Arsenal travel to Wales for their 11th Premier League match of the season, as they take on Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium this Saturday.
It’s all been largely positive for Arsène Wenger’s men, especially on the league front. Arsenal sit level on points with league leaders Manchester City, missing out on pole position only through goal difference. They’ve won their last four Premier League games, scoring 13 times in that run. With Manchester City approaching a tough run of fixtures, this is the chance for the north Londoners to go into the new year top of the table.
The Gunners didn’t produce a good showing at all last Tuesday, though. The second-string side fielded by Wenger was dominated by the ambitious Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup. The Owls managed to score three times in what was the worst defeat for Arsenal since the 3-0 drubbing away at Goodison Park back in the 2013/14 season. The first XI shouldn’t be too fazed by this result as Tuesday’s tie involved mostly players who were out of favour – raising questions to the quality of these reserves. Nevertheless, this means there is less fixture congestion for Arsenal as they try to compete on the league front – so the game appears meaningless anyway. A blip in the system altogether and one the Gunners will be looking to forget about at the weekend.
Their last match was a particularly nervy one, but one that’s got them back onto winning ways. A late, 87th-minute winner from star signing Andre Ayew at Villa Park ended a six-game run in which Garry Monk’s men hadn’t won a game. They showed great resilience and fight to claw back from 1-0 down, an asset that should be key against an Arsenal side with such attacking potential.
A player the away side will want to watch out for is Jefferson Montero. He hasn’t lit up the league this season, but still possesses a great ability when one vs. one with a defender. With Arsenal’s right flank looking to be weaker for this occasion, this is the chance for Garry Monk to exploit the defence through his Ecuadorian speedster.
A player Swansea will want to watch out for is Alexis Sanchez. This match will likely be won on the wings, and there is no better man to call upon than Alexis. The Chilean scored the last time the two teams faced off at the Liberty, and he’ll be looking to offer that very same difference-making threat via his goals.
Swansea have always been a bogey team to Arsenal. Their refusal to sit deep and rather play sharp, attacking football has fooled the Gunners on a number of occasions, and as a result Arsene Wenger and co. need to be wary. The north London side haven’t won against the Swans since September of 2013, and the most recent match-up resulted in a 1-0 win for Swansea at the Emirates, in what was a very tight match separated by that single goal. It’ll be a similarly close match on Saturday as well.
Team News:
Arsenal are facing an injury crisis of sorts, in the sense that whilst Wenger’s first choice XI is largely unharmed, the substitutes and reserves have been badly affected. Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky are out until 2016 at the minimum, and Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey and David Ospina are out injured for at least another three to four weeks. New arrivals in the treatment room include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, who both walked off injured last Tuesday at Hillsborough with strains – Wenger confirmed after that the English pair won’t be back until after the international break.
This leaves the right flank quite thin, with options in that position like Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all out injured. The suggested options for tomorrow include a) playing Joel Campbell on the right, b) Playing Mesut Ozil on the right in a 4-3-3, with Mathieu Flamini coming into midfield, or the most bizarre, c) playing Bellerin – who used to be a winger – as the furthest forward on the right side, with Mathieu Debuchy as right-back. It appears the first option will be the most likely to happen.
Predicted XIs:
Swansea (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Naughton, Williams, Fernandez, Taylor; Cork, Shelvey; Ayew, Sigurdsson, Montero; Gomis.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal; Cazorla, Coquelin; Campbell, Ozil, Alexis; Giroud.
Prediction:
A 2-1 win to the Gunners. Swansea will open the scoring through a classic Gylfi Sigurdsson free-kick in the first half, but the Gunners will respond in the second 45 minutes through Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud to continue their title campaign whilst keeping up the pace with Manchester City.
