Arsenal make the trip to the Wembley Stadium for today’s Premier League clash against north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. The Gunners are currently on a three-match winning league streak, but they can anticipate a tough challenge against Spurs, given they have failed to win against the top six on the road for more than four years.
Formation: 3-4-3
Predicted Lineup:
Bernd Leno has been the Gunners’ first-choice option in goal since the beginning of October. The German is pretty much certain to feature in goal for the north London derby. He will be eyeing the club’s first away clean sheet of the Premier League campaign.
In the central defence, no changes are likely from the previous game against Bournemouth and this should witness Sokratis, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal make up the three-man backline.
Shkodran Mustafi remains a probable choice to replace Monreal in the ranks, but the German could be ignored for the lineup, given he has the tendency to put his side into trouble with the odd mistake every now and then.
At right wing-back, Ainsley Maitland-Niles seems the strong choice ahead of Carl Jenkinson and veteran Stephan Lichtsteiner while Sead Kolasinac should once more feature in the opposite end, where he has recently impressed with a couple of assists.
In the midfield, Granit Xhaka should return to the fray after the rest in midweek and the Swiss should partner Lucas Torreira in the centre of the park, meaning that Matteo Guendouzi should make way from the lineup.
French midfielder Guendouzi had a mixed performance in the recent 5-1 win over Bournemouth and he was responsible for gifting the opposition goal with his slow reaction from Leno’s pass.
In the attack, we are anticipating Henrikh Mkhitaryan to maintain his starting role after impressing in back-to-back matches, where he has notched two goals and three assists.
The Armenian could feature on the right wing with the hard-working Alex Iwobi on the left while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang appears likely to lead the line for the fourth-straight north London derby.
Predicted Lineup: Leno; Sokratis, Koscielny, Monreal; Maitland-Niles, Xhaka, Torreira, Kolasinac; Mkhitaryan; Iwobi; Aubameyang.
