train yet, today is the first day so we will have to wait and see. Yes [there were] some injuries, yes.
“Well the situation with David [Luiz] is that he is not yet recovered, we will see how he does in the next few weeks. The rest are still in contention but we will have to see today how they come.”
Emile Smith Rowe appears to be one of those who will need monitoring, having limped off against West Brom at the weekend with a twinge in his hamstring.
Granit Xhaka pulled up in the warm-up to our Europa League draw with Villarreal last Thursday also, and could well make his return to action, as could Pablo Mari, who was ruled out at the weekend.
Predicted XI:
Leno
Chambers Holding Gabriel Tierney
Partey Ceballos
Saka Odegaard Aubameyang
Lacazette
With question marks over Mari, Xhaka and ESR, most of the team can be chosen without too much doubt.
Nicolas Pepe and Willian could of course be in contention again, and Bukayo Saka could drop in at left-back also depending on Tierney’s fitness also.
Naming Chelsea’s XI could be almost as difficult, especially in their attacking areas, but the above XI should at least get us on the scoresheet, and the team has shown it can raise the level against the tougher opposition.
Would the above team give you confidence of some sort of result in West London?
Patrick