Arsenal Predicted Starters To Face Leicester City

With the amount of times this man has saved us so far during this campaign, you’d be crazy not to put him in goal for this game. Petr Cech played well in the clean sheet against Bournemouth on Sunday, and hopefully he can do the same against Leicester. I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty confident with Cech being our last line of defence against Jamie Vardy on Sunday.

Hector Bellerin will most likely take his usual spot at right back on Sunday. Bellerin has become a mainstay in this starting 11. He has impressed enough this season not only to start ahead of Mathieu Debuchy, but to drive him out of the team altogether. It will be interesting to see if Bellerin will be able to contribute offensively up the right flank in a game where Arsenal will focus on being defensively sound.

I think Per Mertesacker is a decent defender. I really do. Although you may not believe me based on my history of squad selections. Mertesacker has had a pretty food year so far by his standards. But in this particular game, Arsene Wenger would be a fool not start Gabriel over the German. Gabriel’s strength and agility will be needed in this game in order to deal with the attacking threat of Vardy and Mahrez. I just don’t have enough faith in Mertesacker to do that. However, it may turn out that Mertesacker starts this game, as Gabriel is considered doubtful with a thigh injury.

Just like Gabriel, the number of goals that Arsenal concede on Sunday will depend heavily on Laurent Koscielny’s ability to mark Vardy and Mahrez. Evidently, Leicester’s threat of attack will come from those two, so Koscielny will need to be focused on marking them well.

In his pre-match presser, Arsene Wenger said that Arsenal will need to stop Leicester’s counter attack if they want to win the match. Well, Arsenal will need Nacho Monreal to step up in that department. He many not be as quick as Bellerin, but Monreal is well equipped to help his team stem the threat of Leicester’s quick counter-attack.

I’m going to start sounding like a broken record here, but Francis Coquelin is a virtual lock for every game this season, including the one against Leicester. Coquelin will be vital in this game, as he will be tasked with breaking up Leicester’s play. Again, easier said than done, as Leicester play exceptionally well with the ball at their feet. Their goals are often a well orchestrated team effort, so Coquelin has a huge test in front of him.

Aaron Ramsey hasn’t impressed much this season, but he is a player that can change a game with the snap of a finger. It only takes one moment of brilliance for Ramsey to be able to turn a game on its head as we’ve seen in the past, so lets hope he gets his mojo back against Leicester.

I know I didn’t include him in my last squad selection piece, but I am including him now. The Ox impressed me in the last game by breaking his goal-scoring drought against Bournemouth. Something tells me he got his confidence back by hitting the back of the net last weekend. I’m hoping that new-found confidence will translate into a great performance on Sunday.

In my last squad selection, I predicted that Alexis Sanchez would score, and I was wrong. However, that is not going to deter me from thinking that Sanchez will score win this game. Back in September, Sanchez scored a stellar hat-trick on Arsenal’s way to a 5-2 trashing at Leicester. In saying that, I think the goals will come from him and Olivier Giroud in this game.

Mesut Ozil scored in the win against Bournemouth, which was a nice change from his habit of assisting. However, something tells me that Ozil will be more focused on going back to that habit, as he will be looking to help set his forwards. We already know Leicester can score goals, so hopefully Ozil will be able to help in that department, even if he isn’t the one scoring them.

It would be fair to say that Olivier Giroud hasn’t enjoyed the same run of form that saw him take back his place in the starting lineup from Theo Walcott. Yet, he still gets the nod from me to start int his game over the Englishman, simply because Giroud has always found a way to score goals when Arsenal need them most. If there were ever a game where Arsenal needed to outscore their opponent, its this one. Giroud will be relied upon heavily to provide them.