Arsenal will make a long journey to Wales to take on Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday following their hard-fought 3-1 win over West Ham United in the London derby last weekend. The Gunners have had a mediocre start to their league campaign after being beaten by Manchester City and Chelsea before their victory in the previous gameweek.
Unai Emery needs to get a run of favourable results in the coming weeks to keep pace with the Premier League’s big boys in the league standings. However, they will come across a Bluebirds side desperate for their first victory of the season.
The Gunners could opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation, but Mesut Ozil might be excluded from the match-day squad once again after failing to contribute during the first two league matches of this campaign.
4-2-3-1 Arsenal Predicted Lineup To Face Cardiff City
Defence
Despite all the negative criticism surrounding his distribution skills, Petr Cech will retain his place in Unai Emery’s first-team while Bernd Leno has to settle for a spot on the bench. The Gunners defence would be comprised of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi resuming their duties as the centre-backs. Nacho Monreal will take up the left-back responsibilities after scoring against West Ham United last weekend. Hector Bellerin would also keep his place on the right side of the backline following his impressive display during his last league outing.
The North London giants have shipped in 6 goals in 3 league matches and have been unable to keep a clean sheet so far this season. Hence, Emery’s players need to improve on that record if they are serious about challenging for a top 4 spot this term.
Midfield
Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi would make up the Gunners midfield and will be responsible for shielding their defence while also providing support to the front players. The trio of Alex Iwobi, Aaron Ramsey and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will operate behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang while looking to create some opportunities in and around the Bluebirds penalty area.
Attack
Aubameyang is expected to lead the lines for the Gunners this weekend. However, he has failed to find the back of the net so far which is why Alexandre Lacazette could slowly push him out of the first-team if he does not start scoring soon.
Even Danny Welbeck scored a goal after coming off the bench to replace the Gabon international in the previous gameweek, so the competition is heating up for a place up top in Emery’s starting XI!
