Swansea vs Arsenal Preview, Predicted line up and score by KJ
After the midweek capitulation, this game against Swansea has become that much tougher. They will have studied the result thoroughly and will look to get at our players mentally in the hope that they are fragile from the result against Anderlecht.
Wenger will most likely play it cautiously against Swansea but we need a win if we’re going to maintain any sort of momentum in our top 4 challenge. A loss would be quite damning after finally getting those two Premier League wins in a row.
With Arteta out, Flamini will start which immediately causes issues. We need to assert control over the game against Swansea and unfortunately, Flamini provides the opposite for us. This means the likes of Ramsey and Wilshere will need to step up massively to compensate and will need to be far more intelligent with their play (especially the Welshman).
Line up:
Szczesny
Chambers – Mertesacker – Monreal – Gibbs
Flamini
Alexis – Ramsey – Wilshere – Chamberlain
Welbeck
The defence will be the same as usual but Monreal will have a massive test on his hands against Wilfred Bony. He will be physically abused for the majority of the game but will need to keep calm and try and work around that.
Like I said, Ramsey and Wilshere will need to use their brains when in possession and to not lose it needlessly when we are in the transition.
Alexis is in phenomenal form at the moment and the team looks to him for that spark of brilliance. It’s unfortunate that we’ve almost reverted to a one man team but the Chilean will need a big game like always in order for us to win this.
Chamberlain had a strong game against Anderlecht and deserves to be rewarded with another start. Hopefully with Theo hot on his heels, he’ll start pushing on.
Finally, Welbeck will need to step up as he’s dropped off for about a month now.
This is going to be a very difficult game but I hope the players manage to regroup mentally as we can’t afford to drop points now. I believe Wenger will tell them what is needed and we’ll win 2 – 1 on the day.