Mesut Özil hasn’t played at Burnley since 2016, and this is a chance for him. Arteta recognises his upside, but I wonder if he needs two midfielders with legs behind him. At some point, a decision needs to be made on Granit Xhaka, who is in the team because he performs a useful function, but again: teams to win stuff have better.
Sitting five points behind Wolves and Manchester United and a further 10 behind Chelsea, Arsenal is that they can forget about qualifying for the Champions League next season – through the league. This, in a sense, gives Arteta an opportunity: he has scope to work out who to play and how to play them without the pressure of results. The main element he needs to resolve – imnvhotbqfhwy – is how in midfield and attack. At the back, it’s quite clear: he needs two quality centre-backs – but in front of that, he has decent players, just not players you’d expect to see playing regularly in teams who win things. Ultimately, he needs to make a choice that Unai Emery avoided: Lacazette or Aubameyang.
Arsenal, meanwhile, welcome back Shkodran Mustafi – what a sentence that is to type – who was stretchered off at Bournemouth. It looked nasty, but he’s fine and is rewarded for playing reasonably well prior to that. Alongside him, David Luiz returns after getting himself suspended trying to get Mustafi out of trouble, so Sokratis is on the bench.
In midfield, Matteo Guendouzi keeps his place after two relatively decent displays, meaning no spot for Lucas Torreira, Mesut Özil does indeed return – maybe this will be the week he changes the ingrained habits of a lifetime – so Joe Willock misses out while, in attack, Alexandre Lacazette replaces Eddie Nketiah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is in for Nicolas Pepeé.
So, Burnley are unchanged from the win at Old Trafford, though they went out of the cup at Norwich in between. This means that Phil Bardsley – you may know him better as Tanya’s husband – and who missed that game, injured – does not come straight back in. Instead, Charlie Taylor keeps his place at right-back.
Ins and Outs
Burnley (a good, honest, old-fashioned, traditional, real, you know where you are with it 4-4-2): Pope; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil; Wood, Rodriguez. Subs: Hart, Brady, Pieters, Lennon, Bardsley, Vydra, Long.
Arsenal (a fancy, flighty, untrustworthy, insubstantial 4-3-3): Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, David Luiz, Saka; Guendouzi, Xhaka, Özil; Martinelli, Lacazette, Aubameyang. Subs: Martinez, Sokratis, Ceballos, Torreira, Pepe, Willock, Nketiah.
Commissioner: Chris Kavanagh (Manchester)
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Preamble
Losing games of this ilk is the absolute height of Arsenal – Burnley is cold and unwelcoming, more passionate about control of borders than of trailing legs and whose footballers specialists in the ancient English tradition of facial entry. Except Arsenal have won on every visit to Turf Moor since Burnley returned to the Premier League, and beaten them in every game at the Emirates too, so.
Quite what New Arsenal will make of today remains to be seen. Last time out, they were excellent against an admittedly disgracefully execrable Bournemouth, giving Mikel Arteta a problem: does he keep faith with maybes like Gabriel Martinelli and Joe Willock, or, more likely, does he rely on never will bes like Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Özil? He has the rest of the season to settle on method and personnel, but must decide if the circumstance – where Arsenal are and where they want to be – demands revolution or evolution.
Burnley, meanwhile, are looking good after a dodgy period. Wins over Leicester and Manchester United have left them six points and three places above the relegation zone, with today’s game in hand; ruining things from here requires an enormous effort. The key wins which made this so were founded upon the defensive excellence of Ben Mee and James Tarkowski, who might just prefer the more statuesque stylings of the old men; will Arteta oblige them?
Kick-off: 2pm GMT, 3pm CET.
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