Arsenal travel to Wales to take on Swansea in tonight’s Premier League match, where all eyes will be on Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The Armenian international is set to make his Gunners debut for his new side following his switch from Manchester United, and he will be keen not to be on the end of a shock defeat to bottom of the league Swansea.
The Welsh side have enjoyed an upturn in form since changing manager, and are currently unbeaten in their last five outings in all competitions, and even pulled off a deserved 1-0 victory over Liverpool only last week.
Arsenal on the other hand have won their last two matches, but were previously on a run of five games without a win, but are believed to be full of confidence after their win over Premier League champions Chelsea in the League Cup, which booked themselves a spot in the Carabao Cup final.
The home side will be without the on-loan midfielder Renato Sanches for the match-up, although he has hardly set the Premier League alight since arriving from Bayern Munich, while our team will be boosted by the return of Olivier Giroud.
Predicted XI:
Cech
Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Bellerin Xhaka Wilshere Maitland-Niles
Mkhitaryan Ozil
Lacazette
This team should have more than enough ability to put our rivals to the sword, but we will have to be careful not to make the same mistakes that Liverpool did and play too aggressively in attack, and should plan to play much more meticulously as we seek out the three points.
I’m predicting a 3-1 win for our boys today, with Lacazette getting on the scoresheet, and I would love for Mkhi to get a confidence-boosting goal on his debut also.
What are your predictions for the potential banana skin? Do we need to respect the Swans or should we just go for it?
Pat J
Kolasinac for Maitland Niles
Is Kolasinac injured? So excited to see Mkhitaryan’s debut, if he plays, because he looks very skillful and able to get past the defenders easily like Sanchez.
I agree with the top 2
The first thing i thought off is why Adelaide over Kolsanic
Is he injured?
Kolasinac must play! Why is he on the bench everyday he is on 150k per week! Play him!
Also, even though he scored Im not a Xhaka fan. I’d prefer Ramsey over him.
Other than that, im fine with the proposed lineup.
Really looking forward to watching Mktharyan. We have so little to be excited about these days Mktharyan and Aubameyang would give a lift to us gooners innit
Rather Xhaka who at least stays behind sometimes than Ramsey who competes with Ozil as who gets in the opponent box first.. Ramsey will always be attacking leaving the defenders naked
Ramsey is an attacking midfielder and should not be attacked for it. If you watch Arsenal carefully this season, you would notice that beside defence, one of our major problems is that our midfielders don’t make enough runs into the box leaving Lacazette isolated and marked out. Ramsey make very good runs into the box and should be praised for that. Xhaka may not be a defensive midfielder but is naturally more suited to a deeper midfield role than Ramsey.
Nah, we need some kind of cover for our defence, Xhaka knows when to go forward and when to stay back, Ramsey will forget his position and go forward to do fancy flicks and turns..
Back 4 not 3.
Kalasinac has been disappointing in recent performances. I find him really frustrating when he bombs down the left, gets to the byline then passes it backwards. I’m forever screaming for him to cross the ball or cut it back across goal. Anyway, 4231 for me please.
Yeah with
Cech
Bellerin……mustafi……koscielny……monreal
Elneny
Wilshere. Xhaka/ramsey
Ozil. Mkhitaryan
Lacazette
Yes 4 at the back
For 3 at the back you need 3 solid very good cbs
5 defenders (3 cb, 1 lwb, 1 rwb) and goals are still whizzing past
Id prefer we go back to 4 at the back
ie
Bellerin..Koscielny…Musf…Kolsnc/Monrl
And get that top defensive midfielder we have been begging for, for over a decade
If we get Luiz, he could play DM
why are we going back to this 3men defense? its not working.
We are not, he hasn’t played a back 3 recently.
almost declaration time!!!
counting down
………..33
24….20….6….18
………..35
….10………29
11……………..7
……….9