Arsenal have picked up from where they left off last season and after four matches, they find themselves fifth on the Premier League table.
The Gunners currently have 10 points, the same number of points as the three teams above them and next up, they will head to Goodison Park to take on a faltering Everton side.
Everton have lost three and drawn one of their matches and they are really struggling to get going this season under their new manager. This weekend’s outing should be an easy win for Arsenal, more so because Sean Dyche has a long injury list.
The North London side are undefeated in their previous seven matches and just before the international break they picked up a superb 3-1 win over Manchester United so they will definitely have their tails up.
Mikel Arteta is taking it one step at a time but he will have one eye on their next match which is a Champions League game against PSV and then next weekend, Arsenal have a North London Derby against Tottenham Hotspur. This is the perfect match for the manager to rest and rotate his players but they also need to keep the pressure on Man City so we doubt if Arteta will dare to use his second-fiddle players on Sunday.
Arsenal’s team news and injuries:
David Raya is still waiting in the wings to move above Ramsdale in the pecking order and with the schedules getting tighter, the summer signing will get his debut very soon, but not maybe on Sunday.
Arsenal have only a handful of injuries but the biggest one of them is Jurrien Timber who has sustained a knee injury and as per some reports, he is out until the start of the next calendar year. Timber’s injury means Mikel Arteta will have to rely on the pairing of Gabriel and William Saliba in central defence.
Thomas Partey is nursing a groin injury and he too will be out for some time however his setback is not very serious and the midfielder should be back in action sometime next month. The Arsenal boss has Jorginho in his squad but he’s relied on Kai Havertz to play in a midfield role and we think he is going to do the same this weekend as well.
Arsenal also have Fabio Vieira in their squad but the Portugal U21 has been used as an impact sub.
Gabriel Jesus has slowly lost his importance in his squad and against Manchester United, it was Eddie Nketiah who led the line but Jesus came off the bench and scored the third goal for the Gunners.
At the start of the season, Havertz was playing as the centre-forward but now that the German has moved into midfield, Jesus should come back into the starting line up. On paper, Gabriel Jesus will any day start ahead of Nketiah but because Arsenal have a Champions League game to look forward to, Mikel Arteta might want the Brazilian well rested for his team’s UCL return.
Arsenal predicted line up vs Everton:
Predicted Starting XI(4-3-3): Ramsdale; Gabriel, Saliba, Ben White, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Gabriel Jesus, Saka, Martinelli.
