Unai Emery has made the decision to drop both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil to the bench today.
Alexandre Lacazette will be tasked as the main man to provide the goals for the visit of the Saints, with Iwobi, Mkhitaryan and Ramsey added to the mix to give us some serious impetus in behind him.
Both Ozil and PEA completed the full 90 minutes on Thursday night, somewhat unnecessarily as we coasted to complete the reversal in the Europa League versus Bate, and if we failed to score enough goals today some blame could fall on the head of the manager.
Aubameyang is our current top goalscorer, and while we should have enough firepower to cope without his inclusion today, it would of course be much more reassuring to see his name in the starting line-up.
Aaron Ramsey gets the nod to start only his second Premier League match since agreeing to leave on a free transfer to Juventus come the end of the season, and it will be interesting to see how concentrated he is on his task knowing his time with the club now has a timer on it.
Today’s opponents arrive with only two wins since Christmas, and without star man Danny Ings lining up in attack due to injury, but we will have to be careful not to underestimate them seeing as they have already beaten us in the league already this term.
How much respect do we need to show the Saints? Is Emery’s line-up rotated because he is taking the today’s opponents for granted?
Pat J