So, the Arsenal could make sure that they end up at the top of their Europa League group if they either win or draw in Thursday’s match in Einghoven. The Gunners hardly had an easy win at the Emirates last week and we must assume it will be just as tough, or even tougher, when PSV play in front of their fanatical home fans.
If you look at PSV’s home form in the Eredivisie, you would find them practically invincible at the Philips Stadion, having won their last 11 games stretching back to February. In that run they have scored 42 goals which is slightly under 4 goals a game on average, which has helped them to second place in the League, just 4 points behind leaders Ajax.
In Europe they are not so consistent though. They started this season in the Champions League, and after just getting past Monaco on penalties, they were famously consigned to the Europa League with a home defeat to Glasgow Rangers.
They started the Group games with a tame 1-1 draw at home to Bodo Glimt, and then scored 5 goals in each of their games against FC Zurich, before losing at the Emirates last week.
The fact is that we could lose this week and still only need to beat Zurich to qualify as table toppers, whereas PSV are unlikely to have an easy last game up in the north of Norway on Bodo’s famous artificial pitch.
So, on European form, Arsenal should not have many problems in Eindhoven, even with our reserves, so I agree that Arteta should rest every top player for this game, but knowing how much Arteta hates losing, he will probably still have a few first teamers in his starting XI…
——————————————–
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Mikel Arteta says “We should have played better” at Southampton!…
Please enjoy, watch and subscribe to JustArsenalVids
It will be interesting to see which XI is played in Holland.
Form isn’t a great guide in these things, since the Dutch league has a couple of decent teams and the rest are not wonderful.
Arteta may be interested in winning the group right here and now, but suppose he puts out a strong XI and loses? Now he has to play a strong XI vs Zurich – not a great position to be in, so perhaps this is one for the squad players with all the “main” players getting a rest.
The other factor is what he sees in the last two PL games. If he sees it as players tiring then I suspect we will see a full rotation. If he sees it as something else, then probably not.
I’ll be surprised if the likes of Partey, Jesus, Odegaard, Saliba, White, Martinelli and Saka even travel to Holland but…
One thing I do know about football… is that I don’t know very much about football. When it comes to decisions on what went wrong in the previous 2 games, the manager is better placed than any fans to decide these things.
The line-up will make for interesting reading.
Saka is the one who really needs the night off. I also think Martinelli looked fresher for not starting last week.