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4-3-2-1 – Torreira & Lacazette start, Xhaka dropped: My Arsenal line-up vs Chelsea

By on August 17, 2018

alexandre lacazette

Arsenal’s difficult start to the new season continues as we travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea on Saturday evening. This is the line-up I’d like Unai Emery to select…

Goalkeeper: Cech

Personally, I’d like to see Leno take the No.1 gloves as it seems an odd decision to spend a large chunk of our summer budget on a new keeper only to leave him on the bench. However, Emery has confirmed Cech will be in goal again on Saturday and he played pretty well against City so we can’t have too many arguments.

Defence: Bellerin, Sokratis, Mustafi, Monreal

The big decision is who starts at left-back. Kolasinac is out for up to 10 weeks with a knee injury and Maitland-Niles has been ruled out for two months with a fractured leg that he picked up against City.

Lichtsteiner replaced the youngster last weekend and is an option tomorrow but Monreal is back in full training so as long as he’s fit, I see no reason why he shouldn’t start at left-back against Chelsea.

Obviously Koscielny remains out for the long-term with an Achilles injury so I expect Emery to continue with Sokratis alongside Mustafi in the middle of defence with Holding on the bench.

Midfield: Torreira, Ramsey, Ozil

Guendouzi made a couple of errors against City but overall he produced an encouraging performance considering he’s 19 and it was his debut. However, I don’t think he’s ready to be a regular just yet.

aaron ramsey arsenal

Torreira was impressive in his 20 minute run-out last week so I’d love to see him start in the holding role and it will be interesting to see who Emery plays alongside him.

I expect we’ll see Xhaka keep his place despite a poor showing last week but I think Ramsey should start alongside Torreira. I wasn’t a fan of Rambo in the advanced midfield position against City and feel he’s much more effective in a deeper box-to-box role.

With Torreira and Ramsey in the double pivot, we could then play Ozil in a slightly deeper attacking midfield position to offer an extra body in the middle of the park up against Chelsea’s three-man midfield.

Attack: Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Lacazette

I think it was clear form the final half hour against City that we simply have to find a way to start both Aubameyang and Lacazette as we looked a real threat with them playing together in attack.

Aubameyang has already said he’s happy to play on the wing to accommodate Lacazette up front so it’s a no-brainer for me. They both HAVE to start tomorrow [and every other week!].

Mkhitaryan wasn’t at his best against City but I’m hoping for big things from him this season and he deserves another chance to prove himself this weekend. He just needs to make sure he offers Bellerin plenty of protection.

Welbeck is back in contention after working on his fitness in training this week but I’d have him on the bench alongside the likes of Iwobi and Nelson.

Here is the side I hope we’ll see:

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