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Preview: Arsenal v Swansea, Team News, Line-Up & Prediction

By on March 2, 2016

aaron ramsey arsenal

Arsenal need a win against Swansea City at the Emirates tonight in order to remain in the Premier League title race.

Leicester City’s draw with West Brom last night has given us a reprieve following Sunday’s debacle at Old Trafford so we simply have to take this opportunity to get ourselves back on track.

A win over Swansea would see us move to within three points of the summit and would give us a boost heading in to Saturday’s potentially pivotal North London derby at White Hart Lane.

However, fail to win tonight and lose against Tottenham this weekend, and we can forget about the title and the scrap for fourth place will once again be on.

The performance against United was abysmal so it’s time the players stood up and prove they really have what it takes to win the league. It’s there for the taking, so we’ll only have ourselves to blame if we don’t take it.

Team News

Arsene has hinted he’ll rest Danny Welbeck after he played 83 minutes on his first league start in over 10 months so Olivier Giroud is expected to get a recall.

Gabriel and Theo Walcott could drop out after poor performances at United with Per Mertesacker and Joel Campbell among those pushing for starts.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been ruled out for at least six weeks with a knee injury so he joins Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky on the sidelines.

Thankfully, Santi Cazorla has played down reports he’s out for the season but he’s still not expected back until early April.

Preferred Line-Up

Gabriel was at fault for the first two goals against United on Sunday so Mertesacker should come back in to the defence tonight.

Midfield has become a real area of concern and the Ramsey-Coquelin combination just isn’t working. The team looked more balanced with Ramsey out on the right so I’d bring Mohamed Elneny in and move the Welshman out to the wing.

This would be my team:

Prediction

It’s going to be interesting to see how the players respond following Sunday’s disappointment. We usually start tentatively after a poor defensive display so I don’t expect us to come flying out the blocks but I do think we’ll end up having too much quality for the Swans. As long as the players put the effort in and apply themselves, we should win this game.

Arsenal 2-0 Swansea

COYG!!!