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[Image] No Lacazette, Bellerin starts – How Arsenal should line-up vs Brighton

By on March 12, 2020

hector-bellerin-arsenal-2018

Assuming the game goes ahead, Arsenal take on Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Here’s the line-up I’d like Mikel Arteta to select…

I don’t see any need to change the goalkeeper so Bernd Leno should continue in goal and I think Pablo Mari has done enough to keep his place in the middle of defence after helping guide Arsenal to successive clean sheets against Portsmouth and West Ham.

I’m a big fan of Rob Holding but he’s struggling to force his way back into Arteta’s plans and I can only assume he’s taking longer than expected to get back up to speed following his knee injury. Therefore, David Luiz should keep his place alongside Mari.

Sokratis has been playing at right-back lately as Hector Bellerin is nursing a groin problem. It’s not serious enough to keep the Spaniard on the sidelines and he’s had a good weeks rest after the Man City game was called off so I’d like to see Bellerin start at Brighton as he’s a big upgrade on Sokratis.

Ceballos starts

Lucas Torreira remains on the sidelines as he’s unlikely to play again this season due to a fractured ankle and Matteo Guendouzi’s form has been poor of late so I’d stick with Dani Ceballos alongside Granit Xhaka on Saturday.

dani ceballos arsenal

Mesut Ozil has only been showing flashes of his quality in games all season and Arsenal really need him to step-up if we’re to get ourselves back in contention for a top four/five finish. It doesn’t help that Joe Willock isn’t taking his chances when given to him so Arteta has little option other than to start Ozil in the No.10 role.

No Lacazette

Not for the first time this season, I’m going to call on Arteta to STOP playing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out on the wing. He’s our most lethal goal threat and should be playing in his best position – which is up front.

Alexandre Lacazette isn’t playing well enough to warrant a starting position and Eddie Nketiah is still learning his trade. Arsenal still have an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League [especially if Man City’s ban is upheld] so we should be playing our best line-up every week in the league.

For me, that would include Gabriel Martinelli starting on the left wing with Auba up front. Martinelli is a huge talent and deserves a run in the team so let’s give the Brazilian attacker a start at Brighton.

On the right, Reiss Nelson has been putting in some impressive performances but I’d still go with Nicolas Pepe. He can be frustrating at times but his ability is obvious and he can still create something out of nothing.

Here is how I hope Arsenal line-up:

football formations

One Comment

  1. Stephan Larose

    March 12, 2020 at 6:30 pm

    Could work, though we noticeably miss Lacazette’s link up/hold up play when he’s not on the pitch. He seems to be back amongst the goals now, Arteta might want to nourish that streak.