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PREVIEW: Arsenal vs Hull: Team News, Starting XI + Prediction

By on October 17, 2014

Mikel Arteta

Premier League football returns this weekend as Arsenal take on Hull City at the Emirates.

It’s been a long two-week international break and once again we’ve picked up a couple of casualties but thankfully it’s over an we can get back to ‘proper’ football.

Arsene Wenger will bee keen to get our Premier League campaign back on track after two disappointing results after we followed up our 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham with a 2-0 defeat away at Chelsea just before the international break.

One point from those two games leaves us down in eighth place in the Premier League table so we need to make the most of some favourable fixtures over the coming weeks.

After Hull we face Sunderland, Burnley and Swansea before taking on Manchester United so it would be great if we could take maximum points from the next four games. Easier said than done, I know.

Tomorrow’s game sees us take on last seasons FA Cup finalists and they pushed us all the way at Wembley so we should know it’s not going to be an easy game.

Team News

We were rocked last week by the news that Mesut Ozil is facing a spell on the sidelines after damaging knee ligaments during our loss at Chelsea. Arsene confirmed that the German international will be out for at least six weeks.

Laurent Koscielny will also miss the game this weekend after being sent home from France duty with acute tendinitis in both Achilles, which gives us a problem in defence.

With Calum Chambers suspended, Hector Bellerin is expected to start at right-back with either Nacho Monreal or Isaac Hayden starting alongside Per Mertesacker in the middle.

Mikel Arteta is back in training and should be in the squad but Aaron Ramsey isn’t back until next week after recovering from a hamstring injury.

Theo Walcott and Serge Gnabry will play for the Under-21’s tonight as they step up their recovery, so they aren’t expected to feature for the first team tomorrow.

Yaya Sanogo remains out with a hamstring injury but Tomas Rosicky is expected to be fit despite picking up a minor calf injury.

Preferred Team

This is how I’d like to see us line-up tomorrow:

With only a couple of days training under his belt I’d save Arteta for Anderlecht on Wednesday and start Flamini, while I’d like to see Hayden given his chance ahead of Monreal.

In reality though, Arsene is likely to go with Arteta and Monreal while I wouldn’t be surprised if Alexis Sanchez was rested after his excursions with Chile in midweek.

Prediction

Hull are a tough side and they’ve improved from last year but I think we’ll come away with the three points. Even without the likes of Giroud, Ozil and Walcott we’ve still got a dangerous attack and should be able to get a couple of goals. Arsenal 2-0 Hull.

COYG!!!

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