Arsenal, despite being labelled as the ‘underdogs’ in the title race, have been in electrifying form since their successive defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea in opening gameweeks. The Gunners have won nine consecutive games in all competition ever since and have a glorious opportunity to stretch it more on Monday night when they host Leicester City at the Emirates.
Unai Emery has taken little time to bring back success in North London since replacing the iconic Arsene Wenger as the new Arsenal boss. The Spaniard is now eyeing their seventh league win in a row defeating the Foxes. The Gunners have never lost a home Premier League tie against Leicester winning the last 11 outings and the Monday night visitors failed to beat Arsenal on the road since September 1973. The facts are pointing towards Emery’s men scripting yet another win, but they have to be alert against the former Champions who, under Claude Puel, might prove to be a headstrong opponent on their day.
Team News
The Gunners have been handed significant injury boost with the return of Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck and Ainsley Maitland-Niles who are back in team training and in contention to feature against the Foxes. Petr Cech and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are healing well from their respective thigh and ankle injuries. However, Laurent Koscielny and Konstantinos Mavropanos, the defensive duo, continue to be sidelined with their groin and calf strains.
Formation
Emery has been experimental in Europe but mostly preferred a 4-2-3-1 in the league and is likely to retain the same this gameweek. There is a flexibility in this setup which allows the Gunners to switch to a 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 or 4-3-3 considering the mood of the game.
Defence
Petr Cech’s injury has seen Bernd Leno grabbing a starting role between the sticks and the summer recruit from Bayer Leverkusen has shown reliability while protecting the Gunners goal.
Hector Bellerin has improved immensely under Emery in terms of resilience and composure at the back. The Spaniard will start as right-back whereas veteran Nacho Monreal is hoping to continue his stupendous form from the left-hand side. Injuries of Koscielny, Mavropanos and Papastathopoulos has left Arsenal with Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding as the only available centre-back options who are set to retain their place in deep defence.
Midfield
The arrival of Lucas Torreira has improved Granit Xhaka’s performance, who failed to impress in previous seasons since completing a high-profile switch from Borussia Monchengladbach. The double pivot is working fine deep down the midfield, and the duo must maintain their stable work rate in the middle of the park to dominate possession.
Mesut Ozil has recovered from a back spasm and is expected to feature in right midfield. Although Aaron Ramsey made an incredible impact off the bench against Fulham en route to a 5-1 triumph at Craven Cottage, the gaffer should prefer Henrikh Mkhitaryan from the start who offers more attacking intent compared to the decorated Welshman. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came off the bench to score twice versus the Cottagers and is likely to start the game from the left flank which would see him shifting to a centre-forward role with time.
Attack
