Arsenal will hope to end their disastrous away form when they visit Liberty Stadium to play Swansea City on Saturday. And given the major overhaul the Swans are going through at the moment, Arsenal would look to edge out their opponent by taking advantage of the situation.
Team News
Swansea City- Full-back Neil Taylor is ruled out of the game against Arsenal after fracturing his cheekbone in training. A bad news would be the absence of new signing Luciano Narsingh, who has just joined from PSV Eindhoven. He is suffering from a calf injury at the moment and won’t make his debut against Arsenal.
Other players, the Swans would miss in the big match are Modou Barrow and Jefferson Montero.
Arsenal- A huge boost for Arsenal would be the return of Mesut Ozil in the number 10 role. Although Alex Iwobi took his position quite efficiently, he is expected to shift to the wing now. Theo Walcott is out for the next two to three weeks and Wenger has Chamberlain and Iwobi on that flank.
Mohamed Elneny is at the Africa Cup of Nations and isn’t returning for at least a month. The other injury list includes Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Per Mertesacker and Kieran Gibbs. After being rested during the FA Cup schedule, key players like Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez are expected to be recalled for the visit to Swansea City.
Predicted Line-up
Swansea City (4-1-4-1) – Fabianski; Taylor, Mawson, Fernandez, Naughton; Fer; Sigurdsson, Fulton, Cork, Routledge; Llorente
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) – Cech; Gabriel, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Xhaka, Ramsey; Sanchez, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Giroud
Key Players
Swansea City- Paul Clement will hope Fernando Llorente won’t let the huge speculation surrounding him with a move to Chelsea affect him, and get the first goal in the huge game. Arsenal haven’t had the best away form in the past few matches and Llorente would be the main player who could punish them.
Leroy Fer will have the huge responsibility of stopping Mesut Ozil in the advanced midfield role and a lot will depend on him. He will have an uphill task against the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka in the midfield who would try to squeeze in the ball on every opportunity.
Arsenal- Alexis Sanchez has been the most effective player for Arsenal when they are playing away. Overall, he has been involved in 30 goals for the club in all competitions. Olivier Giroud has been absolutely cracking lately and he is most likely to score for the Gunners.
Odds
Swansea City @ 7.00
Draw @ 4.75
Arsenal @ 1.50
