On Sunday evening, Arsenal face Aston Villa in what is likely to be the Premier League’s headline fixture this weekend. The Gunners will be hoping that their familiar surroundings at the Emirates, as well as their desire for a league triumph, will motivate them to go all out against a weakened Aston Villa.
Mikel Arteta should field his strongest lineup on Sunday to secure the victory. However, of the lineup he fields, he may not have the pleasure of fielding Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber.
Coming into this weekend, there were concerns regarding Gabriel’s fitness. When asked if the Brazilian was fit and ready to start on Sunday, Arteta responded, “We’ve got one more day to prepare for the match, and we’ll see tomorrow if everybody is available. We have some [other injury concerns], but hopefully with another day, we’re going to be okay.”
Hopefully, Gabriel will be fit for Villa. Concerns have been raised that he is currently playing with a swollen Achilles tendon and has been limping visibly for the last several games. If there is the slightest concern I would hope Arteta gave him more time to recover ahead of our visit to Bayern Munich in midweek. If he isn’t fit, Jakub Kiwior or Takehiro Tomiyasu may have to step up.
Jurrien Timber, although he has returned to full training, is not yet ready to play, and Mikel Arteta revealed why: “He’s still got a few steps to make. He needs to play a game, at least with the U21s, and he’s going to have an in-house game soon. He’s done everything in training; now it’s getting that match fitness and having people around him to start competing in a full match.”
Having said that, we expect Mikel Arteta to select a capable lineup regardless of Gabriel’s fitness. Most Gunners are fit and ready to go.
Daniel O
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We don’t need to risk Gabriel Magahlase, the line up below could do the trick.
——-‘—————Raya
——White—Saliba—-Tomi——Zini
— —- Odegaard—Partey—–Rice
——-Saka——–Havertz—–Tossard
no way, we have to win this next PL game, no point resting Gabriel after we have blown our PL chances
——- Raya ——-
White —- Saliba —- Gabriel —- Tomy
Odegaard —– Partey —– Rice
Saka —– Havertz —– Martinelli
Tomy over Zinc – ideally a shut-out, Zinc does not offer enough going forward vs suspect defensively, will be targeted as weak link
Martinelli over Jesus – Villa a weakened down the left, and conceding from crosses from the left, a rampaging Martinelli is the last thing the Villa defence want
Partey for Jorginho – give Jorginho a rest for Bayern, expect to regularly rotate the two oldest legs in the squad while Partey remains
the rest pick themselves
hopefully race to an early lead and sub Havertz, Rice, Saka and Ode as soon as possible
if goes the other way and we are chasing then Zinc for Tomy, Trossard for Martinelli, ESR for Rice/Havertz