Arsenal vs Man Utd Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Arsenal entertain Manchester United at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon in a game that will determine both sides hopes of finishing in the top four.

The Gunners fell further off the pace after losing 2-0 to North London rivals Tottenham last weekend so Arsene Wenger knows his side simply have to win tomorrow to stand any chance to qualifying for the Champions League next season.

United sit five points ahead of Arsenal in the table having played a game more but they too desperately need a win tomorrow in order to keep pace with Man City after they beat Crystal Palace earlier today.

Jose Mourinho has vowed to field a weakened side in order to keep his key men fresh for Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg having beaten Celta Vigo 1-0 in Spain on Thursday night.

The Portuguese coach has made no secret that Europe is his priority as winning the Europa will book a place in the Champions League next season, but I’m sure he’ll still be desperate not to see United’s 25-game unbeaten run come to an end against his old foe Wenger.

Team News

Arsenal will hand Granit Xhaka a late fitness test as the midfielder is a major doubt due to a calf injury that he sustained against Tottenham last week. Francis Coquelin is on stand-by to deputise in midfield.

Shkodran Mustafi is available again after recovering from a thigh injury and the German international is expected to come back in to the defence on Sunday.

David Ospina is back in the squad after recovering from a back injury but Lucas Perez remains out after suffering a minor setback in training.

Mourinho is expected to rest a few players with Europe in mind so the likes of Eric Bailly, Antonio Valencia and Henrikh Mkhitaryan could be given a breather while Marcus Rashford won’t be risked after picking up a knock on Thursday.

Ashley Young is expected to miss out after suffering a hamstring injury against Celta Vigo so the fit-again Phil Jones could start at right-back while Wayne Rooney is set for a recall up front.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Luke Shaw are all out for the rest of the season.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Arsenal 2-1 Man Utd: I don’t believe for one minute that Mourinho is going to ‘play the kids’ against Arsenal as the United boss would loath to lose to Wenger and they are still right in the mix for the top four. Whatever team United field will be filled with quality but I still think Arsenal are going to edge this one. The accumulation of games is catching up with United and Arsenal desperately need to win to keep alive their top four hopes.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the 19/20 favourites to win this game with the bookmakers but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 30/1 on the hosts and 60/1 on United – just click here or above to take advantage of these crazy odds [winnings as free bet, £1 max stake, T&C’s apply].

Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at: 3/4 – a £10 bet would return £17.50
• Exact score of 2-1 Arsenal at: 15/2 – a £10 bet would return £85
• Sanchez to score first in a 2-1 Arsenal win at: 20/1 – a £10 bet would return £190