Arsenal will take on newly-promoted side Aston Villa in the English Premier League on Sunday and Unai Emery will be hoping to pick up all three points.
The Gunners have dropped points in their previous three league matches but after scoring 3 goals past Eintracht this weekend, the North London side should be beaming with confidence.
But according to pundit Charlie Nicholas, Unai Emery needs to make some changes to his first XI on Sunday in order to ensure that his team do not collapse as they did vs Watford last week.
Charlie Nicholas wrote for Sky Sports: “Where do I start with Arsenal? They must get more from Nicolas Pepe and he must be match fit now.
“Pepe needs to use his trickery and pace to help Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“Unai Emery must stick with Reiss Nelson or Joe Willock. How can you make sense of the defence? I don’t know who will partner David Luiz.
“It doesn’t matter whether there are one or two midfielders protecting the back four and I think it is time to leave Granit Xhaka out of the side.
“There are a lot of goals for Arsenal at home. Dani Ceballos must play and Mesut Ozil too – they moved it around well last week.
“I like Mateo Guendouzi but he is young, naïve and gets attracted to the ball. They need to sort themselves out in defence and if they are not good enough, you leave them out.
“Put Lucas Torreira in front of midfield.”
VERDICT:
Last weekend, Unai Emery would have been really pleased with how Arsenal played in the first-half vs Watford but the whole side crumbled under pressure during the second half.
And much of this was due to the failure of the midfielders.
So if Arsenal need to take the Villa game by the scruff of the neck then the manager will need to ask his midfielders to ramp up their performances significantly on Sunday.
