Arsenal are off to a stunning start this year in the Europa League, after their fantastic 3-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt as 3-0 winners, thanks to goals from Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. And now, the Premier League is back on again for the Gunners this weekend, following their successful trip to Germany.
However, the match in Germany did not go without its complications afterwards. After Martin Keown, former Arsenal legend and pundit, made some bizarre comments regarding Nicholas Pepe, many fans rose to Pepe’s defence, including another Arsenal Legend Robert Pires.
Keown insensitively compared Pepe to new wonderkid signing, Bukayo Saka, and claimed: “You think of the way Pepe is playing at the moment and they paid £72million for him, and this kid looks better than him tonight”.
Many fans found this to be very rude and claimed there was no need for the comparison. Robert Pires believes fans and pundits alike must have the patience for Pepe. He stated: “With Lille, he was fantastic. Last season he was one of the best players, he scored 21 or 22 goals…He’s a great player…Now he’s playing for Arsenal in the Premier League and he needs to adapt.
“It’s so difficult, very tough”.
So, after all this speculation, will Nicholas Pepe be in the line-up for the upcoming match on Sunday or will the wonderkid get another chance? Manager Unai Emery has his work cut out improving his side defensively and Aston Villa will be willing to test them just as they did north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
An exclusive interview with an ex-Arsenal footballer, Nigel Winterburn, revealed that “Emery has changed the shape (of the team), but there’s got to be big improvements and the team and manager will know that. There’s clearly still some worrying signs that the defence isn’t strong enough”.
So, no doubt, Emery is expected to ring in some changes ahead of the clash against Aston Villa. The Spaniard made about eight changes to his squad for the Gunners opening Europa League group stage fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt which they won 3-0.
Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka, Shkodran Mustafi, Emiliano Martinez, Lucas Torreira, Callum Chambers and Emile Smith Rowe were all drafted into the starting XI for the trip to Germany’s banking capital, while Mesut Ozil was left out of the matchday squad.
However, it is not likely that these players will retain their places in the match on Sunday. The predicted line-up is: (4–3-3): Leno; Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, David Luiz, Kolasinac; Xhaka, Ceballos, Guendouzi, Ozil; Aubameyang, Pepe.
In terms of setbacks, Arsenal’s star striker, Alexandre Lacazette, has been diagnosed with a major ankle injury, and the club has confirmed that the striker will be out of action until at least October. Lacazette has already missed two Arsenal games, and is expected to miss a further three, including the trip to Old Trafford in just over a week.
