Arsenal face Brentford on Sunday as they look to return to the top of the Premier League after Manchester City leapfrogged them on Saturday.
The Gunners, of course, lost their last league game against Manchester United, but they quickly got back on track last week with a Europa League win against FC Zurich.
With over a week to prepare for this match, Arsenal should be raring to go, and any fitness issues – aside from long-term injuries, should have subs ided.
The north London outfit will certainly fancy their chances of beating Brentford, but as the Bees showed with a win against Mikel Arteta’s side last season, the west Londoners are no pushovers themselves.
With that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Arsenal’s starting XI for this one.
We think that Mikel Arteta will make a massive seven changes from their Europa League win last week.
With Brentford likely to provide a much sterner test than Zurich, we’re tipping Arteta to revert back to what has been his favoured XI this season.
Ben White, William Saliba and Aaron Ramsdale all come back into the defensive unit, and while Oleksandr Zinchenko has been carrying a knock as of late, we’re tipping him to start here as well.
Thomas Partey has been pictured training this week, but this game will probably come too soon for his return so Albert Sambi Lokonga starts in midfield alongside Granit Xhaka.
Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard come back into the side, while the two Brazilians – Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli act as Arsenal’s two biggest attacking threats.
Arsenal will return to the Premier League’s summit with a win here, and Mikel Arteta won’t be happy with anything less than all three points this weekend.
