Arsenal’s Trip To Manchester United Previewed

The season has started reasonably well for Arsenal in terms of results even if the performances have been mostly far from convincing. They cruised to a 5-0 win at home to Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night despite Unai Emery making 11 changes from the team that just about took the three points against Villa a couple of days earlier. It means we’ve had almost a week to prepare for this game after playing in the previous three games in the space of six days.

Other results over the weekend mean we will have to beat United tonight to keep our place in the top four and we will have to win by seven goals to overtake third placed Leicester. While seven goals might be a bit of a stretch our aim tonight has to be to take the three points. It’s not going to be easy when you look at our away form which has continued on from the second half of last season into this season. The manager has a few choices to make ahead of the game in both his personnel and the team formation. 

First up he has to decide if Kieran Tierney is up to keeping his place from Tuesday night which was his first game for us having joined us injured. Tierney is going to move ahead of Sead Kolasinac in the pecking order very soon, but I’m not certain it’s going to be in this game. Much could depend on the formation and our away games to date suggest we will play a back four which surely would point to Tierney, but I still think Kolasinac will get the nod for the moment.

He has a choice to make on the other side too with Ainsley Maitland-Niles back from suspension, but Calum Chambers gave himself every chance with his performances after Maitland-Niles was sent off against Villa and again against Forest. He played well in both games and he did enough to give the manager food for thought. Of course the position will belong to Hector Bellerin who also made his comeback in that game against Forest, but only from the bench and I imagine he will be eased back into the team.

We have been treated to a central defensive partnership of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and David Luiz in our last five league games and it’s one which really isn’t working. We have conceded 10 goals in those five games and Sokratis and Luiz look uncomfortable beside each other to say the least. Rob Holding also returned from injury on Tuesday night and it’s hard not to believe he’s the future of the centre of our defence.

Unfortunately I think we’ll see Sokratis and Luiz again tonight when either Holding or Chambers might be a better option with one of them. The return of those three players on Tuesday night certainly gives us plenty of options in defence and hopefully they will help us to improve our defending. To do that we need to get the midfield right too and cut out the individual errors which are so costly to us game after game.

As good as Matteo Guendouzi has been at driving us forward to get back into games in recent games he has also been part of the problem. His tendency to dwell on the ball and get caught in possession has cost us dearly at times and he still has a lot to learn about the defensive side of his game. Having said that I still want to see him in the side because he has the ability and desire we need to help us to move forward.  

I have no doubt Granit Xhaka will be in the team too seeming as he is now our captain and I can see the qualities he adds to the team, but his errors and lapses have caused us so much heartache and he’s at the stage in his career where he should know better. Like any other player in an Arsenal shirt he deserves our support, but it won’t stop me worrying about his ability to throw the game away all on his own. I suspect the third midfielder will be Dani Ceballos which would make sense, but it leaves no room for Lucas Torreira or Joe Willock in the team and that’s without even mentioning Mesut Ozil.

I hope it’s a midfield trio we go with and we play a wide man either side of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to give as many problems as possible to a very average United side. It’s been far too long since we won at Old Trafford in the league and tonight we have a real chance of doing so if we can get things right. Besides the struggles United are going through at the moment they also have some injury worries and very little in reserve to replace anyone who misses out.

Of course our away form hasn’t exactly been something to write home about and the 2-2 draw at Watford a couple of weeks ago was one of our worst displays in a very long time. If we play like that against United we will lose and we could lose heavily, but with the right approach they are there for the taking. A win for us would leave them in a lot of trouble already in the fight for a top four finish, but it would leave us right on schedule. Having said that I’d still gladly take a draw when you consider how bad we have been away from home and our chances of actually changing that. 

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.