Arsenal will look to continue their winning run after they got back their away form last week against a struggling Swansea City side. After yet another first-half hiccup, the Gunners came back strong to beat the Swans by four goals to close the gap on Liverpool.
Arsenal have a real chance to go Spurs as they’ll face Man City this weekend. Arsenal would like to close the gap on league leaders, Chelsea, before they visit Stamford Bridge early next month but that’s out of their hands at the moment. All they can do is win and hope the Blues drop points.
The Gunners next host Burnley, a side whose away form has been pathetic this season, with the Clarets collecting only 1 point from their last nine games. And Arsenal are the favourites to see off their opponents, given their record against the Clarets.
Arsenal have won six of their last seven meetings with Burnley in all competitions since a 2-0 loss in League Cup in 2008. As far as Burney’s away record at Arsenal is concerned, it is not a very encouraging one either. They have lost their last five visits to Arsenal in all competitions, last winning way back in 1974.
However, the Clarets have been a surprise package this season, who have amazed everyone with their impressive displays at times. They have 13 different goal scorers this season, which is a joint-high with Manchester City.
Defence
Arsenal got a huge boost after Arsene Wenger revealed that they have both Hector Bellerin and Kieran Gibbs back in the squad after missing the last few matches with injuries. Wenger had to play centre-half Gabriel Paulista in the right-back in Bellerin’s absence and although he was quite assuring, Arsenal lacked Bellerin’s pace as an attacking option.
The Spanish international is expected to take his place on the right flank replacing Gabriel. The centre-halves will be Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi- one of the most successful duos in the Premier League this season. Arsenal haven’t lost a game whenever Mustafi has started. Nacho Monreal has again won back Wenger’s confidence and is expected to start ahead of Gibbs.
Midfield
With an eye on the FA Cup fixture next week, Wenger is expected to bring on Coquelin in the second half sticking with the partnership of Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka. Xhaka and Ramsey have shown glimpses of class at times.
Mesut Ozil is expected to start in the number 10 role yet again. He returned to the first team after fever kept him out for two weeks and has looked quite exhilarating since then.
Attack
Alexis Sanchez is expected to start on the right flank. He hasn’t been involved in the game much from that position and has looked visually frustrated for that. But with Olivier Giroud in such an iron-hot form, Wenger wouldn’t want to make a change now. The left flank should be taken by Alex Iwobi. The Nigerian youngster has been phenomenal in recent weeks and has gone up the pecking order, ahead of Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Cech
Bellerin – Mustafi – Koscielny – Gibbs
Xhaka – Ramsey
Sanchez– Ozil – Iwobi
Giroud
