Our top four chances didn’t take too much of a blow when we drew 1-1 away to United on Monday night, but it still felt like a missed opportunity given their current form. We hadn’t won away to United in the league in 13 years before Monday night and it could be another 13 years before we get as good a chance again. At least we managed to come back and take a point though and that point was enough to keep us fourth in the league.
I expect plenty of changes from that team tonight as Unai Emery looks to rest some players ahead of the Bournemouth game on Sunday and also give a chance to some fringe players and youngsters. He can’t go too far though as we need to make sure we have a strong enough team to take the three points.
Emiliano Martinez should play in goal with a central defensive partnership of Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi in front of him and probably Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin as the two full backs if they’re up to it. For me Holding, Tierney and Bellerin are the future of our defence and I’m looking forward to seeing them all slowly play their way back in after their injuries. Mustafi has had his fair share of problems, but he did very well against Frankfurt and Forest and hopefully he can do so again tonight.
In midfield we should see the players who didn’t start against United get a run out which should mean Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos play with Mesut Ozil surely accompanying them. I’m not sure if Ceballos and Ozil can be accommodated in the same team which could mean one of them will start on the bench with the possibility of Ainsley Maitland-Niles even getting a game in his preferred midfield role or who knows Callum Chambers could play there too as it’s not an unfamiliar position to him.
In attack Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has to be rested as he is so important to us which has to mean Gabriel Martinelli plays centrally as he did so well in the Carabao Cup against Forest last week. I would imagine he will be flanked by Reiss Nelson and probably Nicolas Pepe despite the fact that Pepe played on Monday night. His confidence is a little low at the moment, but maybe successive home games against Liege and Bournemouth might just be the tonic he needs.
As I’ve said far too often already this season we’re not playing well, but our best two results came in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup when our team was pretty similar to what it will be tonight. We might have been a little lucky to win 3-0 away to Frankfurt, but the 5-0 win at home to Forest was an excellent display all around even if they are a Championship team. More of the same tonight would do very nicely and put us in a strong position in our group just ahead of the next dreaded international break.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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