Arsenal will be on the road to take on Leeds United on Sunday. Given what we know of the team news, and with the players coming back from the international break, how will that affect the team selection?
The North London club will be raring to get back to winning ways after losing 3-0 to Aston Villa last time around. Leeds United presents a different sort of challenge, but it will nonetheless be very tough to get the three points here.
Mikel Arteta will want to put out a strong team to counter Marcelo Bielsa’s surprisingly bunch of men. Despite quite a few players being a part of the international break, we will still see a strong team from the Gunners in this one.
They are likely to line-up in their 3-4-3 formation with Bernd Leno in goal and we are likely to see the same centre back trio from last time around. This will be Rob Holding, Gabriel and Kieran Tierney. David Luiz is fit, but it is more likely that Holding gets the nod.
Ahead of them, it will be the dynamic duo of Hector Bellerin and Bukayo Saka playing the wing backs .
Both were on national duty, with the latter in particular being hugely impressive for England. He will want to carry that form into the Premier League and his Spanish counterpart will want to be influential once again.
Against Villa, the Gunners went with a midfield pivot of Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny. Both will be unavailable on Sunday as the Ghanaian is injured and the Egyptian has tested positive for COVID.
This opens the door for the combination of Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos to enter the fray. They have been the preferred duo for a long time and we will see them in action once again.
In attack, we will see Nicolas Pepe return on the right flank after Willian had a disappointing outing last time. Along with him, it will be the familiar duo of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
If these three can combine to show their skills, it will be tough for Leeds United to handle them and that would put Arsenal in a position to get the win.
Predicted Arsenal Starting XI Against Leeds United (3-4-3):
Bernd Leno, Rob Holding, Gabriel, Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin, Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang