Arsenal host Premier League strugglers Watford tonight at the Emirates, in an important week of fixtures.
The Gunners will be confident of walking away with all the points, while Premier League leaders travel to Anfield to take on fourth-placed Liverpool. We simply cannot afford to not win today to take advantage of the points dropped by one or more of their rivals. The win is also all the more important as we look to go into the weekend’s trip to Chelsea ourselves, where we will need to be at the top of our game to come away with a victory.
The Hornets wont be confident of coming away with any points, but will need to be scrapping for some should they draw ever-closer to that relegation zone. They currently have an eight-point cushion over the third and final relegation spot, but their form has them at serious risk of joining the fight for a place in the top division.
Arsenal have won the last seven consecutive league encounters between our two side, with Watford winning the eighth one back in 1988, but will be able to take a little confidence from their cup win over us last season, which I have to say, they deserved.
I don’t get to say this much, but we have almost a full squad of players fit to feature tonight, with only Santi Cazorla sidelined through injury, while Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny are out due to suspension and international duty.
We also have a tough battle for places for our attacking roles, with Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck having nailed their returns to the first-team this weekend, and with Lucas Perez, Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Alex Iwobi and Mesut Ozil all worthy of starting today.
Predicted XI:
Cech
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Coquelin Ramsey
Iwobi Ozil Sanchez
Giroud
Our team should be buzzing with confidence at present, and I expect it to show. I’m expecting a dominating display, with Arsenal taking a lead into the half-time interval, before adding to it in the second-half. I’m going for a 4-0 win today, with one or two of those coming from the bench of hungry forwards we are bound to have.
What are your predictions?
Pat J
I agree this should be easy, but we thought that would be the case against Burnley as well!
My bet for this would be for Arsenal to win both halves. Our first team are completely rested and will want to prove they can start as well as our B team did on Saturday, then a couple of reserves will score in the last ten minutes.
Voila!
Leave Lazy Ozil out, keep theOx in
!!!!!
The predicted line up will work properly if Watford are sitting deep to defend with more number of players. Other wise, It is better to leave Giroud on the bench and substitute him around the usual time (70′). He is suitable mainly for slow games who preferred to park the bus. In such cases, he is better than others to utilize crosses and set pieces due his aerial ability.
On paper, this looks a smash past goal-feast. We haven’t lost to Watford in 9 league meetings and average around 3 goals per game against them. However context in games like this is very important. Southampton are a difficult team for us and the context behind why we smashed 5 past them despite a much changed team is because they had a much changed team from the one that beat Liverpool. They obviously prioritised the LC and the PL higher than the FAC at the time. Watford lost at League One Watford in prep for the Arsenal game. The last thing their manager wants is for his decision to rotate to backfire with a resounding loss at the Emirates. Watford knocked us out of the FA Cup last season at the Emirates, but they are weaker this year and will be more defensive. The first goal has to come early to open the game up against what will be an 8-man defence lobbing the ball to Deeney.
3-0 to the Arsenal!!!!
this line up looks OK for tonight but for the chelsea game in order to match them toe to toe wre have to go with :
Chech
Bellerin – Kos-Mustafi-Nacho
Ramsey – LeCoq
Theo- Ozil- Wel
Alexis.
Why? because the way to beat Chelski is like SPUDS did. Pace and full backs pushing their attacking wings back ( Moses – Hazard – pedro) and If we play OG then we will be static in move so alexis can drag their CB’s to make room for Theo and Welbeck in and out. What do you think?
I really don’t understand many here, with there we need pace we can’t be static. It is much easier to shut down a small forward right in the middle of the box than OG when you have a solid defense. Set pieces are a big big part of our game and with Ozil who is really doing well with his corners, OG remains the biggest threat in the league to score from one.
The line-up is okay,during the second half I would love Lucas to replace Iwobi,then Welbeck for Giroud. We need to be finishing teams off not just relax on a 1-0 or 2-0 lead.