Arsenal welcome Everton to the Emirates on Saturday in a Premier League game, three days after a clinical 2-0 win over Bayern Munich, which earned their first three points in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
While the Gunners come into this fixture on the back of convincing victories against Watford and Bayern Munich, the Toffees lost their previous league game at home to Manchester United. Their irresistible form makes the north Londoners favourites to win – and three points will take them to the top of the table. A favourable result in the Manchester derby could mean Arsenal finish the weekend staying at the number one spot.
While the Gunners are expected to field their best side, they will have to make changes as Aaron Ramsey is expected to be unavailable for over four weeks after a hamstring injury suffered in the Champions League win over Bayern. Arsene Wenger’s comments revealed a mixture of regret and frustration over the loss of the influential Welshman.
Maybe he was overloaded a little bit (with games). Ideally I think not him or Bale should have played against Andorra, because they were qualified. But unfortunately I could not decide that. I was in a position after that where I thought I could rest him against Watford. In the end I didn’t do it and of course after, against Bayern, I had not much choice and we got punished. Realistically, the real breather he could have had was against Andorra.
Another player who has been playing non-stop is Alexis Sanchez – with four games under his belt in under 12 days despite sustaining a minor groin injury in the last game before the international break. The Chilean ended an early season goal drought with a hat-trick against Leicester City and continued to score and assist for club and country over the past month.
He came off in the 82nd minute against Bayern and Wenger admitted that the Chilean tired himself out.
Alexis, you could see he was a bit jaded physically tonight and he still pushes himself so much but he finished exhausted. Two games with Chile, plus travelling, plus Watford, plus tonight, it is too much.
With this in mind, it would make sense to rest the hyperactive Chilean than to hand him yet another start in a physical match up against the likes of Ross Barkley, Gareth Barry & co – while adding some steel of their own in the form of Mathieu Flamini.
If the Gunners seem to be in trouble – Wenger could always summon Alexis from the bench.
The manager’s words over the handling of Ramsey do seem that an unexpected – yet welcome change might just take place on Saturday evening.
